Phil Simpkin - Author

Good morning guys; It seems strange this morning, getting up and not having a project to post about. My A - Z of Victorian Crime and Culture was fun, but was over all too quickly. I am keen to keep up some momentum with engaging with those of you who have read / are reading my 'Borough Boys' series of novels. On that basis, this is a chance for each of you to tell me whether there is anything that you would like to know about me, my writing, my stories, my characters or Victorian Leicester. Please let me know if there is anything I can offer... Thanks Phil

Despite my best efforts, I cannot find anything that is relevant, or of such interest to readers of the Borough Boys series of novels, under the final three letters of our wonderful alphabet, to merit inclusion. I hope you have enjoyed the brief insight I have offered over the last three weeks, and I shall include much of the content in future glossaries in each new novel. Thank you all.

W is for - work capitol... Victorian slang for committing a crime carrying the death penalty, which at certain points in early Victorian times, wasn't difficult.  In the 17th century the number of offences carrying the death penalty numbered about 50, but this soared to to 160 by 1750 and to more than 200 (222, exactly) by 1815  -  giving rise to the name the Bloody Code. However, people began to complain at the triviality of many capital offences, and slowly the death penalty was considered for only the most serious crimes. W is for - Welsh... No, not the population of Wales, but to inform...thus a 'welsher' was an informant. It should actually have been written as 'welch' but illiteracy saw the derivation! W is for - Workhouse... the worst case scenario for many poor, where they would receive a roof over their heads, poor food, in return for hard labour. Many considered it a worse option than imprisonment, and chose crime and begging as a more tolera

V is for - Vagrancy Act... In 1824 The government of the UK passed this legislation to deal with the repercussions of the Napoleonic Wars, and the high numbers of wounded, traumatised or displaced ex-miltsry who took to sleeping rough, begging and committing a range of nuisance offences through to crimes against property and people. The act was still in force when I joined the police in 1976 and was used throughout my service. It contained the infamous or notorious 'Sus' powers so maligned in the seventies and beyond, but many offences remained as valid in my service as they had been intended in 1824. The act contained some wonderful wordings and offences... Every person committing any of the offences herein-before mentioned, after having been convicted as an idle and disorderly person; [ F2 every person pretending or professing to tell fortunes, or using any subtle craft, means, or device, by palmistry or otherwise, to deceive and impose on any of his Majesty’s subjec