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Murder at Wrotham Hill
Before dawn on 31 October 1946, less than a year after the slaughter of World War Two, on a bleak roadside in Kent, a lone woman looks to hitch a lift to London. A lorry driver stops. The encounter ends in murder.
The victim, Dagmar Petrzywalski, is a gentle eccentric spinster. She had sought the peace of the countryside after her London home was bombed. She is the embodiment of Austerity Britain’s self-sacrifice and thrift. Her murderer, Harold Hagger is its opposite. His life is a litany of petty crimes, deceived wives, sloughed-off identities and army desertions. With their characters so indelibly marked the tragic outcome of their meeting seems determined by fate.
In Murder at Wrotham Hill Diana Souhami dwells on the significance of this crime, and shows that even after the killing of twenty million people in a global conflict, one death still has much to tell us. In doing so she paints a gripping portrait of post-war Britain that raises questions about murder, punishment and destiny.
Her characters include England’s first celebrity policeman, Fabian of the Yard; the celebrated forensic scientist, Keith Simpson; and history’s most famous and dedicated hangman, Albert Pierrepoint.
The victim, Dagmar Petrzywalski, is a gentle eccentric spinster. She had sought the peace of the countryside after her London home was bombed. She is the embodiment of Austerity Britain’s self-sacrifice and thrift. Her murderer, Harold Hagger is its opposite. His life is a litany of petty crimes, deceived wives, sloughed-off identities and army desertions. With their characters so indelibly marked the tragic outcome of their meeting seems determined by fate.
In Murder at Wrotham Hill Diana Souhami dwells on the significance of this crime, and shows that even after the killing of twenty million people in a global conflict, one death still has much to tell us. In doing so she paints a gripping portrait of post-war Britain that raises questions about murder, punishment and destiny.
Her characters include England’s first celebrity policeman, Fabian of the Yard; the celebrated forensic scientist, Keith Simpson; and history’s most famous and dedicated hangman, Albert Pierrepoint.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 2012
About the author
Diana Souhami
18 books75 followersDiana Souhami was brought up in London and studied philosophy at Hull University. She worked in the publications department of the BBC before turning to biography. In 1986 she was approached by Pandora Press and received a commission to write a biography of Hannah Gluckstein. Souhami became a full-time writer publishing biographies which mostly explore the most influential and intriguing of 20th century lesbian and gay lives.
She is the author of 12 critically acclaimed nonfiction and biography books, including Selkirk’s Island (winner of the Whitbread Biography Award), The Trials of Radclyffe Hall (winner of the Lambda Literary Award and shortlisted for the James Tait Black Prize for Biography), the bestselling Mrs. Keppel and Her Daughter (winner of the Lambda Literary Award and a New York Times Notable Book of the Year), Gertrude and Alice, and Wild Girls: Paris, Sappho, and Art. She lives in London.
She is the author of 12 critically acclaimed nonfiction and biography books, including Selkirk’s Island (winner of the Whitbread Biography Award), The Trials of Radclyffe Hall (winner of the Lambda Literary Award and shortlisted for the James Tait Black Prize for Biography), the bestselling Mrs. Keppel and Her Daughter (winner of the Lambda Literary Award and a New York Times Notable Book of the Year), Gertrude and Alice, and Wild Girls: Paris, Sappho, and Art. She lives in London.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
February 15, 2016
Dagmar Petrzywalski (the family later used the surname Peters) was a gentle, shy, retiring, eccentric spinster who lived in a hut, named 'The Vic', on land adjacent to her mother on the Hever Estate, West Kingsdown, Kent. One of Dagmar's eccentricities was that she liked to hitch-hike to London in the early morning before then getting a bus or train to visit her brother. This was to cost her her life.
The family had relocated to the Hever Estate after their London home was bombed in the blitz. Dagmar had initially stayed behind in rented accommodation while she carried on her work as a telephonist. But once she took early retirement she moved back to the family before purchasing her own plot of land on which to build 'The Vic'.
At 5am one October morning in October 1946 she set out to visit her brother and, after being ignored by one early morning lorry driver, a second, going in the opposite direction, stopped. Dagmar told the driver that she was going the other way but the driver stated that he had only one quick delivery to make before he would be on his way back to London. So Dagmar reluctantly accepted the lift.
The decision was to be a costly one for when a solitary shoe was found on the London Road it was eventually associated with the body that had been found in a hedge further down the road - and that was the body of the unfortunate Dagmar.
Initially the police were puzzled and the legendary Fabian of Scotland Yard was called in to lead the investigation. Slowly but surely clues were unearthed and after a while it led to a lorry driver who had been delivering bricks to the nearby East Malling cider works. He was interviewed but denied any knowledge of the incident and also of having seen anybody hitch-hiking that morning.
The driver was Sidney Sinclair, as he was known at the time for he had a number of aliases and was born Harold Hagger. Suspicious that Sinclair was heavily involved, Fabian kept the pressure on and, after repeated interviews, Sinclair eventually admitted having picked Dagmar up. The tragedy gradually unfolded but Sinclair was adamant that he had not intended to kill his victim. But the celebrated forensic scientist Keith Simpson, who was called in to undertake the post-mortem, was unconvinced and his evidence was crucial in Fabian arresting Sinclair.
The final piece of the action was the trial and subsequent punishment for Sinclair, with the latter involving the celebrated hangman Albert Pierrepoint, whose work, particularly in the aftermath of the Nazi war trials, is examined in great detail.
In a deeply moving, eminently readable and thoroughly recommended book, Diana Souhami presents a superb picture of austerity Britain together with a first-class, thought-provoking account of murder, punishment and destiny.
The family had relocated to the Hever Estate after their London home was bombed in the blitz. Dagmar had initially stayed behind in rented accommodation while she carried on her work as a telephonist. But once she took early retirement she moved back to the family before purchasing her own plot of land on which to build 'The Vic'.
At 5am one October morning in October 1946 she set out to visit her brother and, after being ignored by one early morning lorry driver, a second, going in the opposite direction, stopped. Dagmar told the driver that she was going the other way but the driver stated that he had only one quick delivery to make before he would be on his way back to London. So Dagmar reluctantly accepted the lift.
The decision was to be a costly one for when a solitary shoe was found on the London Road it was eventually associated with the body that had been found in a hedge further down the road - and that was the body of the unfortunate Dagmar.
Initially the police were puzzled and the legendary Fabian of Scotland Yard was called in to lead the investigation. Slowly but surely clues were unearthed and after a while it led to a lorry driver who had been delivering bricks to the nearby East Malling cider works. He was interviewed but denied any knowledge of the incident and also of having seen anybody hitch-hiking that morning.
The driver was Sidney Sinclair, as he was known at the time for he had a number of aliases and was born Harold Hagger. Suspicious that Sinclair was heavily involved, Fabian kept the pressure on and, after repeated interviews, Sinclair eventually admitted having picked Dagmar up. The tragedy gradually unfolded but Sinclair was adamant that he had not intended to kill his victim. But the celebrated forensic scientist Keith Simpson, who was called in to undertake the post-mortem, was unconvinced and his evidence was crucial in Fabian arresting Sinclair.
The final piece of the action was the trial and subsequent punishment for Sinclair, with the latter involving the celebrated hangman Albert Pierrepoint, whose work, particularly in the aftermath of the Nazi war trials, is examined in great detail.
In a deeply moving, eminently readable and thoroughly recommended book, Diana Souhami presents a superb picture of austerity Britain together with a first-class, thought-provoking account of murder, punishment and destiny.
January 20, 2013
This is a marvelous piece of writing, the story meticulously researched. Murder at Wrotham Hill charts the progression of events and the lives of those involved in the killing in October 1946 of middle-aged spinster Dagmar Petrzywalski. Her body was discovered by a lorry driver, and only because he saw a shoe lying by the roadside that looked new and would probably fit his wife, especially if he could find the other one.
Dagmar was a gentle person, reclusive and slightly eccentric in her ways, but careful and caring. And it is through Dagmar’s life that we learn of the austerity of life in Britain in the 1940’s. Her killing was the second in a short time as only three months before a young girl has been found raped and strangled, and so a search for the killer swings into action. In charge of the case is England’s first celebrity detection who later became known as Fabian of the Yard. Investigation reveals that Dagmar was known to hitch-hike particularly early in the morning and post war this was normal, as petrol was still scarce and two people travelling in one vehicle was encouraged. That particular morning Dagmar had been going to visit her brother. But her body was found on the opposite side of the road. So where was she going?
Her murderer Harold Hagger's was a real bad apple. Petty crimes, several abandoned wives and other identities, just how did he and Dagmar cross paths.
The progression of the investigation is interesting but the strength of the book lies in the in-depth story of the victim and her killer. A sad and tragic story. With photographs of Dgmar Petrzywalski, the evidence of the shoe and the string bag. Harold Hagger, the celebrated forensic scientist, Keith Simpson, and history's most famous hangman Albert Pierrpoint, and his wife – hanging must be a lucrative business judging by her full-length fur coat! The book is divided into eight sections with section eight entitled ‘And After’ where we learn what happened to all the characters. A full rounded, and excellent account of the murder of Dagmar Petrzywalski.
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Reviewer: Lizzie Hayes
Dagmar was a gentle person, reclusive and slightly eccentric in her ways, but careful and caring. And it is through Dagmar’s life that we learn of the austerity of life in Britain in the 1940’s. Her killing was the second in a short time as only three months before a young girl has been found raped and strangled, and so a search for the killer swings into action. In charge of the case is England’s first celebrity detection who later became known as Fabian of the Yard. Investigation reveals that Dagmar was known to hitch-hike particularly early in the morning and post war this was normal, as petrol was still scarce and two people travelling in one vehicle was encouraged. That particular morning Dagmar had been going to visit her brother. But her body was found on the opposite side of the road. So where was she going?
Her murderer Harold Hagger's was a real bad apple. Petty crimes, several abandoned wives and other identities, just how did he and Dagmar cross paths.
The progression of the investigation is interesting but the strength of the book lies in the in-depth story of the victim and her killer. A sad and tragic story. With photographs of Dgmar Petrzywalski, the evidence of the shoe and the string bag. Harold Hagger, the celebrated forensic scientist, Keith Simpson, and history's most famous hangman Albert Pierrpoint, and his wife – hanging must be a lucrative business judging by her full-length fur coat! The book is divided into eight sections with section eight entitled ‘And After’ where we learn what happened to all the characters. A full rounded, and excellent account of the murder of Dagmar Petrzywalski.
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Reviewer: Lizzie Hayes
September 24, 2016
The descriptions of life directly after WWII were interesting. The murder itself, not so interesting.
February 10, 2013
In October 1946 the body of a middle aged woman was found in the Kent undergrowth by a lorry driver. This is the true story of her murder and the apprehension of her killer. But the author also shows us life for the 'participants' in the run-up to the killing and throughout the Second World War. Great accessible writing style and strangely makes me want to visit the pretty little villages mentioned.
January 20, 2013
‘A woman’s shoe, flat and dark blue, lay on the grass verge two feet from the kerb halfway up Wrotham Hill in Kent.’
The shoe was spotted by Joe Hammond, a passing driver. He stopped. In Britain in 1946 good shoes were expensive and required clothing coupons. Joe hoped to find the other shoe and that the pair would fit his wife.
‘A chance find was not to be passed by.’
The other shoe was attached to a woman’s body, and he knew at once that she had been murdered.
In this book, Ms Souhami writes both of the murder and of the period
in which it took place. The early days of post war Britain, of austerity and opportunism.
The victim, Dagmar Petrzywalski, was an unmarried woman in her late 40s. She had set out from her home early that morning (Thursday, 31 October 1946) intending to visit her brother and his wife in Woking. In many ways, Miss Petrzywalski was a role model for austerity Britain: she made her own clothes, kept chickens and walked everywhere in order to save money. Sometimes she hitched a lift – always with a truck driver – she thought them more trustworthy than car drivers.
Robert Fabian of Scotland Yard headed the murder investigation. Initially, he had little to go on. Miss Petrzywalski had been strangled, but not sexually assaulted. The only lead appeared to be Miss Petrzywalski’s yellow string bag which was fished out of a lake several miles from where her body was found. This lake was fed by a stream that ran close to the road, and past a cider works – where a delivery of bricks had been made on the morning of the murder.
The driver who had delivered the bricks was Sidney Sinclair. His story seemed plausible, until Robert Fabian questioned him more closely. Sidney Sinclair, whose real name was Harold Hagger, was an opportunist with a long history of petty crime, an army deserter, a bigamist and a black marketeer. When his path crossed Dagmar Petrzywalski’s, she didn’t stand a chance.
‘They were two isolated people quite beyond safe relationship.’
In writing of Miss Petrzywalski’s murder, Ms Souhami is focussed on the details of the participants and the period. She writes of Dagmar Petrzywalski’s family, and of Harold Hagger’s. She writes of Robert Fabian’s background, of the pathologist (Dr Cedric Keith Simpson) and the hangman (Albert Pierrepoint). Each of their stories is woven into the whole and sometimes it’s distracting.
When I first picked up this book, I was expecting simply to read the tragic story of a murder, of an investigation, and of the aftermath. I was not expecting to become involved in the minutiae of austerity Britain. And yet, mostly, it works well. Ms Souhami is a gifted writer and in her telling both Dagmar Petrzywalski and Sidney
Sinclair/Harold Hagger represent (respectively) the austerity and the opportunism of the times.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
The shoe was spotted by Joe Hammond, a passing driver. He stopped. In Britain in 1946 good shoes were expensive and required clothing coupons. Joe hoped to find the other shoe and that the pair would fit his wife.
‘A chance find was not to be passed by.’
The other shoe was attached to a woman’s body, and he knew at once that she had been murdered.
In this book, Ms Souhami writes both of the murder and of the period
in which it took place. The early days of post war Britain, of austerity and opportunism.
The victim, Dagmar Petrzywalski, was an unmarried woman in her late 40s. She had set out from her home early that morning (Thursday, 31 October 1946) intending to visit her brother and his wife in Woking. In many ways, Miss Petrzywalski was a role model for austerity Britain: she made her own clothes, kept chickens and walked everywhere in order to save money. Sometimes she hitched a lift – always with a truck driver – she thought them more trustworthy than car drivers.
Robert Fabian of Scotland Yard headed the murder investigation. Initially, he had little to go on. Miss Petrzywalski had been strangled, but not sexually assaulted. The only lead appeared to be Miss Petrzywalski’s yellow string bag which was fished out of a lake several miles from where her body was found. This lake was fed by a stream that ran close to the road, and past a cider works – where a delivery of bricks had been made on the morning of the murder.
The driver who had delivered the bricks was Sidney Sinclair. His story seemed plausible, until Robert Fabian questioned him more closely. Sidney Sinclair, whose real name was Harold Hagger, was an opportunist with a long history of petty crime, an army deserter, a bigamist and a black marketeer. When his path crossed Dagmar Petrzywalski’s, she didn’t stand a chance.
‘They were two isolated people quite beyond safe relationship.’
In writing of Miss Petrzywalski’s murder, Ms Souhami is focussed on the details of the participants and the period. She writes of Dagmar Petrzywalski’s family, and of Harold Hagger’s. She writes of Robert Fabian’s background, of the pathologist (Dr Cedric Keith Simpson) and the hangman (Albert Pierrepoint). Each of their stories is woven into the whole and sometimes it’s distracting.
When I first picked up this book, I was expecting simply to read the tragic story of a murder, of an investigation, and of the aftermath. I was not expecting to become involved in the minutiae of austerity Britain. And yet, mostly, it works well. Ms Souhami is a gifted writer and in her telling both Dagmar Petrzywalski and Sidney
Sinclair/Harold Hagger represent (respectively) the austerity and the opportunism of the times.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
January 28, 2013
3.5
Well researched and well written account of a murder in the 1940's - not one I had heard of before.
Very sad tale of 'Miss Dagmar Peters', a spinster maiden lady with the unfortunate habit of hitching early morning lifts with lorry drivers into London to save bus and train fares. She always refused a lift in a private car, maintaining that lorry drivers were safe and honest. Unfortunately early one October morning she met lorry driver Sid Sinclair.
The book is excellent at describing the struggle and poverty of many people despite the ending of the war, and really sets the scene beautifully. Dagmar's 'hut' where she lives is heart breaking in its simplicity especially as she called it 'The Vic' - nowadays it would not be considered suitable to house an animal. But for Dagmar it was her little piece of independence.
The murder is a fairly open and shut case and the book itself could be two thirds the length it is and still tell the story. The problem is that Souhami clearly feels she needs to pad it out and we go off at a tangent, especially towards the end where she ends up talking about German War Crimes.
Well researched and well written account of a murder in the 1940's - not one I had heard of before.
Very sad tale of 'Miss Dagmar Peters', a spinster maiden lady with the unfortunate habit of hitching early morning lifts with lorry drivers into London to save bus and train fares. She always refused a lift in a private car, maintaining that lorry drivers were safe and honest. Unfortunately early one October morning she met lorry driver Sid Sinclair.
The book is excellent at describing the struggle and poverty of many people despite the ending of the war, and really sets the scene beautifully. Dagmar's 'hut' where she lives is heart breaking in its simplicity especially as she called it 'The Vic' - nowadays it would not be considered suitable to house an animal. But for Dagmar it was her little piece of independence.
The murder is a fairly open and shut case and the book itself could be two thirds the length it is and still tell the story. The problem is that Souhami clearly feels she needs to pad it out and we go off at a tangent, especially towards the end where she ends up talking about German War Crimes.
August 3, 2013
A crime I've not seen much written about, Dagmar Petrzywalski a middle aged woman is murdered and dumped on the side of the road. The murder happens in 1946 and has all the ingredients for an interesting case.
However the author seems to go off at tangents, this appears to be an effort to pad the story out with the criminals family story, as well as the victims.
There's even a couple of pages taken up by the murder of the doctor's child over twenty years before, interesting yes, but relevant to the case?
The section on the executioner includes the war criminals hanged by Pierrepoint, as well as his family and life.
However the author seems to go off at tangents, this appears to be an effort to pad the story out with the criminals family story, as well as the victims.
There's even a couple of pages taken up by the murder of the doctor's child over twenty years before, interesting yes, but relevant to the case?
The section on the executioner includes the war criminals hanged by Pierrepoint, as well as his family and life.
Read
August 6, 2013In October 1946 Dagmar Petrazywalski was hitchhiking in southern England and was picked up by Sidney Sinclair and strangled by him in his truck. Souhami uses this 'unimportant' crime as the focal point for a more rounded picture of England at this time. This is a grim book. England was still reeling from six years of war and Souhami's plain style of writing accentuates the hard times. Sometimes her mixing of world events with the very local murder feels forced but the point about this murder bringing out the flavour of British life in 1946 is convincingly made.
April 10, 2016
A great read. the back story and social history covered are what really made this book for me. the austerity of the years is well dealt with. enjoyed this one.
October 6, 2025
I picked this book up at a random free book exchange -knowing nothing about it and having low expectations. It ended up being very interesting not just for the solving of a woman's murder in 1946 but also for a vivid and accurate picture of what England was like in the immediate aftermath of World War II. The author does an amazing job of ferreting out details of the characters ( the middle aged spinster victim, the duplicitous murderer, the hangman), the setting, the post war economic trials and the legal system. It is a "True Crime" Book - a genre I don't typically read. Very interesting and different than my usual read.
May 21, 2024
I'm against the death penalty, but the overt bias in this one ruined it for me. The author is way too sympathetic to both the murderer and his girlfriend (who, according to Souhami, did nothing when he molested her daughter.) The victim, meanwhile, is written off as a nobody who wasn't missed because she was middle-aged, ugly, reclusive and, as Southami incredulously tells the reader at least six times, a virgin.
May 11, 2021
I thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of this book. The backdrop of WW2 and postwar England was very interesting along the social commentary. I was thrilled to meet Fabian, a real life English detective and my first executioner, Pierrepoint whose career I investigated on Google. I feel I’ve learned a great deal by reading this true crime story which is much more than the crime
May 27, 2019
Author goes on really long tangents that get a bit more off topic than I'd have liked. Cover of the book asks why this murder mattered so much after WWII, but that question is never really answered.
June 4, 2023
This was an interesting read despite the many "rabbit holes" the author went down in telling the story.
July 25, 2023
I liked it.
July 26, 2021
This book is quite a departure from Diana Souhami's usual ouvre - lesbian or queer biographies - but she doesn't disappoint. The crime in the title was the murder of a woman, Dagmar Petrzywalski, by Sidney Sinclair (alias Harold Haggar) in an English village in 1946. Souhami doesn't just recount the crime: she locates it within a sociological analysis of an England that was post-war but not quite pre-welfare state. Rationing was still in progress and people "made do" with whatever they had, whether food, clothing or other belongings. Dagmar, a trusting innocent for all her 45 years, was ripe picking for an opportunist such as Sinclair, a petty criminal, army deserter and bigamist.
Following his trial, Sinclair was sentenced to hang at Wandsworth Prison. But Souhami engages the reader in another analysis, this one about the death penalty. From an interesting discussion around the M'Naughten Rule, and whether or not Sinclair was insane, Souhami applies a similar logic to the hanging of Nazis who committed war crimes: when is killing acceptable? The vehicle through which she examines this dilemma is the employ of Albert Pierrepoint, the hangman. When he isn't executing in England, he travels to Germany to ply his trade there. Although interesting, there are pieces in this section that are superfluous and distracting from the main thrust of the argument.
This is an exceptionally well-researched book from many sources including descendants of Dagmar and Sinclair. Souhami weaves the aspects of the trial and the crime itself within the fabric of the times. She is a most skilful writer who has brought to life all the characters in this story, even those who have died.
Following his trial, Sinclair was sentenced to hang at Wandsworth Prison. But Souhami engages the reader in another analysis, this one about the death penalty. From an interesting discussion around the M'Naughten Rule, and whether or not Sinclair was insane, Souhami applies a similar logic to the hanging of Nazis who committed war crimes: when is killing acceptable? The vehicle through which she examines this dilemma is the employ of Albert Pierrepoint, the hangman. When he isn't executing in England, he travels to Germany to ply his trade there. Although interesting, there are pieces in this section that are superfluous and distracting from the main thrust of the argument.
This is an exceptionally well-researched book from many sources including descendants of Dagmar and Sinclair. Souhami weaves the aspects of the trial and the crime itself within the fabric of the times. She is a most skilful writer who has brought to life all the characters in this story, even those who have died.
November 30, 2012
I seem to have forgotten to review this. It wasn't fantastic, but it was an interesting concept. Don't pick it up thinking you're going to get a true-crime/whodunnit sort of book. The crime is a hook for an examination of British society in the late 1940s. What dismal, improvised lives people led. Sometimes Souhami gets a bit too far off track -- the life story of Albert Pierrepoint, already a bit marginal to the story, led to a diversion to Auschwitz. I could see that it was a bit relevant, in the sense of it reflecting attitudes to the value of a human life and the rights and wrongs of killing, by the state or others. But it felt tacked on, after the more domestic nature of the rest of the book.
December 11, 2016
Disappointing in comparison to other Souhami books. There are several places where the same thing is relayed almost identically and it feels as though it never got end-to-end read from an editor. Nevertheless interesting and like all her books, well researched. Interesting info and thought provoking observations about hanging, war crimes, and Nuremberg, all of which comes up rather abruptly. I had the sense Souhami was trying to make a point about the death penalty, but I'm not quite sure what it was.
January 14, 2013
The main problem with this book was that the murder wasn't particularly unusual. Someone was killed, the culprit was caught fairly quickly due to good old-fashioned police work, he was convicted and executed. The narrative was padded out with a number of digressions. I wonder why the author chose this particular crime to write about.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 17, 2013
A book describing the case of a murder in the post-war years solved by Britain's first celebrity detective. It turns out to be a fairly straightforward tale. The book loses its way towards the end with a diversion into German war crimes and the rights and wrongs of capital punishment.
October 24, 2014
Interesting portrait of Britain before, during and after the war. Not totally devoted to the case of the title as tangents abound of various characters and thoughts on the rights and wrongs of capital punishment.
January 28, 2015
This book really brings to life the suffering and conditions that the less well off had to endure, before during and after the second world war, also demonstrates how efficient and thorough the police at that time were at hunting down a murder suspect.
May 4, 2014
Really well-written and researched account of a murder in 1946 at Wrotham in Kent. Such sad, difficult and unfulfilling lives lived by the key characters. Thought- provoking and well worth reading.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews