Sjömansbiblioteket

Glimpse what went on behind the walls of England's first Criminal Lunatic Asylum!

Mark Stevens reveals what life was like for the criminally insane over one hundred years ago. From fresh research into the Broadmoor archives, Mark has uncovered the lost lives of patients whose mental illnesses led them to become involved in crime.

Discover the five women who went on to become mothers in Broadmoor, giving birth to new life when three of them had previously taken it. Find out how several Victorian immigrants ended their hopeful journeys to England in madness and disaster. And follow the nail-biting numerous escapes, actual and attempted, as the first doctors tried to assert control over the residents.

As well as bringing the lives of forgotten inmates to light, this thrilling book reveals new perspectives on some of the hospital's most famous Victorian patients including:

Edward Oxford, the bar boy who shot at Queen Victoria; Richard Dadd, the brilliant artist and murderer of his own father; William Chester Minor, veteran of the American Civil War who went on to play a key part in the first Oxford English Dictionary; and Christiana Edmunds,”The Chocolate Cream Poisoner" and frustrated lover from Brighton.