Murder on my Mind

and a few recommendation of things to read, watch or listen to

In a week where the news feels like a punch to the head, my own head is all over the place. A complete muddle! But I’m not here to write about politics or the dire state of the world as there is enough commentary and plenty of hot air being spouted about that already.  I’m trying to focus my energy into the things that I can control and at the beginning of the week I thought I knew exactly what I would be writing about. Then 500 words into my draft post I realised I was venturing into a topic I had already written about this time last year. Agreed it was a slightly different take on the subject, and the chances are no-one would remember anyway (apologies to those of you with excellent recall, that is a judgement based on my own poor memory and the ability to read things again as if it was the first time) but I wasn’t sure I could pull it off. Too many other things tugging at my attention, and it was only when I stopped to really think about it that I realised there was a common thread to my many distractions… murder!

So, to coin a common phrase, instead of the scheduled programme this week something a little bit different and I’ll share some of what has been filling my head.

Part of the problem has been Substack. In the eighteen months since I first joined the platform I have found that I am moving away from what first interested me. In the beginning it was all art and fellow artists, but I am no longer interested in all the whys and wherefores of why we make art, the ebbs and flows, and the ultimate angst of wondering why creativity has done a runner, not to mention the sales pitches for courses that will solve all my creative problems. I find I am more and more interested in storytelling, albeit sometimes the excellent stories behind art and its creation, and some of my favourite writers here are still artists, but storytelling nevertheless. I’m following more and more writers, authors and spinners of tales, I have become fascinated by words and of course the more I read, the more I discover and the more I discover the more I want to read and learn. It’s a vicious circle and I blame Substack because there is so much good writing on here. It strikes me though, that to write well, reading is what we have to do.

One of my new Substack discoveries is

laura thompson

, but let’s backtrack a little. This week was the fiftieth anniversary of the Lord Lucan case, the story of a murder and a disappearance. I feel I am a little late to this party but when the case broke in November 1974 I was seventeen and recovering from a particularly bad case of glandular fever. My temperature was through the roof, I had tonsils the size of golf balls due to a secondary infection and half my hair fell out. I was in no fit state to be paying attention to even the most headline grabbing story. However, fifty years on I have been intrigued.

John Bingham was the 7^th Earl of Lucan, a member of London’s Clermont Club, a notorious gambler who enjoyed the finer more expensive things in life such as racing power boats and driving fast cars. In 1963 he married Veronica, and they had three children. Early in their marriage they moved to a home Lower Belgrave Street but by 1972 their marriage had collapsed, and Lord Lucan moved out to a nearby rented property. A bitter custody battle followed where Lucan claimed his wife was unfit to look after the children, being mentally unstable. However a judge ruled this not to be the case and Veronica was granted custody.

On the night of November 7^th, 1974, just before 9 pm Sandra Rivett the children’s nanny was murdered in the family home. She had apparently gone down into the basement of the house to make a cup of tea for Veronica, who was upstairs watching TV with the eldest daughter Frances. The two younger children were in bed. The lightbulb had been removed from the basement staircase and as Sandra descended into the darkness she was bludgeoned to death with a lead pipe before having her body stuffed into a large US mailsack… how very Cluedo! The perpetrator then went upstairs and discovered Veronica who was apparently on her way down to see why the nanny was taking so long. Veronica was also attacked and in the process realised it was her estranged husband who was her attacker. According to her later testimony she grabbed his testicles which made him stop and then managed to convince him that she could help him. They went up to the bedroom and while Lucan was in the bathroom, Veronica escaped to a nearby pub where she raised the alarm. Lucan made a phone call to his mother asking if she could look after the children before heading to a friend’s house in Uckfield in a borrowed Ford Corsair. He also wrote a couple of letters to friends, one of which sounds suspiciously like a suicide note. The car was later found abandoned at Newhaven on 10^th November, with a piece of lead piping in the boot… not the actual murder weapon but something similar. Lord Lucan was never seen again, and he was declared to be the murderer following the inquest on Sandra Rivett’s death in 1975.

But was it really the Earl, in the basement, with the lead pipe? There have been numerous supposed sightings of Lucan over the years, all over the world. And when you start to look at the case there are as many questions as answers. Veronica’s testimony was not always consistent and differed in timings from that of her 10 year old daughter. Also if Lucan intended all along to kill his wife (it was supposed to be the nanny’s night off) how on earth did he kill the nanny by mistake. Surely he would have known his wife of many years, even in the dark. This week as I walked the dog I have binge listened to the Radio podcast ‘The Lucan Obsession’ which has been fascinating, putting forward alternative theories as to what might have happened. It left me wanting to know more and then very conveniently I discovered

laura thompson

Laura has written a book called ‘A Different Class of Murder’, which I haven’t read yet but it will be added to my ‘to read’ pile because on her Substack this week Laura has given us daily posts about the story of Lord Lucan with extracts from the book giving different possible solutions to the case and I have been engrossed. I’m convinced her last solution is what actually happened but you will have to read to find out.

Something else Laura writes about in which I know I am going to find intriguing as I delve further, is the life and work of Agatha Christie. I don’t think I have read a Christie book in almost fifty five years but hers were the very first ‘adult’ books I ever read. Our little village library had a whole collection of her work in the large print section. Every week, aged about twelve, I would bravely bypass the children’s library and take out couple of the oversized books until I had read every single one they had. I seamlessly transitioned from the mysteries of Enid Blyton to those of Agatha Christie and I couldn’t get enough of the world of Poirot, Marple and the murders at the heart of every story. It has made me yearn to read them all over again. That unread pile beside my bed grows at an alarming rate!

A book I have recently finished however is ‘The Song of Achilles’ by Madeline Miller, which is packed full of the most grisly murder and violence in a wonderful retelling of The Trojan War. It’s not all bloodshed and horror though and at its heart is a beautiful love story. I found it absolutely gripping and realised that the Greek myths are obviously going through a bit of a resurrection. There are numerous retellings on the shelves of every bookshop at the moment, a couple of plays/musicals are playing in London’s West End and if you haven’t seen it yet I can recommend the Netflix series Kaos, featuring Jeff Goldblum as Zeus.

It’s graphic, gory and packed full of the most awful murder but it’s also very funny. I’m quite sure I will return to the subject of Greek myths in future posts but meanwhile I’m feeding my obsession by listening to Natalie Haynes and her fabulous podcast ‘Natalie Haynes stands up for the classics’.

A classical scholar and former stand-up comedian, Natalie explores key stories and characters from ancient Greece and Rome. The stories are like modern day soap operas set in classical times, packed full of monsters, mystery, family quarrels, adultery and of course murder which Natalie retells with great humour. I’ve also been dipping in and out of her book ‘Divine Might’ about Goddesses in Greek Myth.

Does this woman look suspicious to you?

Finally, the biggest reason for my head being in a muddle this week is that I have been involved in my own murder case. Some readers will be aware of my long time involvement with amateur dramatics and for the past couple of months we have been rehearsing for a murder mystery which played to sell out audiences on Friday and Saturday evening. ‘Murder in the Choir’ was performed in a local church and in a classical Agatha Christie styled plot (although not so cleverly written I fear), all the characters were potential murderers with their own motive, means and opportunity. My character was an assistant librarian Miss Prodnose, a somewhat curious, naïve spinster and member of the choir. The audience were invited to guess the identity of the murderer in classic whodunnit fashion. I don’t think I’m giving anything away at this stage to say it wasn’t me, honest guv, I never went near the woman!

Whodunnit? Miss Prodnose, Mr Profundo or Mrs Sopworthy?

It has all been a lot of fun but I’m looking forward to a quieter week where my head isn’t spinning with murder and intrigue. Remember to click that heart if you enjoyed reading and see you next Sunday!