The Birth of the British 'Bobby'

By: Don Hale

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

This is a book packed with fascinating facts about The Birth of the British 'Bobby' - Bow Street Runners, Scotland Yard & Victorian Crime, with a large and interesting section on Victorian Policing and associated stories. It includes graphic accounts of life, crime and poverty in Queen Victoria’s British cities with particular emphasis on Manchester and first hand reports from one of the great detectives of that era, Jerome Caminada. It also invites comparisons with Caminada’s stories and those of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his fictional detective character Sherlock Holmes. Mention is also made of the increasing threat of terrorism to national safety and the advances of modern technology and transportation to try to counter crime and disorder. The book however, begins at the birth of law and a primitive code of common law devised by the Anglo-Saxon ruler King Alfred the Great. It continues to illustrate the vital role that a number of important radical reformers have played over the centuries to help shape the British legal system including the Magna Carter, Justices of the Peace, Watchmen and Special Constables. This includes the introduction of Robin Redbreast’s, the Bow Street Runners, Robert Peel’s introduction of the controversial ‘Peelers’ and the threat from ‘Dynamiters’ and ‘Foreign Agitators’ to Scotland Yard and Sherlock Holmes etc.