This is an extended version of a talk given at the Crime, Thriller and Mystery Books event, Hawkesbury Upton Literary Festival, 30 April 2022.    This is a "long read" and if you prefer to download and read it, there is a pdf version on my website here .      “How are you this morning, Betteredge?” asked Franklin Blake.   “Very poorly, sir,” answered Gabriel Betteredge.   “Sorry to hear it. What do you complain of?”   “I complain of a new disease, Mr. Franklin, of my own inventing. I don’t want to alarm you, but you’re certain to catch it before the morning is out.”   “The devil I am!”   “Do you feel an uncomfortable heat at the pit of your stomach, sir? and a nasty thumping at the top of your head? Ah! not yet? It will lay hold of you…, Mr. Franklin. I call it the detective-fever; and I first caught it in the company of Sergeant Cuff.” Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone   The new disease of Detective Fev...

In eighteenth and nineteenth century Britain, bare-knuckle boxing was a popular sport which drew followers from across the social spectrum, from the Prince of Wales and the aristocracy down. Charles Dickens loved a boxing match, and was one of the crowd who gathered in 1860 to watch Heenan v Sayers, which also included the Prime Minister, MPs and clergymen (see my blog Dickens and Chickens ). However, not all boxing matches took place in an official ring in front of thousands of spectators, with the representatives of the Fancy out in large numbers to watch fighters like England champions Jem Belcher or Daniel Mendoza fight it out for huge stakes after weeks of training. Many fights were spontaneous affairs between amateurs. Others were what you might call ‘novelty’ matches between unusual combatants, many of which were cruel and crude.   Daniel Mendoza Spontaneous fights arose out of everyday disputes: when men quarrelled they fought. Many of these matches, which look like noth...

I was on Silver Sound with fellow-presenter Mervyn yesterday in a show devoted to all things Christmas. I had selected three of my favourite Christmassy reads. These are the ones I chose:- The Pickwick Papers , Charles Dickens What can I say? It’s Charles Dickens. Of course, his most famous Christmas story is A Christmas Carol , and very lovely it is, but my favourite happens to be the “good-humoured Christmas Chapter” (Chapter 28, continued in Chapter 29) of The Pickwick Papers . Mr Pickwick and his friends spend the holiday in the country with their friends the Wardles. The Pickwickian Christmas has got everything: Christmas cheer, kisses under the mistletoe, dancing, eating, drinking, skating. There’s a Christmas wedding. Best of all, there’s a Christmas ghost story – The Story of the Goblins who Stole a Sexton . It’s “a season of hospitality, merriment, and open-heartedness…gay and merry…Happy, happy Christmas…” What if it is Christmas as it ought to be and which it...