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The Magnificent Spilsbury and the Case of the Brides in the Bath [Paperback]

Jane Robins
4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
RRP: £8.99
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Book Description

20 Jan 2011

Bessie Mundy, Alice Burnham and Margaret Lofty are three women with one thing in common. They are spinsters and are desperate to marry. Each woman meets a smooth-talking stranger who promises her a better life. She falls under his spell, and becomes his wife. But marriage soon turns into a terrifying experience.

In the dark opening months of the First World War, Britain became engrossed by 'The Brides in the Bath' trial. The horror of the killing fields of the Western Front was the backdrop to a murder story whose elements were of a different sort. This was evil of an everyday, insidious kind, played out in lodging houses in seaside towns, in the confines of married life, and brought to a horrendous climax in that most intimate of settings - the bathroom.

The nation turned to a young forensic pathologist, Bernard Spilsbury, to explain how it was that young women were suddenly expiring in their baths. This was the age of science. In fiction, Sherlock Holmes applied a scientific mind to solving crimes.  In real-life, would Spilsbury be as infallible as the 'great detective'?


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The Magnificent Spilsbury and the Case of the Brides in the Bath + Mr Briggs' Hat: A Sensational Account of Britain's First Railway Murder + The Maul and the Pear Tree: The Ratcliffe Highway Murders 1811
Price For All Three: £19.41

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Product details

  • Paperback: 304 pages
  • Publisher: John Murray (20 Jan 2011)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1848541090
  • ISBN-13: 978-1848541092
  • Product Dimensions: 12.9 x 2.1 x 19.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 45,398 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Review

'A riveting and beautifully written book. A high point in the annals of murder, for every necessary ingredient - callousness, ruthlessness, mystery, recklessness, boarding houses, detection, a chase, money, sex and even a bit of glamour - is present. Miss Robins has made a thumping good book out of it'.

(Sunday Telegraph )

'In Jane Robins' excellent The Magnificent Spilsbury - part-whodunit thriller, part-social history, part-biography - there's delight in the detail.. This is a pacy page-turner underpinned by meticulous primary source research. Frankly, it's a treat.. as satisfying as a fine thriller'.

(The Scotsman )

'Robins's description of the murders and of Smith's persuasive personality is gripping. The Magnificent Spilsbury teems with promise'.

(Sunday Times )

'As well as being a gripping, pacy account of a gruesome murder trial, this book is also a compelling piece of social history. Robins. . . shines a light on a dark age for women'.

(Independent on Sunday )

'Not just a compelling read but it also an intriguing slice of social history'.

(The Express )

Here Jane Robins gives us that story in all its tingling horror

(Sunday Telegraph )

Jane Robins's account of this classic murder story is riveting

(Mail on Sunday )

About the Author

Jane Robins is a distinguished writer and journalist. Her first book, Rebel Queen was a critically acclaimed account of the trial for adultery of Caroline of Brunswick by her husband, King George IV.


Inside This Book (Learn More)
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
23 of 24 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A period murder mystery, a timeless parable 3 April 2010
Format:Hardcover
The enthralling story of the desperate and dateless of Edwardian England. There was a huge over-supply of women in the early years of the century and "the country...was practically awash with girls who couldn't find a partner at dances". This was the sad fate of Bessie Munday, Alice Burnham and Margaret Lofty, all unremarkable women,spinsters rather past their prime for the marriage market and drifting through their uneventful lives desperate to be the bride and not the bridesmaid.

And so when they met a smooth-talking good-looking conman with charisma who offered them marriage, without hesitation or consulting with their families they jumped at the chance. As victims of scams in every place and every time their happiness was short-lived,- just long enough to make a will or insurance policy in favour of their new husband and take a bath.
And when the police investigation began the women kept coming out of the closet, including two survivors, one wife in Canada and Edith Pegler "the wife he always returned to".

You couldn't find a better murder story in fiction especially as this one comes complete with a latter-day Sherlock Holmes in the form of the forensic pathologist Bernard Spilsbury and a sleuthing Rumpole of a lawyer.

The details of the murders and career of the Bernard Spilsbury are interspersed with background detail creating a vivid picture of the preoccupations and daily life of the period, such as the evidence offered that in the case of an unplumbed-in bath and a small boiler it would take twelve journeys upstairs with a bucket to fill it halfway up and twenty journeys to fill it three quarters full. No wonder baths were only an option for the wealthy!

It's a pity not more is known of the arch conman,the much married George Smith:he seemed to have a grudge against those women of a higher class than himself(he murdered these but spared his wives of a lower class)and was said to have hypnotised the Bishop of Croydon. Even his provenance and background is hazy and would repay more research,as would that of his victims who remain one-dimensional in this account.

A timeless tale of the unscrupulous preying on the desperate. Except that in 1910 they found each other via the pages of the Matrimonial Times rather than the Internet.

I throughly enjoyed it.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Murder Will Out 5 April 2010
Format:Hardcover
To maintain suspense when recounting true crime requires considerable skill, and Jane Robins's account of the career and capture of one of the most famous murderers of the last century is as fast-paced as any whodunnit. The narrative cuts deftly from the modest backgrounds of the female victims, to the pursuit by the dogged detective, to the dramatic staging of the forensic proofs and finally to the gripping courtroom battle between Spilsbury and Marshall Hall - respectively the leading pathologist and criminal advocate of the era.
But this is more than a simple page-turner: Robins's background as a serious historian is evident in her use of primary sources, including Spilsbury's original case cards and contemporary newspaper accounts, to illuminate not only who and how, but also why. By building up a detailed picture of the insecure position of single women at the outbreak of WW1, Robins enables us to comprehend how the female desire for the status of matrimony could be so cynically exploited. Her scholarship is deployed with a light touch, using quotations from correspondence and court papers to delineate the characters of the victims and to demonstrate how George Joseph Smith was able to manipulate the gullible until the bitter end.
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16 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This exceptional treatment of a notorious early 20th century English murder combines the page-turning interest of a well-written detective story with serious and wide ranging exposition of not just the scientific and legal issues in the case, but also of the social and historical context in which the all the protagonists lived.

Ms. Robins has used a wide range of materials with accuracy and insight to illustrate with well-chosen and striking examples not just the process by which George Smith was brought to justice but also the entire social milieu from which his victims were drawn as well as telling insights into the tensions in the English legal system in the early 20th century between the dramatic oratorical style of the Victorian era, personified by Smith's defence counsel Marshal Hall and the emergent scientific approach of the prosecution team whose pathologist, Bernard Spilsbury cemented his reputation with this case.

The author concludes with interesting reflections on later challenges to Spilsbury's reputation, both during his lifetime as he became increasingly dogmatic in realms perhaps beyond his own expertise and also what present scientific opinion would have to say about his evidence in this case.

This text wears its considerable scholarship lightly, and is a gripping read, but is well-footnoted (and generously illustrated)for those anxious to explore further. My one (pedantic perhaps) complaint is that in England witnesses in court do not "take the stand", they "enter the witness box".
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars Really fascinating read
It is one of the best early 20th century crime books I've read. A fascinating amount of detail and written I n such a way you really can't put it down. Read more
Published 1 hour ago by Alan Collins
5.0 out of 5 stars Brides in the bath
Excellent book and well written - would recommend it to my book reading friends. Really terrifying at rimes. Read more
Published 11 days ago by Mrs. S. Fishman
5.0 out of 5 stars Family history at its best
Alice Burnham was my distant cousin and the Brides in the bath has been part of my family gossip for many years so I bought several copies for various relatives for Xmas. Read more
Published 4 months ago by N Baldwin
4.0 out of 5 stars A good and at times riveting account of this case
I have read this book immediately following Sir Bernard Spilsbury His Life and Cases Bernard Spilsbury: His Life and Cases (Panther Books) . Read more
Published 5 months ago by Sally Walker
4.0 out of 5 stars Most intriguing
I came across this book quite by chance, but was intrigued to find out what the book was all about. In the first chapter we read of Bessie Mundy, a lonely 33-year old woman who,... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Keen Reader
4.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic, throoughly enjoyed it but pictures please
A well written account of a century old serial murder case. Well presented, despite the length very easy to read and flows very well. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Charlie&Molly
5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating reading
This marvellously readable book is much more about Bernard Spilsbury's work than his life. The framework used for it is the chronology of the famous `Brides in the Bath' case in... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Damaskcat
3.0 out of 5 stars Lukewarm bath
George Orwell identified the great period of the English murder, 'our Elizabethan period, so to speak' as between roughly 1850 and 1925. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Metropolitan Critic
5.0 out of 5 stars Spilsbury may not have been magnificent, but it's hard to fault this...
This book charts one of the most famous murder cases of the era George Orwell called 'our great era in murder', roughly 1850 to 1925 - the Brides in the Bath. Read more
Published 9 months ago by C. Ball
5.0 out of 5 stars good read and well documented
It makes.one realise even in days long ago.scientists in the field of forensic were well up on detecting the most difficult cases which needed to be solved.
Published 10 months ago by Mr. P. W. Shingler
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