Frederick Carter

July 23, 2025 Benjamin Fitton

Wilfred Owen’s infamously chilling poem, written about a gas attack in WW1, is still a stark reminder of the brutality of war over 100 years later. A small segment of Dulce et Decorum est reads,

“Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,

But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind,

Drunk with fatigue, deaf even to the hoots,

Of gas-shells dropping softly behind”…

Was the physical and mental trauma of such horrors enough to drive a young man to kill when he returned home from war?…

The Servant And Her Mistress / The Mysterious Death of Jane Roberts Humphreys

December 25, 2024 Benjamin Fitton

The landau driver stood outside Prestatyn railway station, watching the early morning commuters. His attention was drawn to a young woman darting down the high street. She stopped beside his carriage and asked him to take her to a nearby farm. Her behaviour was erratic, and William wasn’t sure he wanted to drive her anywhere until she told him, “My mistress is lying on the floor. She’s very ill”...

Brides In The Bath / George Joseph Smith

December 28, 2022 Benjamin Fitton

Throughout the first two decades of the 20th century, life in Britain began to change rapidly. In the years preceding the first world war and the great depression, the economy was stable — although the divide between classes was significant, women were getting closer to equality, and the first female police officers began to patrol the streets. It had been many years since Jack the Ripper had terrified women in London, but a new predator was in their midst, someone who could lull his victims into such a false sense of security they had no idea he would strike when they were at their most vulnerable…