“I can’t teach you, but I can show you.” With these words, Kentucky balladeer Doc Hopkins shared his musical knowledge with a willing student, summoning an independent streak deeply embedded in the American character. His words capture the informal creativity and colloquial practice that marks folk tradition as it extends from the countryside to the city and back again.Stephen Wade recounts creators and conservators like Doc Hopkins, many of them born in the closing years of the ni...

Historical accounts of Englishwomen who have killed, their varying motives, and their final fates.Yorkshire history has its share of nasty and brutal murders, and the majority of these killers have been men. Statistics show that most homicides are men. But the records over the centuries have tales of murderous women too. Stephen Wade has investigated records across England to find stories of women from the mid-eighteenth century to mid-twentieth century who have ta...

The history and mythology of hangmen in Yorkshire—an account of crime and punishment in England from the eighteenth century to the twentieth century.From the eighteenth century, York was one of the places employing its own hangmen, copying London and Newgate, even to the use of the word Tyburn to define it's Knavesmire gallows, also known as the 'three-legged mare'. That was where highwayman Dick Turpin met his fate. Later, in the Victorian period, Armley Gaol in L...

"Aspects of Huddersfield, the first in the highly successful Aspects series to feature Huddersfield and district, contains a wealth of pinpoint detail of the history of the town. The story of the coming of the ""wireless"" to Moorside Edge, which made Huddersfield the radio centre for Northern England, sits alongside the proceedings of the Manorial Court at the Manor of Honley in the 18th and 19th centuries. A fascinating collection of the Legends of the Colne Valley, sits easily with Earl...

A Dictionary of True Crime is a guide to the most compelling cases of extreme and violent crime in the writing files, from the 17th century to present day. Amongst notorious criminals like Jack the Ripper and the Moors Murderers, lesser-known but provoking cases which have occupied the writer’s mind for some time are also discussed, with questions and theories posed, such as those of Walter Rowland, who was twice sentenced to die, and Louie Calvert who, Wade argues, was innocent o...

This biography explores Dorothy L. Sayers' legacy as a crime writer, feminist, scholar, and advertising pioneer, highlighting her lasting influence.Dorothy L. Sayers: the name conjures images of Lord Peter Wimsey's sleuthing adventures, and masterful translations of Dante. Yet, she was more than a literary luminary of the interwar Golden Age of crime fiction; she was a trailblazer, a feminist, and a scholar, whose influence resonates to this day.In this new...

Tory gangs, madmen, war criminals, frauds, anarchists, duelists, kidnappers, and more scandal-makers throughout four centuries of Irish history.Dublin is a wonderful, energetic cultural center—the pride of Irish achievements in architecture, arts, and literature. But it is also a city of paradoxes and conflicts—and a long, fascinating history of crime.Stephen Wade now reveals Dublin's "strange eventful history" in this thrilling collection of murderers, thi...

Calderdale has gone down in the annals of crime in England as the birthplace of Christie of Rillington Place, and as the haunt of the Yorkshire Ripper. But there is much more in the criminal history of the Halifax area to interest the reader with a taste for true crime. As a town with a shifting population of labour for the new mills of the Industrial Revolution, Halifax in the nineteenth century was a focus for urban disorder and lawbreaking. This book tells some of the tales from this pe...

In 1941, Beryl Baxter, a dressmaker from Grimsby, signed up to do her bit in the Battle of Britain. She was to serve as a plotter as aircraftswoman in the WAAF and, upon discharge in 1949 she began life as a welfare worker for the Women's Voluntary Service. Her postings included the Korean War, Japan, Hong Kong and Iraq. Throughout these years of service she fulfilled the roles of mother, sister and girlfriend to thousands of servicemen, both conscripts and regulars. Presenting a dramatic ...

The Anglo-Zulu War may be best remembered for the military blundering that led to the astonishing British defeat at Isandlwana, but as Stephen Wade shows in this book, military action throughout the war was supplemented by the actions of spies and explorers in the field, and was often heavily influenced by the decisions made by diplomats.Examining the roles of both spies and diplomats, the author looks at numerous influential figures in the conflict, including John Dunn, who fought with th...

Doncaster has world-wide fame as a railway town. For many years the name was associated with engineering, transport and of course coal. But there is a darker aspect to its history. The sinister side is explored through the research and writing of an experienced crime historian. Sensational tales have been uncovered concerning a variety of dark deeds, including a cloak-and-dagger meeting in an Elizabethan tavern and the murder of a Civil War leader. Over the years Doncaster and district has...

Tales from the Big House: Normanby Hall tells the story of a place known perhaps today mainly as the home where Samantha Cameron grew up, but historically it has been the seat of the Sheffield family, whose most famous member was arguably the Duke of Buckingham in the seventeenth century. As with most country houses, the Hall was used as a military hospital in the Great War, and in the Second World War there were military personnel based there again. It stands just a few miles from the gre...