In 1811 John Williams was buried at a crossroads with a stake in his heart. This seemed a fitting punishment for the killer convicted of a horrific murder-spree which terrified Regency England. But did the real killer evade blame for the gruesome and shocking Ratcliffe Highway Murders? The vivid and gripping reconstruction by P. D. James and T. A. Critchley draws on public records, newspaper clippings and hitherto unpublished sources, expertly sifting the evidence to shed new light on this infamous Wapping mystery. Originally published in 1971, The Maul and the Pear-Tree is James's only work of true crime and a historical mystery as gripping as her bestselling novels. It is now being republished with a stunning new design.
''All other murders look pale by the deep crimson of his.'' Thomas De Quincey on John Williams
In 1811 John Williams was buried at a crossroads with a stake in his heart. This seemed a fitting punishment for the killer convicted of a horrific murder-spree which terrified Regency England. But did the real killer evade blame for the gruesome and shocking Ratcliffe Highway Murders?
In this vivid and gripping reconstruction P. D. James and T. A. Critchley draw on public records, newspaper clippings and hitherto unpublished sources, expertly sifting the evidence to shed new light on this infamous Wapping mystery.
Originally published in 1971, The Maul and the Pear-Tree is P. D. James's only work of true crime and a historical mystery as gripping as her bestselling novels. It is now being republished with a stunning new design to be enjoyed by a new generation.
P. D. James was born in Oxford in 1920. From 1949 to 1968 she worked in the National Health Service and subsequently in the Home Office; first in the Police Department and later in the Criminal Policy Department. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and of the Royal Society of the Arts and has served as a Governor of the BBC, a member of the Arts Council, on the Board of the British Council and as a magistrate in Middlesex and London. She has received honorary degrees from seven British universities, was awarded an OBE in 1983 and was created a life peer in 1991. In 1997 she was elected President of the Society of Authors. She lives in London and Oxford and has two daughters, five grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
T. A. Critchley was born in Hertfordshire in 1919. He worked for many years in the Home Office, including the Police Department, where he was a colleague of P. D. James. His other works include A History of the Police in England and Wales. He died in 1991.
Talking About Detective Fiction by P. D. James will be published in paperback edition in October 2010.
THE MAUL AND THE PEAR-TREE
The Ratcliffe Highway Murders, 1811
P. D. James with T. A. Critchley
04 November 2010, £8.99 paperback
