The Littlehampton libels : a miscarriage of justice and a mystery about words in 1920s England / Christopher Hilliard.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hilliard, Christopher, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Libel and slander--England--Littlehampton--History--20th century.

Libel and slander.

Anonymous letters.

Criminal investigation--England--Littlehampton--History--20th century.

Criminal investigation.

Judicial error--England--Littlehampton--History--20th century.

Judicial error.

History.

Littlehampton (England)--History--20th century.

Littlehampton (England).

England--Littlehampton.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

viii, 241 pages : illustrations, facsimiles, 1 map, portraits ; 23 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Oxford, United Kingdom : Oxford University Press, 2017.

Summary:

The Littlehampton Libels tells the story of a poison-pen mystery that led to a miscarriage of justice in the years following the First World War. There would be four criminal trials before the real culprit was finally punished, with the case challenging the police and the prosecuting lawyers as much any capital crime. When a leading Metropolitan Police detective was tasked with solving the case, he questioned the residents of the seaside town of Littlehampton about their neighbours' vocabularies, how often they wrote letters, what their handwriting was like, whether they swore-and how they swore, for the letters at the heart of the case were often bizarre in their abuse. The archive that the investigation produced shows in extraordinary detail how ordinary people could use the English language in inventive and surprising ways at a time when universal literacy was still a novelty. Their personal lives, too, had surprises. The detective's inquiries and the courtroom dramas laid bare their secrets and the intimate details of neighbourhood and family life.

Contents:

Introduction

Prologue: Reopening the case

Beach town

Easter and after

A craze for this sort of thing

Will you let me have that letter

A case of handwriting

Circumstances grave and unusual

Keeping observation

The perfect witness

Bad language

It is not my verdict

Epilogue: Brought to book

Conclusion.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 223-236) and index.

ISBN:

9780198799658

0198799659

OCLC:

990635717