Subjects:

General Interest

London was a dangerous place in the eighteenth-century. A world of murderous husbands and villainous wives, workhouse hardships, petty thievery and highway robbery, sword fights; bear baiting, surgery and brawls. London needed a court of justice.

Tales from the Hanging Court draws on the Old Bailey archives from 1674 to 1834 and recounts some of the most exciting and intriguing court cases of the age. The authors introduce the reader to the most colourful characters in London, many of whom on which Daniel Defoe, Charles Dickens and Henry Fielding based their novels.

• Who was Mary 'Cut and Come Again' and what crime did she commit?
• Who was the mysterious Princess Seraphina?
• How did William Garrow, defence lawyer, manipulate the court proceedings?

Tales from the Hanging Court evokes the grit and humanity of eighteenth-century London, its cruelty and its charity. The authors uncover the traditions - and aberrations - of daily life in a society where it was easier to witness an execution than to attend the theatre.