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Il Cappello Di Mr Briggs (2011)

by Kate Colquhoun(Favorite Author)

3.47 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

8806209620 (ISBN13: 9788806209629)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Einaudi

review 1: I enjoyed this book, but I didn't love it. I know I am damning it with faint praise, but something was just a bit off kilter. On the one hand it was (I assume) an accurate historical account of the investigation of Britain's first railway murder but I felt it struggled to find it's way beyond that. I thought the author was trying to point to a miscarriage of justice without saying it. I thought the final part of the book, where the author sets the case in its legal context also failed to prove that it was a landmark case in the development of criminal trials as she failed to demonstrate a link between the Briggs case and changes that followed many years later.A good book but not a brilliant one.
review 2: " A sensational account of Britain's first Railway Murde... morer" This was a gift from Lou and Carl which was a great read of discovery about the parts of London that were important to me. It contacted quite a few facts that I had not known, like the fact that the north London line ran out of Fenchurch Street not Broad Street which did not open until much later. Clapton square where I nearly bought a house was Mr Briggs upmarket house. Hackney station was surrounded by watercress fields. What a different world from the one that I knew. The police and legal profession in the 1860’s was also a very different animal from our modern equivalent. They press had very few restrictions on what they could report and this seemed too led to trial by press. You can easily see how important some of our reporting restrictions are in order to ensure a fair trial. With the main suspect fleeing to America it was interesting to put in contrast the Victorian London with the American civil war. Also the new technology in shipping meant that the policeman arrived in New York weeks before the fugitive who had left first but set out by sail. Was he guilty? Did he get a fair trail? Why could he not give evidence in his own defence? The final violence of a public hanging was so dreadful. Anyone who wants to string people up should read this book to see the potential for failures in our justice system viewed with the beauty of hindsight. A good read. less

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