- Hardcover: 232 pages
- Publisher: Andre Deutsch Ltd; 1st edition edition (1 Oct 2007)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0233002243
- ISBN-13: 978-0233002248
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 15.6 x 3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 337,151 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
See this lady? You would NOT want to lock horns with her. You certainly wouldn't give her your baby. But in the late nineteenth century, that's exactly what a lot of women did. Why? Because in an era when having a child out of wedlock was so severely frowned upon, Amelia Dyer took advantage of this. She advertised in the press offering to "adopt" unwanted babies, charged the poor grief-stricken mums GBP 10 for the privilege, took the wee babes off their hands - and then drowned them in the River Thames. Pocketing the cash, she strangled her victims with white tape, then wrapped their bodies either in brown parcel paper or in a carpet bag, to be recovered only weeks - or months - later. As well as relating the story, the authors explore the circumstances that enabled such crimes to be committed. Unregulated "adoption" was a widely acknowledged problem. The Child Protection Act did not yet exist. In Mrs Dyer's case, though, such shameless profiteering did not, ultimately, go unpunished: the police finally located Mrs Dyer, kept her under surveillance and then mounted a "sting" operation, using a young woman to pose as a potential customer. Amelia Dyer was arrested when she opened her front door to find two policemen on her doorstep. Finally confessing, she said, "You'll know all mine by the tape around their necks." She was hanged in 1896.
About the Author
Both married with children, Allison Vale and Allison Rattle are also the co-authors of, among other books, How to Boil a Flamingo, Mothers' Wit and How to Push a Perambulator. They both live in Somerset.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
27 of 29 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I bought this book after reading a big feature about it in the Daily Mail and I was hooked from the first page. The story is compulsive and chilling, the writing is vivid and evocative, and it has clearly been meticulously researched. I am amazed that no one has written a biography of Dyer before, because it seems she was the biggest serial killer that Britain has ever known - she murdered hundreds of babies during her career as a "Baby Farmer".
It highlights the scale of infanticide in ninteenth-century Britain and opens up an area of this country's social history that has been ignored. If you're interested in true crime and/or popular history then you must read this book because Dyer was more prolific than any other killer in British history - she was a contemporary of Jack the Ripper and her crimes are much worse, but she has been largely forgotten until now.
One of this book's great strengths is the skill with which it thrusts the reader into Dyer's world, the sounds, the smells, the physical descriptions, and there is lots of human interest: Dyer and those with whom she comes into contact are brought vividly to life.
I read a lot of true crime/popular history and it is rare for me to award five stars, but in this case I feel it is well deserved: it is the most entertaining and thought-provoking account I have seen in a long time.
It highlights the scale of infanticide in ninteenth-century Britain and opens up an area of this country's social history that has been ignored. If you're interested in true crime and/or popular history then you must read this book because Dyer was more prolific than any other killer in British history - she was a contemporary of Jack the Ripper and her crimes are much worse, but she has been largely forgotten until now.
One of this book's great strengths is the skill with which it thrusts the reader into Dyer's world, the sounds, the smells, the physical descriptions, and there is lots of human interest: Dyer and those with whom she comes into contact are brought vividly to life.
I read a lot of true crime/popular history and it is rare for me to award five stars, but in this case I feel it is well deserved: it is the most entertaining and thought-provoking account I have seen in a long time.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I've wanted this book for years. I too read the Daily Mail's feature and have been hooked on this woman ever since. I love learning about the sinister and harrowing streets of our Victorian England and this era holds some pretty horrific tales. If you love history and period murders like Jack The Ripper or the brutal child murder of Fanny Adams then I am sure you will find this book fascinating. I was hooked within the first few pages and read it cover to cover in 2 sittings. The sad fact of the matter is Amelia Dyer and the whole subject of baby farming wasn't an isolated case she was just the one who got caught. The manner in which it was carried out and how unattatched people were back then is chilling. It describes how in London at this time people would 'regularly step over dead children left in the gutter'. This was England part of The Empire how could such things happen?
You can't help but feel for all these souls and all the mothers who lost their children yet you can't stop reading and finding out who will be her next victim.
A fantastic and educational read exploring the boundries of our social and custodial system.
You can't help but feel for all these souls and all the mothers who lost their children yet you can't stop reading and finding out who will be her next victim.
A fantastic and educational read exploring the boundries of our social and custodial system.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is a very well researched and written case history which can be read like a novel. This has to be the best Amelia Dyer read I have had. She was not a pleasant lady...
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A shocking story about baby farming in Victorian England
After reading The Ghost of Lily Painter, a novel that draws upon the arrest and trial of Amelia Sach who was a baby farmer based in Finchley, I wanted to know more about how... Read more
Published 10 months ago by C. Bannister
Could have been more emotive?
I really enjoyed this book (despite the sad subject) and found it quite unputdownable, but I thought that the authors missed a chance to make it more atmospheric and to evoke a... Read more
Published 12 months ago by Cookery lover
Fascinating
I first became aware of the crimes of Amelia Dyer when I watched the ITV series 'Ladykillers' which was presented by Martina Cole. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Lincs Reader
AMELIA DYER ANGEL MAKER
CHILLING READ REALLY INTERESTING LOVE VICTORIAN ERA AND FOUND THIS BOOK INSPIRED ME TO CREATE AN ART INSTALLATION AS A MEMORIAL TO THE BABIES. Read more
Published 14 months ago by GRANNY CRACKERS
Enough to make you shiver
This was, as one would expect, a bleak book to read - God knows the picture on the front is enough to stop a bull at 50 paces! Read more
Published on 28 April 2009 by Sheena Smith
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