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Search tags: Nigel-Cawthorne
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review 2018-01-28 06:56
The Ludicrous Laws of Old London
The Ludicrous Laws of Old London - Nigel Cawthorne

Interesting, but not precisely what it says on the tin.  The title and summary on the back would give the impression that the book is a collection of crazy laws enacted throughout the ages that are still in effect.  There are a few of these sprinkled throughout, but most of the entries are really more a historic overview of London laws through history; laws that seem insane to us now, but made sense to citizens at the time (for good or bad).

 

As I said, it's still a very engaging and interesting read; I learned heaps about London (did not know, for example that there's a city of London and a City of London (the latter being the 1 square mile section within the old Roman walls).  But I admit when I saw "Ludicrous" in the title, I was expecting something far sillier, the UK version of silly laws I've heard about in America like:

 

In Gainsville Georgia, you are not allowed to eat fried chicken any other way than using your hands.

 

In Arizona, having more than two vibrators in your home is illegal. If you own more than two in your house, you can be subject to criminal possession.

 

In Iowa, it is illegal for a man with a mustache to kiss a woman in public.

 

In Florida it is illegal for a divorced or a widowed woman to skydive on a Sunday afternoon.  Also, if an elephant is left tied to a parking meter, the parking fee has to be paid just as it would for a vehicle.  

 

The closest this book comes to this version of ludicrous is a law that states you cannot have a pack of playing cards within one mile of any building storing explosives or ammunition.  Which, I admit, is a stumper.

 

All in all, a good read; very informative, well-written and entertaining.  Just not silly.

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review 2015-08-28 06:22
Bodies in the Back Garden by Nigel Cawthorne
Bodies in the Back Garden - Nigel Cawthorne

25/8 - More than a little bit stilted. This is mostly just a statement of the facts of each individual case - victim's age and how they died, what the killer did with their body after he killed them, how they were eventually caught. There's not much personality in the writing, I could almost be reading the police reports. I'm still finding this interesting reading (I like serial killers, even when I've never heard of them or their crimes before), I just wish there was more story to the book, more of a flow.

It's horrifying to contemplate what people could get away with in the 60s, 70s, and 80s due to the absence of mobile phones and the internet. England seemed to be serial killer heaven during those three decades and the ones mentioned in this book got away with it for so long because there was no media coverage of the deaths. Even if the police knew about some of the deaths prior to the killer being caught nothing would show up in the news due to who the victims tended to be and because (according to my mum, who grew up in the 50s and 60s) no one in the media wanted to upset the public. Mum has told me that until they started to show footage from the Vietnam war, in the late 50s, they very rarely saw news of the bad variety. It was all weather and happy public interest stories. Because the public didn't know what was happening they didn't know who or what to look out for or that there was a reason to be careful of strangers and to avoid hitch hiking. Mum always says that there are more murders now than there were when she was growing up, reading this book it's clear that there were just as many murders in those decades as there are now, it's just that they weren't reported in those days. To be continued...

 

28/8 - So many women disappeared in the 60s, 70s, and 80s, you were almost more likely to get taken by one of the astonishingly high number of serial killers prowling the UK than you were to have a car accident. There were so many that often there was more than one 'working' in the same area at the same time, leaving the police to ponder exactly which serial killer killed a specific women/girl who disappeared. It makes me think of a murderous game of tag, trying to avoid the serial killers as you go about your life.

The writing at the end of the book was a bit disappointing. I noticed the occasional missing word or letter on the end of a word from the beginning, but over the last 50 or so pages it became more and more frequent till there was a missing word on almost every page. The missing words weren't overly important and didn't stop me from being able to understand what was being said - and, a, the, in, those kinds of words, or missing letters like please instead of pleased - but they definitely distracted me from the story. I felt like the end of the book was rushed and that's why the number of errors rose and also why the chapters got considerably shorter. The first three quarters of the chapters were of decent length and gave plenty of details about the killer and his victims, but towards the end they grew shorter and shorter till some of them were only a page or two long. I think Cawthorne should have concentrated on a couple of specific killers instead of (as it appeared to me) attempting to fit every killer who ever buried their victims in the back yard into the book. I would have liked a more detailed description of say five killers and their crimes rather than so many too brief chapters with not enough room for a proper explanation of what happened.

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review 2014-02-02 00:00
World At War - Story of World War II
World At War - Story of World War II - Nigel Cawthorne Takes old photo of Polish Cavalry and claims it is a photo of the cavalry charging German tanks in the allegedly "last cavalry charge in history". Espresso table history written by someone who writes a book about everything and his dog.
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review 2013-09-16 00:00
Killers: the Most Barbaric Murderers of Our Times
Killers: the Most Barbaric Murderers of Our Times - Nigel Cawthorne Fascinating look at killers. I haven't heard about some of the people before. i can't believe that English doctor killed over 200 patients and was only caught because he forged a will!
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review 2013-08-03 00:00
Sex Lives of the Great Dictators
Sex Lives of the Dictators - Nigel Cawthorne speed-writer, hack, and logorrheic dasher-out of some 80 books, Nigel Cawthorne's methodology of basically living at the British library and slapping together 1.99 specials is not astoundingly commendable, but at the least SEX LIVES OF THE DICTATORS is worth the 25 cents its probably going for in remainder bins and garage sales nationwide. is it worth a full $1? well, after all, all that gets these days is a McDouble cheeseburger. heck, maybe the book is even worth a full $2
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