Judy Woodruff likes Daniel Silva.

PBS's Judy Woodruff reports that Daniel Silva's The Defector is on her summer reading list, but also confesses to bias: She previously worked with him at CNN.

BTW, I'm home from surgery and doing okay.

A short hiatus for The Bunburyist.

I'm having surgery this week, so The Bunburyist must take a short vacation. Hope to be back in form sometime next week.

Read some good books while I'm away...

Neglected Books looks at Elliott Chaze's Wettermark (1969).

The Neglected Books blog discusses Wettermark (1969) by journalist Elliott Chaze (1915–90), mentioning the admiration of Bill Pronzini and Ed Gorman for this exploration of an impending bank heist. Ed has mentioned with particular favor Chaze's Black Wings Has My Angel (1953), now back in print.

Richard Matheson's "Duel" this week on BBC Radio 7.

Richard Matheson's "Duel," in which a trucker terrorizes a motorist, is featured this week on BBC Radio 7. Go here for the schedule or to listen.

About the image: Dennis Weaver doesn't like what he sees in the rearview mirror in Duel (dir. Steven Spielberg, 1971).

Shirley Jackson.

Obit Magazine notes that today marks the death of Shirley Jackson at age 48 in 1965. Best known for "The Lottery" (1948), The Haunting of Hill House (1959), and We Have Always Lived in the Castle (1962), Jackson, in Jonathan Lethem's words, "wrote about the mundane evils hidden in everyday life." She received a posthumous Edgar Award for her short story "The Possibility of Evil."

US steals march on British with Colin Watson.

Faber Finds has reprinted several of ex-journalist Colin Watson's rollicking mysteries—Coffin, Scarcely Used (1958); Bump in the Night (1960); the Silver Dagger-winning Hopjoy Was Here (1962) and Lonelyheart 4122 (1967); Charity Ends at Home (1968); The Flaxborough Crab (1969); and Broomsticks over Flaxborough (1972)—as well as his critical work on British mysteries, Snobbery with Violence (1971).

But last year Colorado-based Rue Morgue Press beat FF to the Watsonfest with its more inexpensive editions of Coffin, Scarcely Used and Bump in the Night.

About the images: British publisher Faber and US publisher Rue Morgue Press go mano a mano with dueling editions of Colin Watson.

My 2 minutes of fame.

I was a bit startled to see that, uploaded on the Library of Congress's YouTube Channel, is the Center for the Book presentation by Sara Paretsky that coincided with the winter 2007 Clues theme issue on her work. Yours truly shows up at the end.

(Also check out this LOC presentation by Washington Post Book World columnist Michael Dirda. Dirda is a big fan of, among others, John Dickson Carr, H. Rider Haggard, Georgette Heyer, and Philip K. Dick.)

Michael Bond this week on BBC Radio 7.

Monsieur Pamplemousse, the hapless sleuth-Guide Michelin critic of Paddington creator Michael Bond who is ably assisted by his dog Pommes Frites, is featured this week on BBC Radio 7 in "Monsieur Pamplemousse Investigates." Go here for the schedule or to listen.

Harvard UP's upcoming A New Literary History of America.

Harvard University Press offers a preview of its September release A New Literary History of America. The following were the only mystery entries I spotted:

• "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," 1841 (piece written by Robert Clark)

• "Hardboiled," 1926 (piece written by Walter Mosley)

• Psycho, 1960 (piece written by William Beard)

Corpse tourism?

The Book Show of the Australian Broadcasting Corp. looks at the new literary magazine The Death Mook, which is all about the last hurrah, including "corpse tourism."

New: Journal of Art Crime.

Art thefts are, sadly, big business, and the subject of reader interest, as can be seen in the reception of R. A. Scotti's Vanished Smile: The Mysterious Theft of Mona Lisa (2009). Now the nonprofit Association for Research into Crimes Against Art (ARCA) has announced the establishment of an academic journal, Journal of Art Crime, that will explore the subject, its history, and its aftermath. Although ARCA's Web site states that the first issue was due to be published in spring 2009, there are no articles, abstracts, or a table of contents posted.

Praeger also has recently published Art and Crime: Exploring the Dark Side of the Art World (edited by ARCA director Noah Charney). In addition, ARCA has an interesting blog here, and podcasts, such as this one on the 1961 theft of Goya's Portrait of the Duke of Wellington (1812–14). There are sobering art theft statistics posted as well, such as:

• Estimate of annual criminal income through art crime: $6–8 billion

• Estimated value of artworks stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston: $300-500 million

• Minimum number of reported art thefts worldwide each year: 50,000
  

Black Squirrel Books republishes Jim Tully.

Black Squirrel Books, an imprint of Kent State University Press that focuses on Ohio writers and culture, has reprinted Jim Tully's Circus Parade (1927) and Shanty Irish (1928). The press's Web site claims that Tully (1886–1947) "is credited with originating the hard-boiled writing style." I regard that assertion with skepticism, as Carroll John Daly generally receives the credit for publishing the first hard-boiled story, "The False Burton Combs," in 1922 and "It's All in the Game" with the first hard-boiled detective in 1923.

(Hat tip to the Neglected Books blog)

Rita Drohan Foxwell, 1925–2009.

There will be some prescheduled posts over the next few days, although the Bunburyist might eventually need to go on temporary hiatus. My remarkable mother has passed away. Suffice for now to say that she was a child of the Depression with six siblings, raised three sons and three daughters after her husband died at age 49, and believed there was nothing her children could not do.

Viewing and service on Tuesday, July 28th; obituary here.

Mencken to Van Vechten: 118 quarts of Scotch—and more.

Over on Yale's Room 26 Cabinet of Curiosities, H. L. Mencken provides a unique book inscription (and bibulous assessment over a three-year period) to writer-photographer Carl Van Vechten: "118 quarts of Scotch..."

A mixed bag of results at Bloomsbury's July 16th bibliophile auction.

At Bloomsbury's July 16th bibliophile auction, the following items were sold:

• First edition of Agatha Christie's Cat among the Pigeons (1959), signed by David Suchet: £220 (approx US$362)
  

• First edition of Freeman Wills Crofts's The 12.30 from Croyden (1934): £50 (approx US$82)
  

• First edition of Arthur Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902): £650 (approx US$1071)
  

• First U.S. edition of Arthur Conan Doyle's The Maracot Deep and Other Stories (1929): £180 (approx US$297)
  

• Signed first edition of Ian Fleming's On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1963): £3300 (approx US$5437)
  

• Signed copy of Sue Grafton's Kinsey and Me: A Collection of Short Stories (1991): £160 (approx US$264)
  

• W. E. Johns's "The Case of the Phone Box Murder," Boys Own (1954) plus two other issues: £130 (approx US$214)
  

• John le Carre's "The Writer and the Horse" plus assorted ephemera: £850 (approx US$1400)
  

• Signed copy of Julian Symons's A Short History of the Detection Club (n.d.): £80 (approx US$132)
  

Chesterton, Christie, Fleming results from Sotheby's July 14th auction.

At Sotheby's July 14th auction of English literature, history, children's books, and illustrations, the following items were sold:

• Seven first editions of G. K. Chesterton works, including The Man Who Knew Too Much and Other Stories (1925) and The Secret of Father Brown (1927): £3500 (approx. US$5760)
  

• Signed first edition (with personal letter) of Agatha Christie's The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1921): £10,000 (approx. US$16,457)
  

• Signed first edition of Ian Fleming's Goldfinger: £36,050 (approx. US$59,327)
  

(Hat tip to PhiloBiblos)

Frank McCourt, Crime and Punishment, and the American way of detection.

All hail the late—and great—Frank McCourt:

"There's nothing to do but go back to my room, listen to the radio, read [Dostoevsky's] Crime and Punishment and fall asleep wondering why Russians have to drag things out. You'd never find a New York detective wandering around with the likes of Raskolnikov talking about everything but the murder of the old woman. The New York detective would nab him, book him and the next thing is the electric chair in Sing Sing, and that's because Americans are busy people with no time for detectives to be chatting with people they already know committed the murder."

—Frank McCourt, Tis: A Memoir 60–61

Baroness Orczy, Josephine Tey this week on BBC Radio 7.

Baroness Orczy's armchair sleuth The Old Man in the Corner is featured this week on BBC Radio 7 in The Teahouse Detective. Also airing: Inspector Alan Grant finds a dead man in the Highlands in Josephine Tey's The Singing Sands. Go here for the schedule or to listen.

New essay collection on John Buchan.

Pickering & Chatto has just published Reassessing John Buchan: Beyond The Thirty-Nine Steps. It is edited by University of Ghent professor Kate Macdonald, author of John Buchan: A Companion to the Mystery Fiction that I edited for McFarland. Essays examine areas such as Buchan and the Boer War, Buchan and Joseph Conrad, Buchan and the supernatural, and Buchan and Islam. Despite the collection's subtitle, there's one essay on "Tracing The Thirty-Nine Steps."

Jane Aiken Hodge, 1917–2009.

Jane Aiken Hodge, the American-born daughter of poet Conrad Aiken and sister of the late writer Joan Aiken, died at home on June 17th. The funeral is set for July 21st in Sussex. Hodge wrote a number of historical fiction works and some mysteries, such as Maulever Hall (1964), A Death in Two Parts (2000), and Deathline (2003), as well as a life of Jane Austen and a fine biography of Georgette Heyer, The Private World of Georgette Heyer (1984).

Happy birthday, Hammond Innes.

British author and avid sailor Ralph Hammond Innes, known for thrillers such as The Blue Ice (1948) and works such as The Wreck of the "Mary Deare" (1956), was born today in Horsham in 1913. His writing career began far from promisingly: his first four novels, according to Contemporary Authors, only reaped a total of £120. He began to garner attention with Attack Alarm (1941), which was based on his experiences as a gunner during the Battle of Britain, and other novels were eventually adapted for film or television (for example, Fire in the Snow [1947], The White South [1949], Campbell's Kingdom [1952], and The Doomed Oasis [1960]). He was made a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 1978 and died in 1998.

About the image: Richard Harris (left) and Gary Cooper in The Wreck of the Mary Deare (dir. Michael Anderson, screenplay by Eric Ambler, 1959)

Cornell Woolrich this week on BBC Radio 7.

This week BBC Radio 7 features Cornell Woolrich's "It Had to Be Murder," the short story that was the basis for Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window. Go here for the schedule or to listen.

About the image: Thelma Ritter and Grace Kelly in Rear Window (1954; dir. Alfred Hitchcock)

Mostly modest prices at Bloomsbury's June 30th bibliophile auction.

Among the items sold during Bloomsbury's June 30th No-Reserve Bibliophile Sale:

• Jane Annie, a comic opera penned by J. M. Barrie (of Peter Pan fame) and Arthur Conan Doyle: $75

• Hand-corrected typescripts by James M. Cain, which include an outline of The Slim Girl (later published as Galatea, 1953), 28 pages of The Lady Is a Pirate (later published as Mignon, 1962), and an outline for The Pie Rat (another version of Mignon): $600

• Group of first-edition spy novels, which includes works by Jack Higgins and James Graham (who are both Harry Patterson) and Jeffery Hudson (aka Michael Crichton): $1200

• Proof copy of Hammond Innes's first novel The Doppelganger (1936): $75
  

• Signed copies of Richard Matheson's The Twilight Zone Scripts (1998) and Collected Stories (1989): $375

• Group of mysteries, which includes Lady Cynthia Asquith's The Black Cap (1928), Edward Acheson's Murder to Hounds (1939), Carter Dickson [John Dickson Carr]'s Death in Five Boxes (1938), Ellery Queen's The Dragon's Teeth (1939), Eric Shepherd's Murder in a Nunnery (1940), and R. A. J. Walling's The Corpse with the Red-Headed Friend (1939) and Marooned with Murder (1937): $200
  

• Group of screenplays, which includes Robert Towne's Chinatown (1973): $450
  

The burial club: One organization that even Groucho would avoid.

In this interesting podcast from the National Archives-UK, Audrey Collins explores nineteenth-century burial clubs or "friendly societies"—sort of like a Christmas Club for poor people to pay for the funerals and burials of themselves and their nearest and dearest. Except these friendly societies were not so friendly; rather, they were hotbeds of fraud (e.g., people dying several times, people reported dead who were alive, imaginary people reported dead) and murder (family members disinclined to wait for the death benefit).

About the image: "Death found an author writing his life. Author protests the intrusion of Death before writing is complete." Edward Hull, Dec. 1827. National Library of Medicine, History of Medicine Division.

Captain Ahab's fine seafood?

Jessamyn West of librarian.net highlights (with photos) the clever advertising campaign (via trucks) by Kansas's Johnson County Library System.

Fond of Freddy and friends.

The Overlook Press blog notes that Nick Kristof, a New York Times Op-Ed columnist, has selected the Best Kids Books Ever, including Freddy the Detective (1932) by Walter R. Brooks, the Hardy Boys by the Stratemeyer Syndicate, and the Alex Rider series by Foyle's War creator Anthony Horowitz ("things keep exploding in a very satisfying way").

The way we live now—and then.

Mr. Wrenn was disturbed by the fact that the swindler heroes robbed quite all the others, but he was stirred by the brisk romance of money-making. The swindlers were supermen—blonde beasts with card indices and options instead of clubs. —Sinclair Lewis, Our Mr. Wrenn (1914)

The Likely Stories blog is delighted that Newsweek selected seemingly fusty Anthony Trollope's The Way We Live Now (1874) as its top "What to Read Now" pick.

Why? TWWLN features "a swindling financier" and is "scathing in its examination of greed."

Sound familiar, Bernard Madoff and Samuel Israel III?

The prescience and acuity of our predecessors can be quite striking. Look at Trollope's He Knew He Was Right (1868)—obsession, jealousy, and stalking (which Trollope based on Othello), not to mention an early appearance by a private detective. More obsession, jealousy, and stalking in Dickens's Our Mutual Friend (1864),as well as, in the words of Henry James, "a couple of elegant swindlers." Dickens's Little Dorrit (1855–57) also outlines a Ponzi scheme, long before the birth of Charles Ponzi.

For more on the subject, see Erin Wells's "Swindlers and Society in Dickens and Carlyle."

About the photo: Anthony Trollope. New York Public Library.

Flashman this week on BBC Radio 7.

Fans of the late George MacDonald Fraser, rejoice: This week BBC Radio 7 features the 19th-century adventurer Harry Flashman in Flashman at the Charge and Flash for Freedom. Go here for the schedule or to listen.

Product of the day.

At left, a magnet from The Onion's online store.

Vol 2 of Johnson's The Dark Page: Books That Inspired American Film Noir.

July's Fine Books and Collections looks at Kevin Johnson's The Dark Page: Books That Inspired American Film Noir, vol. 2 (covering the 1950s). Works mentioned in the piece include Fredric Brown's The Screaming Mimi (1949); Niven Busch's The Furies (1948); Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy (1925); Dorothy B. Hughes's In a Lonely Place (1947); Mickey Spillane's Kiss Me, Deadly (1952); and Nathanael West's Miss Lonelyhearts (1933).

About the image: Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift in A Place in the Sun, dir. George Stevens, 1951; adaptation of Dreiser's An American Tragedy.

Greene makes some green, and other book auction results.

At Bloomsbury's June 23rd auction of books and manuscripts, a signed first edition of Graham Greene's This Gun for Hire (1936; reissued as A Gun for Sale) sold for $1500; and a hodgepodge lot of first-edition mysteries went for $600. They included Nigel Morland's A Rope for the Hanging (1939), Joanna Cannan's No Walls of Jasper (1931), Manning Coles's A Toast to Tomorrow (1941), and Elisabeth Sanxay Holding's The Girl Who Had to Die (1940). One note on Cannan: She was the sister of World War I poet May Wedderburn Cannan; mother of children's authors Josephine, Diana, and Christine Pullein-Thompson; and a friend of Georgette Heyer.

Happy birthday, Winston Graham.

Winston Graham, perhaps best known for his historical novels featuring ex-Revolutionary War soldier Ross Poldark (adapted by the BBC and starring Robin Ellis) and suspense novel Marnie (1961; adapted by Hitchcock), was born today in Manchester in 1908. His many works include Night Journey: An Adventure (1941), Take My Life (1947), Fortune Is a Woman (1953), and After the Act (1965). He died in 2003.

About the image: Tippi Hedren and Sean Connery in Marnie (dir. Alfred Hitchcock, 1964)

Conan Doyle-as-writer exhibition, Westminster Libraries.

The Westminster Libraries in London offers the online exhibition "Arthur Conan Doyle: The Prolific Writer," which seeks to highlight Conan Doyle's work outside of the Sherlock Holmes canon, such as fiction works featuring Professor Challenger, nonfiction on spiritualism and the Boer War, and accounts of his investigations into real-life crimes.

About the photo: Arthur Conan Doyle, date unknown. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

More John Buchan this week on BBC Radio 7.

BBC Radio 7 follows up last week's broadcast of John Buchan's The Thirty-Nine Steps with another Richard Hannay adventure, The Three Hostages, as well as Sick Heart River, which was the farewell appearance of Buchan's other series character, lawyer Edward Leithen. Go here for the schedule or to listen.

Fangs for the memories.

Valancourt Books has just reissued Florence Marryat's Blood of the Vampire (1897, published the same year as Bram Stoker's Dracula). It features Harriet Brandt, "daughter of a mad scientist and a voodoo priestess," who seems to have a curiously lethal effect on those around her.

Actress, operatic singer, playwright, and spiritualist Marryat (1837–99) produced more than 50 books over the course of her lifetime.

Also new from Valancourt: Marie Corelli's Ziska (1897), "a supernatural tale of reincarnation, seduction, and revenge"; Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla (1871–72); and Richard Marsh's rare short story collection Both Sides of the Veil (1901). (BTW, Marsh' s grandson, the late horror writer Robert Aickman, celebrates a birthday tomorrow.)

About the image: A rendering of Florence Marryat from her acting days. New York Public Library.

Amelia Peabody's inspiration.

The Victorian Women Explorers exhibition at UK's National Portrait Gallery includes an image of novelist and Egypt Exploration Fund cofounder Amelia B. Edwards, who was one inspiration for Elizabeth Peters's Amelia Peabody Emerson. Edwards also wrote ghost stories; for some examples, go here.

Happy birthday, Ambrose Bierce.

Professional cynic, Civil War veteran, and prolific writer Ambrose Bierce—best known for the Devil's Dictionary with its unique definitions ("SENATE, n. A body of elderly gentlemen charged with high duties and misdemeanors") and the famous twist ending of "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" (1890)—was born today in Ohio in 1842. He disappeared under mysterious circumstances in 1913 while attempting to locate Mexican bandit Pancho Villa. Gregory Peck played Bierce in Old Gringo (1989).

About the photo: Ambrose Bierce, date unknown. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

Donna Leon on WABE's Between the Lines.

On the June 12th program of WABE's Between the Lines, Donna Leon talked about her new novel About Face with Commissario Guido Brunetti.

John Buchan, Walter Mosley this week on BBC Radio 7.

This week on BBC Radio 7, mining engineer Richard Hannay attempts to thwart enemy spies in John Buchan's classic The Thirty-Nine Steps; also featured is Buchan's Huntingtower and Walter Mosley's Devil in a Blue Dress. Go here for the schedule or to listen.

About the image: Kenneth More as Richard Hannay in The 39 Steps (dir. Ralph Thomas, 1959).

Judy Bolton returns.

Following up its reprints of the original Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys titles, Applewood Books has reissued several novels in the Judy Bolton series by Margaret Sutton (aka Rachel Irene Beebe, 1903–2001). These include The Vanishing Shadow (orig. publ. 1932), The Haunted Attic (orig. publ. 1932), The Invisible Chimes (orig. publ. 1932), Seven Strange Clues (orig. publ. 1932), The Ghost Parade (orig. publ. 1933), and Clue of the Stone Lantern (orig. publ. 1950).

A discussion of the work of Richard Peck.

On Radio New Zealand, Kate De Goldi discusses the novels of Edgar winner Richard Peck.

Parisian commemorations for Oscar Wilde.

The Bunburyist must note what D. C. Rose, president of the Societe Oscar Wilde en France, has advised: The Paris City Council will soon be naming a street or square after Wilde in response to a poll. Rose also notes that the society is organizing a ceremony on July 19 to mark the centenary of the transfer of Wilde's remains to Pere Lachaise Cemetery.

About the photo: Oscar Wilde, ca. 1882. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

CBC features Howard Engel's The Memory Book

CBC's Between the Covers features readings of Howard Engel's mystery The Memory Book with PI Benny Cooperman (based on Engel's real-life experience with stroke, when he found he could write but not read).

Tribute to Stanley Baker.

There was a fine tribute to the Welsh-born actor-producer Sir Stanley Baker (1928–76) on the BBC's Film Programme, including his roles in Zulu (1964), The Cruel Sea (1953), and The Guns of Navarone (1961), as well as in crime films such as The Criminal (1960), Robbery (dir. Peter Yates, 1967), and early police proceduralist Maurice Procter's Hell Is a City (book 1954; film 1960).

About the image: Stanley Baker as Inspector Martineau in Hell Is a City (dir. Val Guest, 1960)

Nicolas Freeling, Edgar Wallace this week on BBC Radio 7.

This week on BBC Radio 7, Nicolas Freeling's Inspector Van der Valk appears in Love in Amsterdam; also featured are short stories by thriller master Edgar Wallace, including "The Mind of Mr. J. G. Reeder." Go here for the schedule.

Red Harvest reaps at auction.

At the Bonhams June 10th auction of fine books and manuscripts, a 1929 first edition of Dashiell Hammett's Continental Op book Red Harvest—estimated at $5000—went for $27,450.

BTW, at this panel with Hammett biographer Richard Layman and others, you can learn why there is no film version of Red Harvest.

(Hat tip to PhiloBiblos)

Brian Garfield at Alaska Book Festival.

Brian Garfield, best known for novels such as Death Wish and Hopscotch, appears at this weekend's Alaska Book Festival in Fairbanks to discuss screenwriting (today) and The Thousand-Mile War, his book on the Aleutian campaign during World War II (tomorrow). Go here for the festival schedule.

I'm a big fan of the collection Garfield edited for MWA—I, Witness—which recounts personal encounters of MWA members with crime.

Happy birthday, Dorothy Bowers.

Detection Club member Dorothy Bowers was born today in Herefordshire in 1902. Her works—most featuring Scotland Yard Chief Inspector Dan Pardoe—include Postscript to Poison (1938), Shadows Before (1939), Deed without a Name (1940), Fear and Miss Betony (1941), and The Bells of Old Bailey (1947). She died of tuberculosis in 1948.

Quote for the day.

"I don't expect to come to New York to 'deal with the publisher.' The only way to deal with him would be to shoot him, and I don't want to spare the ammunition."

—E. B. White to Harriet Walden, 3 September 1971, Letters of E. B. White 574 (White was in the midst of revising Strunk and White's The Elements of Style).

Vintage newspaper search at LOC.

As the Library of Congress noted on its blog, it is working on a better online interface to search selected newspapers from 1880—1910. At left is one result: an August 26, 1906, ad from the New York Tribune for a serialization of Jacques Futrelle's The Thinking Machine (Futrelle died on the Titanic in 1912).

Ask Janet Evanovich.

Time magazine is asking readers to submit questions for Stephanie Plum creator Janet Evanovich for an interview slated for an upcoming issue.

Sister Carol Anne O'Marie, 1933–2009.

Janet Rudolph announced the sad news of the May 27th death of Sister Carol Anne O'Marie, creator of the Sister Mary Helen mysteries. I remember her once telling me she wrote her novels for relaxation—a diversion from the hard realities that she saw in her day-to-day work. Another of my cherished memories is attending a luncheon during one Bouchercon. I was sitting at a table with Sister Carol Anne and Gar Anthony Haywood, as Gar—who had served on a panel with Sister Carol Anne and is himself no mean man with a quip—told her, "Sister, you are a riot."

Donations in Sister's memory may be made to the homeless shelter she cofounded, A Friendly Place, 2298 San Pablo Ave., Oakland, CA 94612, or to her order, Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, 11999 Chalon Rd., Los Angeles, CA 90049.

19th-century infomercials via Dickens.

On the Fine Books blog, Stephen J. Gertz takes this amusing look at advertisements that appeared in Dickens's serialized works, such as one that appears to be for an early mimeograph: "Lookout, Xerox! Twenty pages a minute! Blazing speed!"

An online journey through the dark world of Burke and Hare.

Lisa Rosner, author of The Anatomy Murders (due out in October), has developed an online slideshow dealing with the nineteenth-century Edinburgh murderers William Burke and William Hare. Rosner discusses the Web site and her book here.

(Hat tip to the AHA blog).

About the image: Rendering of William Burke, ca. 1829. History of Medicine Division, NIH's National Library of Medicine

Emma Woodhouse, detective?

The recent Guardian podcast with P. D. James on her novel The Lighthouse contains the reminder that she, a huge Jane Austen fan, once wrote a discussion of Emma as detective story. See the appendix of James's autobiography Time to Be in Earnest. Alas, Emma Woodhouse is not a great detective—she fails to see the clues right in front of her regarding her closest relationships. James states during the podcast that Austen would have made a fine mystery writer.

About the image: Gwyneth Paltrow as Emma Woodhouse in Emma (1996, dir. Douglas McGrath)

US comics corrupt innocent British youth.

I was vastly entertained by this podcast from the National Archives UK, "Kapow! Fifties Britain versus the Comics Menace," which discusses the great fear that we degenerate Yanks were corrupting the innocent youth of Britain with our comic books in the 1940s and 1950s. In reality, as the presenter shows, there was a substantial comics tradition in the UK well before our materials reached its shores. Interesting as well was the statement that in Britain, there was a concerted effort to destroy any copies of Mickey Spillane's I, the Jury that cropped up.

Also fascinating: this National Archives UK podcast on the real story behind the film The Great Escape, which discusses the breakout at Stalag Luft III, the deliberately planned murders of 50 escaping POWs, and the war crimes trials that occurred afterward.

Also of interest: "The Secret Life of Superman" by Jonathan Ross (Times of London)

About the images: Shazam! Captain Marvel from February 1940; Richard Attenborough (left) and Steve McQueen in The Great Escape (1963, dir. John Sturges)