"The Art of the English Murder" by Lucy Worsley (2013)

 

I love Lucy Worsley - I have watched countless of her excellent documentaries, read few of her books and at least once a week I am listening her podcast "Lady Killers" so this book was really a no brainer for me, I knew it would be something that I will enjoy. Perhaps her particular charm works the best on TV because she is such a joy to watch visually - but at this point I could easily just read her writing and imagine to listen to her voice. 

Originally printed in 2013 as "A Very British Murder: The Story of a National Obsession" the book examines the origins of a typical British thirst for good, old fashioned murder and ponders when and why did it became accepted for a wide audience to enjoy this sort of grisly fiction. As expected, she is light & breezy (in spite of dark subject) and knows her history - after all, Worsley is historian - and the book is basically a walk trough the centuries of crime fiction. Everything is more or less as expected, except that I was fascinated with a completely off-centre information about puppet theatre:

"The peepshow, or its close companion the puppet show, did not yet have its modern-day connotations of light comedic entertainment for children. Many puppet shows were staged with all the weight and seriousness of tragedy. In fact, this was the medium by which people living in rural England were able to experience the best plays to be seen on the London stage, and the serious, adult-orientated puppet show was a vastly popular form of entertainment.

Puppet performances continued throughout the nineteenth century, until finally brought to a halt by improvements to public transport – once people could travel to their nearest town with ease, they became less interested in having the travelling theatre come to them – as well as the growth of the cinema. The First World War proved the death blow to the old puppet show families. With the young men removed, there was no one to carve the puppets, perform the shows, or drive the van. When puppetry was revived after the war, it returned as much more of an entertainment for children."