Stephen Bates read Modern History at New College, Oxford before working as a journalist for the BBC, Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail and, for 22 years, The Guardian, successively there as a political correspondent, European Affairs Editor in Brussels and religious and royal correspondent. A regular broadcaster, he has also written for the Spectator, New Statesman, Time magazine, Literary Review, Tablet and BBC History Magazine, Le Monde and Berliner Zeitung. He is married with three adult children and lives in Kent. This is his tenth book.
Meticulously researched ... a gloriously engaging romp revolving
around a knotty case that boasts all the ingredients a crime
fiction fan could hope for.
*The Sunday Times*
Compelling ... There will surely be more books on this fascinating
case, but it'll be hard to beat this one
*The Literary Review*
This intriguing true crime investigation looks back at the
now-forgotten case and aims to answer the key question about it,
whether Armstrong was in fact really guilty of the murder.
*The Sunday Times, 100 Best Books for the Summer*
Clear, engaging prose that lays out the circumstances with plenty
of storytelling flair.
*Times Literary Supplement*
Immersive and compelling, The Poisonous Solicitor works at every
level: as human drama, as an evocative slice of social and legal
history, above all as a lucid and dispassionate presenting of the
evidence about a century-old puzzle.
*David Kynaston*
Stephen Bates puts us in the middle of an extraordinary trial for
murder, when one life and many reputations were at stake. It was
gripping then and fascinating now, with a shocking sting in the
tale. You will read it in one sitting.
*Marc Mulholland, author of The Murderer of Warren Street*
Marital disharmony, spare arsenic in the house, a premature death,
the suspicions of nosey neighbours - all leading to the judge
putting on the 'Black Cap'. Have you ever imagined you might find
yourself sitting in judgement over a murder trial? Stephen Bates'
gripping narrative takes you right inside one of the classic court
cases of the 20th century. His page-turner lays out all the
evidence for you to examine, so you feel you are actually up there
on the bench - presiding over the dramatic trial of the only
solicitor ever to be hanged in England. Guilty or innocent? You
decide . . .
*Robert Lacey, bestselling historian and biographer*
Part Agatha Christie, part social history, Stephen Bates has
stripped one of the classic 20th-century murders of a hundred years
of conjecture and supposition, revealing a dark and troubling
parable of inter-war rural Britain, a suffocating world of
professional rivalries, rigid social codes and deadly small-town
gossip - where poisoned chocolates are delivered by first class
post. Finding nuance and ambiguity in what has often been viewed as
a black-and-white case,The Poisonous Solicitor is a real-life
golden age crime novel with a tragic heart and an unexpectedly
poignant denouement.
*Sean O'Connor, author of Handsome Brute and The Fatal Passion of
Alma Rattenbury*
A careful and compelling reconstruction of one of the most infamous
murder trials of the twentieth century. Stephen Bates excels at
contrasting the claustrophobia of small-town life with the grisly
details which make the story still so notorious, a century on.
*Kate Morgan, author of Murder: The Biography*
A meticulously researched, gripping true crime book.
*The Western Mail*
Fascinating ... and beautifully written.
*Zack White, History Hack*
A perceptive measured look ... if you read just one account of the
saga, this will do nicely. Be warned, you will have a job to put it
down.
*Worcester News*
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