The Gaol the Story of Newgate London's Most Notorious Prison by Kelly Grovier

'Kelly Grovier's colourful history traces how this incubator of horror and cruelty became such an iconic presence within popular history, combining a wealth of gruesome detail with portraits of the many characters associated with it' * Metro * 'Kelly Grovier's brisk and well-organised book.gives a hauntingly clear picture of the place, its inmates, the staff and, of particular delight to the reviewer, the slang they used' * The Daily Telegraph: 'Pick of the Paperbacks', Toby Clements *

'Grovier's study is a sparkling tribute to a grim cultural phenomenon' * Daily Express * 'Grovier revels in gory tales and colourful characters linked to the place' * Sunday Telegraph * He is interested in Newgate's place in the collective psyche, 'a more intimate story' than historians have managed. In a clear readable style that takes the reader at a pleasantly trotting pace through the centuries of oppression and inhumanity' * Evening Standard * In many ways The Gaol is an upmarket extension of The Newgate Calender, the blood-and-guts, five-volume blockbuster full of all the gory details, that was on every 18th Century bookshelf' * Mail on Sunday * 'The author has a keen eye for the grisly detail. Newgate's role in the evolution of London, in the creation of crime in the public imagination, in the development of the concept of the prison, is unmatched, and Grovier relates it compellingly' * Daily Telegraph * Grovier's treatment of the material organisation of the place is excellent. Publisher: John Murray Press ISBN: 9780719561337 Number of pages: 352 Weight: 250 g Dimensions: 195 x 132 x 24 mm MEDIA REVIEWS From the Peasants Revolt to the Great Fire, it was at Newgate that England's greatest dramas unfolded.īy piecing together the lives of forgotten figures as well as re-examining the prison's links with more famous individuals, from Dick Whittington to Charles Dickens, this thrilling history goes in search of a ghostly place, erased by time, which has inspired more poems and plays, paintings and novels, than any other structure in British history. While London's theatres came and went, the gaol endured as Londons unofficial stage. This is where such legendary outlaws as Robin Hood and Captain Kidd met their fates, where the rapier-wielding playwrights Ben Jonson and Christopher Marlowe sharpened their quills, and where flamboyant highwaymen like Claude Duval and James Maclaine made legions of women swoon.

For over 800 years Newgate was the grimy axle around which British society slowly twisted.

The Gaol the Story of Newgate London's Most Notorious Prison by Kelly Grovier