Florence Chandler was in her early 20s when she married much older James Maybrick, a Liverpool cotton broker, in 1881. Eight years later, tensions seethed. James was addicted to arsenic. Both were unfaithful. When James died suddenly, Florence was arrested for his murder. Was Florence victim or aggressor? Was she tried for her morality? Relying primarily on records from The National Archives, Kate Colquhoun re-examines the case dubbed by many as the greatest miscarriage of English justice and she asks what light it sheds on late Victorian society.
Kate Colquhoun has written a biography of Joseph Paxton and a history of Britain through its food. She also wrote the non-fiction bestseller Mr Briggs’ Hat, about the first murder on a British train.