Free illustrated talk by historian Alan Stewart with Sheffield Archives on Victorian crime in Sheffield, marking the 50th anniversary of Agatha Christie's death.
Victorian Crime in Sheffield: What? Where? Why? is on at Sheffield Central Library on Friday 23 October, an illustrated hour that works its way through the city's Victorian criminal history using archives, newspapers and new photographs. Historian Alan Stewart presents it together with Sheffield Archives, and it's framed around the 50th anniversary of Agatha Christie's death — Stewart bills it as the kind of crime puzzle Christie would have enjoyed.
Among the threads he follows: why certain Sheffield criminals became famous enough to appear in a Sherlock Holmes story or a children's comic strip; why a local female killer's trial drew 'tickets only' for the public gallery; and how two killers' victims were laid to rest in the same Sheffield graveyard, both defended by the same barrister. It's less a chronological list and more a set of connected cases, the kind of thing that works better as a talk than a book.
The session is part of the Local History collection presented by Libraries Sheffield, so it sits alongside other talks on the city's past. Under-18s are admitted with a parent or legal guardian.
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It runs from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm in the Carpenter Room at the library on Surrey Street, in the city centre (S1 1XZ), with doors open from 11 am. It's free to attend.
