True Crime & Victorian London

Many, many years ago, around the same time when I started watching crime documentaries on TV (when I was still watching TV), I became interested in the Victorian era. It’s the era when the novel form became popular with authors like the Brontë sisters, Elizabeth Gaskell, George Eliot, and Thomas Hardy - some of my favourites.

Kate Summercale’s ‘The Wicked Boy’ is about a true crime from 1895 and its aftermath. It takes place in South London and so I recognise many places either because I’ve been there or because I’ve heard their name before on the train. It also explains many things about Victorian life.

This is when life starts to look similar to us. The Victorian discourse about the danger of the penny dreadfuls (short stories about crime and other sensational topics) is extremely similar to today’s discourses about the dangers of violent TV shows, video games, and even VR.