Some of my friends think I'm a bit odd. In fact my wife and my boy think I'm a bit odd too. But I've since realised there are many odder folk than me and I now know there always have been. And that's because I'm currently reading an excellent book called Victorian Sensation by Michael Diamond which covers all manner of grisly spectacle and sex scandal, including the infamous Oscar Wilde trial and several murders, in 19th-century England.
It's a fabulous book and it's providing me with some good background ideas for when I start rewrites on my play about Victorian prostitution. It's also given me several interesting facts: for example, did you know that the novelists William Makepeace Thackeray and Charles Dickens both campaigned against the death penalty after seeing public hangings in London? Me neither but I do now.
My favourite bit so far, though, concerns several newspaper reporters who wrote about hanged women and commented on their sexual attraction as they swung from the gallows. One even suggested that one murderess named Maria Manning looked so alluring in her black satin death dress that it triggered a fashion trend and a demand for the material.
Now that's quite odd. And I know because I'm an expert...
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