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    A Different Class of Murder
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    A Different Class of Murder
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    A Different Class of Murder
    Ebook581 pages10 hours

    A Different Class of Murder

    By Laura Thompson

    3/5

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    About this ebook

    On 7 November 1974, a nanny named Sandra Rivett was bludgeoned to death in a Belgravia basement. A second woman, Veronica, Countess of Lucan, was also attacked. The man named in court as perpetrator of these crimes, Richard John Bingham, 7th Earl of Lucan, disappeared in the early hours of the following morning. The case, solved in the eyes of the law, has retained its fascination ever since.

    Laura Thompson, acclaimed biographer of Agatha Christie, narrates the story that led up to that cataclysmic event, and draws on her considerable forensic skills to re-examine the possible truths behind one of postwar Britain's most notorious murders. A DIFFERENT CLASS OF MURDER is a portrait of an era, of an extraordinary cast of characters, of a mystery, of a modern myth. Part social history, part detective story, it tells in masterly style one of the great tales of our collective living memory.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHead of Zeus
    Release dateNov 6, 2014
    ISBN9781781855355
    Author

    Laura Thompson

    A writer and freelance journalist, Laura Thompson won the Somerset Maugham award for her first book, The Dogs, and is also the author of the critically acclaimed biography of Nancy Mitford, Life in a Cold Climate. Her most recent book, The Six: The Lives of the Mitford Sisters, was a national bestseller.

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    Reviews for A Different Class of Murder

    3/5

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    • 4/5
      Not really about murder but very much about class and its decline in the UK. For anyone who grew up in the UK in the 70s and 80s the name Lord Lucan was synonymous with disolute aristocracy and unmerited privilege. An incompetent "professional" gambler, thus the nickname "Lucky", an irony he didn't seem to appreciate, he frittered away the family fortune at the chemin de fer tables, leaving his family at the gates of bancruptcy. One day in 1974, someone broke into the home of his estranged wife, battered the nanny to death with a blunt instrument and attempted to do the same to his wife. It has always been assumed that this was Lucan; indeed his wife said it was. Lucan himself disappeared that night never to be seen again. The next 10 years were filled with sightings of the fugitive Lord, everywhere from France to, most commonly, Botswana. Although declared dead by the courts in the 1990s, sightings continue to be occasionally reported. He'd be in his 80s nowBut as I say, this isn't really about that, although Thompson does have an interesting point of view on what happened that night. Its really about a particular moment in the decline of the British class system and the decline in the 1960s and 1970s of old money in favour of meritocracy (although of course in the UK, the toffs turned the tables back again in the 80s and 90s). Its about the press and the legal system and the much greater interest in what happened to Lady Lucan, who survived the attack, than common Sandra Rivett, who did not. Its about how a group of upper class neer do wells, may have and at the very least were popularly suspected of, clubbing together to protect "one of their own"Its well done. Probably you have to remember something of the Lucan case to properly appreciate it, but if you do, its very well worth reading
    • 2/5
      Got this in a Kindle special deal and it wasn't worth more than 99p. I enjoyed Laura Thompson's work on Agatha Christie very much, and my negative review here isn't a reflection on the way she pulls together all the tangled accounts and theories of this murder. it is more that these people, their shallow world, and their general unpleasantness across the board make it a read that leaves the reader sullied and longing to wash their hands. Who killed the nanny? I felt sorry for the nanny but in the end, it wasn't worth ploughing on unless you crave exploring a fading world of class prejudice and callousness fifty years gone.
    • 1/5
      I read approximately 1/3 of the book and the gave up. I rarely, rarely do that - give up. I found this to be boring as a read. These comments may be unfair - but I felt a duty to post this.