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Nether World

Crime and the Police Courts in Victorian London

Drew D Gray

$34.99

Hardback

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English
Reaktion Books
01 July 2024
A new account of urban Victorian life told through the dubious day-to-day of London's police courts.

Nether World presents a rich, often humorous glimpse into everyday life in Victorian London through a revealing account of nineteenth-century police courts. People of all classes brought complaints to this court about those who had hurt, abused, or stolen from them - drunks, pickpockets, wife-beaters, and fraudsters - who were each in their turn judged by magistrates wielding broad summary powers. Delving into underexamined court records and the pages of a fast-developing newspaper industry, Drew D. Gray offers a fresh description of a vibrant, ever-changing metropolis and considers ongoing issues such as poverty, homelessness, violence, substance abuse, prostitution and - of course - crime.
By:  
Imprint:   Reaktion Books
Country of Publication:   United Kingdom
Dimensions:   Height: 216mm,  Width: 138mm, 
ISBN:   9781789148541
ISBN 10:   1789148545
Pages:   352
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active

Drew D. Gray is Head of Culture (Humanities, Media, Performance) at the Faculty of Arts, Science & Technology, University of Northampton. His publications include London's Shadows: The Dark Side of the Victorian City (2010). He authors a blog, thepolicemagistrate.blog, and has made a number of appearances on TV, radio and podcasts.

Reviews for Nether World: Crime and the Police Courts in Victorian London

""Gray tunnels deeper into one particularly rich seam, London's police courts . . . the author throws light on the full caseload of police court dealings - the drunks, the thieves, the sex attackers, the thugs, the beggars, the penny capitalists, whose means of subsistence rubbed them against the forces of law and order daily, and more . . . he shows us the Victorian police court as a kaleidoscopic theatre of real life: he is an invaluable compere.""-- ""Times Literary Supplement"" ""With Nether World, Drew D. Gray offers a lively and insightful picture of a quintessential Victorian institution, the London Police courts. Focusing on the courts' ubiquitous portrayals in newspapers and their employment as rich fodder for journalists seeking to portray the dramatic and the melodramatic, Gray brings these courts and their colorful denizens into vivid focus. Readers interested in law, crime, sensation, popular journalism, and the history of working-class trials and tribulations in Victorian London will all find much to engage with in this well-written and insightful work."" --Sascha Auerbach, Associate Professor of History, University of Nottingham, and author of ""Armed with Sword and Scales: Law, Culture, and Local Courtrooms in London, 1860-1913""


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