From Mary Ann Cotton, the Victorian serial murderess, to Dr Crippen, poisoners have attracted a celebrity unmatched by violent killers. Secretly administered, often during a family meal, arsenic (the most commonly-used poison) led to a slow and agonising death, while strychnine (with its characteristic bitter taste) killed very quickly. Poisoned Lives is the first history of the crime to examine poisoning and its consequences as a whole. Unwanted husbands, wives or lovers, illegitimate babies, children killed for the insurance money, relatives, rivals and employers were amongst the...

In the past ten years medical and legal historians have clearly acknowledged the fertile links that have long existed between medicine and the law in Britain. However, this far-reaching subject has been comparatively unexplored in the English and Welsh context. This monograph, drawing on the details of c. 3000 cases of serious violence against the person which occurred in northern and central England, Wales and London, offers a comparative long-term perspective on medico-legal practice, and argues that it is only by exploring local practices that we can begin to understand how and why...