Alma Rattenbury
Alma Rattenbury

Author: Sean O'Connor

Publisher:

Published: 2019-07-11

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781471132711

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

'A case study in human frailty, jealousy and desire ... fascinating.' The Times, Best Books of 2019 'Meticulously researched...superbly evocative and gripping...a narrative that builds with the intensity of an approaching thunderstorm.' The Spectator 'Sean O'Connor can't resist striking a theatrical note in this "biography of murder".' Sunday Times Adultery, alcoholism, drugs and murder on the suburban streets of Bournemouth. The Rattenbury case of 1935 was one of the great tabloid sensations of the interwar period. The glamorous femme fatale at the heart of the story dominated the front pages for months, somewhere between the rise of Hitler and the launch of the Queen Mary. With painstaking research and access to brand new evidence, Sean O'Connor vividly brings this epic story to life, from its beginnings in the south London slums of the 1880s and the open vistas of the British Columbian coast to its bloody climax in a respectable English seaside resort. The Fatal Passion of Alma Rattenbury is a gripping murder tale and a heartbreaking romance, as well as the biography of a vital, modern woman trapped between the freedoms of two world wars and suffocated by the conformity of peacetime. A startlingly prescient parable for our times, it is the story of a protagonist who dared to challenge the status quo only to be crucified by public opinion, pilloried by the press and punished by the relentless machinery of the British legal system. With a wealth of fascinating period detail, from its breathtaking opening to its shocking conclusion, The Fatal Passion of Alma Rattenbury is a true story as enthralling, provocative and moving as any work of fiction.

The Fatal Passion of Alma Rattenbury
The Fatal Passion of Alma Rattenbury

Author: Sean O'Connor

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2019-07-11

Total Pages: 361

ISBN-13: 1471132730

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

‘A case study in human frailty, jealousy and desire … fascinating.’ The Times, Best Books of 2019 ‘Superbly evocative and gripping.’ The Spectator ‘Sean O’Connor can’t resist striking a theatrical note in this “biography of murder”.’ Sunday Times Adultery, alcoholism, drugs and murder on the suburban streets of Bournemouth. The Rattenbury case of 1935 was one of the great tabloid sensations of the interwar period. The glamorous femme fatale at the heart of the story dominated the front pages for months, somewhere between the rise of Hitler and the launch of the Queen Mary. With painstaking research and access to brand new evidence, Sean O’Connor vividly brings this epic story to life, from its beginnings in the South London slums of the 1880s and the open vistas of the British Columbian coast, to its bloody climax in a respectable English seaside resort. The Fatal Passion of Alma Rattenbury is a gripping murder story and a heartbreaking romance as well as the biography of a vital, modern woman trapped between the freedoms of two world wars and suffocated by the conformity of peacetime. A startlingly prescient parable for our times, it is the story of a woman who dared to challenge the status quo only to be crucified by public opinion, pilloried by the press and punished by the relentless machinery of the British legal system. With a wealth of fascinating period detail, from its breathtaking opening to its shocking conclusion, The Fatal Passion of Alma Rattenbury is a true story as enthralling, as provocative and as moving as any work of fiction.

Deadly Triangle
Deadly Triangle

Author: Susan Goldenberg

Publisher: Dundurn

Published: 2022-10-11

Total Pages: 169

ISBN-13: 1459750322

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Glamorous young wife Alma Rattenbury takes her chauffeur as a lover and their scandalous relationship leads to a murder most foul. The 1935 murder of architect Francis Mawson Rattenbury, famous for his design of the iconic Parliament Buildings and Empress Hotel in Victoria, British Columbia, and the arrest and lurid trial of his 30-years-younger second wife, Alma, and the family chauffeur, George Percy Stoner, her lover, riveted people. Francis and Alma had moved to Bournemouth, England, after the City of Victoria had ostracized them for their scandalous, flagrant affair while Francis was married to his first wife. Their life in Bournemouth was tangled. Francis became an impotent lush. Deprived of sexual gratification, Alma seduced George, previously a virgin who was half her age. They conducted their affair in her upstairs bedroom with her and Francis’s six-year-old son in a nearby bed, “sleeping,” she said, and the near-deaf Francis in his armchair downstairs in a drunken stupor. The lovers were tried together for Francis’s murder at the Old Bailey Criminal Court in London, resulting in intense public interest and massive, frenzied media coverage. The trial became one of the 20th century’s most sensational cases, sparking widespread debate over sexual mores and social strata distinctions.

Infamous Murderers
Infamous Murderers

Author: Rodney Castleden

Publisher: Canary Press eBooks

Published: 2011-08-05

Total Pages: 425

ISBN-13: 1907795863

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Infamous murderers, their deeds horrifying yet intriguing, have always inspired a strange fascination. Their crimes repulse us, yet the more heinous the act, the more we crave information, and ultimately we elevate the perpetrator to celebrity status. The names of the often random and completely innocent victims are not always so easily recalled. Murderers are remembered for many different reasons. Some have struck out and killed for revenge, some in an uncontrollable jealous rage. Others have planned the murder out of greed, or with money in mind. Some acted out of pure hatred and rage. One thing they all have in common - they just have the urge to kill. Contents: Ancient Murder Mysteries including King John, Edward II, Mary Queen of Scots Fatal Families including The Duc de Praslin, Lizzie Borden, Dr Crippen, Ruth Ellis Political Assassinations including Brutus and Cassius, John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald Murder for Profit including Dick Turpin, Francois Courvoisier, James Hanratty, Jermey Bamber also including Poisonous Women, Madmen, Child Victims, Lady Killers, Bodies in Boxes

Night Thoughts
Night Thoughts

Author: Robert Fraser

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2012-02-16

Total Pages: 503

ISBN-13: 0199558140

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This pioneering biography of the British poet and translator David Gascoyne (1916-2001) candidly describes his creative work, involvement with surrealism, addictions, tormented private life, and his many friendships in England and France.

Criminal Evidence
Criminal Evidence

Author: Paul Roberts

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2010-08-26

Total Pages: 772

ISBN-13: 0199231648

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Based on Adrian Zuckerman's 'The Principles of Criminal Evidence', this book presents a comprehensive treatment of the fundamental principles & underlying logic of the law of criminal evidence. It includes changes relating to presumption of innocence, privilege against self-incrimination, character, & the law of corroboration.

Dorset Murders
Dorset Murders

Author: Nicola Sly

Publisher: The History Press

Published: 2012-02-29

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 0752483919

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Life in the largely rural county of Dorset has not always been idyllic, for over the years it has experienced numerous murders, some of which are little known outside the county borders, others that have shocked the nation. These include arguments between lovers with fatal consequences, family murders, child murders and mortal altercations at Dorset's notorious Portland Prison. The entire country thrilled to the scandalous cases of Alma Rattenbury and Charlotte Bryant who, in the 1930s, found living with their husbands so difficult that both found a terminal solution to the problem. In 1856, Elizabeth Browne rid herself of a husband and, in doing so, became the inspiration for Thomas Hardy's 'Tess of the D'Urbervilles'. The mystery of the Coverdale Kennels at Tarrant Keynston, where not one, but two kennel managers died in suspicious circumstances, remains unsolved to this day. And it was in Bournemouth that Neville Heath committed the second of his two murders, which led to his arrest and eventual execution in 1946. Illustrated with fifty intriguing illustrations, Dorset Murders will appeal to anyone interested in the shady side of county's history.

Out on Stage
Out on Stage

Author: Alan Sinfield

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 1999-01-01

Total Pages: 428

ISBN-13: 9780300081022

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This intriguing, authoritative book tracks stage representations of lesbians and gay men from Oscar Wilde to the present day and examines scores of British and American plays and playwrights, including works by Wilde, Maugham, Coward, Hellman, O'Neill, Le Roi Jones, and Joe Orton.

The Paying Guests
The Paying Guests

Author: Sarah Waters

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2014-09-16

Total Pages: 478

ISBN-13: 0698157702

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The New York Times bestselling novel that has been called “a tour de force” (Wall Street Journal), “unputdownable” (The Washington Post), “a delicious hothouse of a novel” (USA Today), “effortless” (The Economist), “seductive” (Vanity Fair) and “pitch perfect” (Salon) “Superb, bewitching…Forget about Fifty Shades of Grey; this novel is one of the most sensual you will ever read, and all without sacrificing either good taste or a "G" rating” – NPR “One of the year’s most engrossing and suspenseful novels…a love affair, a shocking murder, and a flawless ending … Will keep you sleepless for three nights straight and leave you grasping for another book that can sustain that high.” — Entertainment Weekly (A rating) “Volcanically sexy, sizzingly smart, plenty bloody and just plain irresistible." —USA Today (4 stars) It is 1922, and London is tense. Ex-servicemen are disillusioned; the out-of-work and the hungry are demanding change. And in South London, in a genteel Camberwell villa—a large, silent house now bereft of brothers, husband, and even servants—life is about to be transformed as impoverished widow Mrs. Wray and her spinster daughter, Frances, are obliged to take in lodgers. With the arrival of Lilian and Leonard Barber, a modern young couple of the “clerk class,” the routines of the house will be shaken up in unexpected ways. Little do the Wrays know just how profoundly their new tenants will alter the course of Frances’s life—or, as passions mount and frustration gathers, how far-reaching, and how devastating, the disturbances will be. Short-listed for the Man Booker Prize three times, Sarah Waters has earned a reputation as one of our greatest writers of historical fiction, and here she has delivered again. A love story, a tension-filled crime story, and a beautifully atmospheric portrait of a fascinating time and place, The Paying Guests is Sarah Waters’s finest achievement yet.

Crimes of Passion
Crimes of Passion

Author: Treasure Press

Publisher:

Published: 1983

Total Pages: 168

ISBN-13: 9780907812289

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Reports of various crimes committed by individuals driven to the limits of endurance by uncontrollable feelings.