A Very Satisfactory Manner

About this book

In 1885 a robbery took place in Cumberland at Netherby Hall near Longtown. There followed a trail of mayhem and murder that would be more fitting to the Wild West than to quiet rural Victorian England. This book is a fictionalised re-enactment of the events which took place after the theft of Lady Graham's jewellery from her bedroom. It examines how ordinary men were made into monsters by their circumstances, their social position, and by the very system set up to preserve the law. This remains one of the most notorious crimes ever committed in Cumberland and relies very heavily upon extant evidence. Thus, the tale it tells is plausible, and possible.