Tough Times and Grisly Crimes: A History of Crime in Northumberland and County Durham

by Nigel Green

This book is a fascinating history of crime in the North East of England, stretching from the 18th Century through to the mid 20th Century.It covers a variety of topics, including capital punishment, transportation to Australia, highway robbery, prostitution, riots and juvenile crime.The author Nigel Green is a journalist who has spent his career specialising in crime reporting in the region.He has also researched in detail a number of murders and other major crimes from Northumberland, Newcastle, Gateshead, Durham, Sunderland and North and South Shields.But perhaps the most fascinating feature of this book is the collection of high-quality police photographs of 19th Century criminals, including women and children.Nigel has also researched the stories behind their arrests and their trials and punishments.Since the book's launch in 2006, Tough Times has sold more than 22,000 copies. Now you can read this on Kindle.

128 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2005

Reviews

[Felicity Terry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some wonderful facts and figures into the punishments - the jailings, the sending to the stocks, the hangings, the 'Riding the Stang'*, the transporting to America/Australia - meted out to the men, women and, yes, even child 'criminals' of eighteenth/nineteenth/twentieth century Northumberland and Co Durham made all the more fascinating because its my part of the world.

Looking at 'crimes' such as murder, highway robbery, grave robbing, domestic violence, prostitution and child cruelty Tough Times & Grisly Crimes is full of amazing original black and white photographs and illustrations - the faces of 'juvenile delinquents' (Jane Downey, 14; Joseph Oxley, 11 amongst others) their crimes (stealing clothes, taking blankets, sheets and a cruet stand respectively) displayed on boards held in front of them incredibly powerful and moving.

Whilst I found the longer accounts gave a fascinating insight into the people, places and events of that time (the shorter snippets some of which were only a sentence or two long less so) I felt the poor editing, and in particular the layout, could be vastly improved.

Copyright: Tracy Terry @ Pen and Paper.