As I reach the closing weeks of my tenure as blog manager for Crime Cymru, I find myself with a gap in the schedule to fill. So here are a few words on a subject close to my heart.
Few things irritate me more than the voicing of the opinion that studying history is a waste of time. Yet so many people hold the opinion that the past has no relevance to the modern era, as if our ancestors belonged to some strange race of beings with different thoughts and feelings. Nonsense of course.
In my novels there are clear comparisons with modern life. In Fatal Solution for example, the fear of typhoid was every bit as real as our COVID experience. Probably more so, because there were no ‘lockdowns’, and for most there was no way of keeping yourself isolated.
Gambling debts, drug dependency and sexual harassment also appear in my novels. Real issues in the Victorian Age as they are now.
That said, I deliberately make a point of not hammering home these comparisons, mine are novels to entertain, not to preach. I do hope though, that subconsciously some of these things are picked up and also that some of the misconceptions which abound about the Victorians are exposed. The myth that Victorian upper classes were all prude, God-fearing examples of moral propriety, for example. The ladies indulging in cocaine at the country house at the beginning of Sabrina’s Teardrop, were doing nothing illegal.
In the same book the trafficking of girls to Paris brothels was also based on fact. It was a highly sexualised society, with the age of consent at the time of Victoria’s coronation being twelve years of age. Unwanted pregnancies abounded, with the death penalty awaiting any doctor performing an abortion (Texas 2024?). There was much debate and soul-searching over the latter subject as there is today.
One thing which has changed though, undoubtedly, has been the progress in respect of female emancipation. One minor criticism from a critic who gave an otherwise excellent review of Fortuna’s Deadly Shadow was that most of the female characters were in subservient roles.
Well, yes, it’s set in the 1890s. Not every town had a Nelly Bly or a Countess Markowitz. Whilst writing Fortuna I came across a legal case in Cardiff where a female doctor was suing a patient for non-payment of fees and the magistrate more or less asked the defendant, ‘why did you get her instead of a real doctor?’ So some things have changed, though misogyny is still with us.
One thing I haven’t mentioned as a common experience, is the fear of terrorism – but that will have to wait for now – until the release of Flames of Anarchy in May 2024.
Leslie Scase is the Shropshire-based author of the Inspector Chard Mysteries, crime thrillers set in the heyday of Victorian Britain. The first novel Fortuna’s Deadly Shadow was published in 2020. The second, Fatal Solution, was published in May 2021. Sabrina’s Teardrop, a thriller set mainly in Shropshire and Birmingham was published on 10th October 2022. An advocate of the ‘classic’ murder mystery genre, Leslie is also a keen historian, which is reflected in the authenticity of his novels.
Born and educated in South Wales, Leslie worked in local industry before travelling widely across the UK during a career in the Civil Service. His first novel was inspired in part by his Italian and English ancestors having settled in South Wales in the late nineteenth century. A keen fly fisherman and real ale enthusiast, he lives close to the Welsh border, in the county town of Shrewsbury.
Read more about Leslie Scase at Seren Books
https://www.serenbooks.com/author/leslie-scase
and on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/InspectorChard
Twitter/X @InspectorChard
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