Publishing history is full of strange tales, and that recounted by Lucy Sussex in "Blockbuster! Fergus Hume & the Mystery of a Hansom Cab" is certainly among the strangest and most poignant. In late ...

“Fergus whom?” one might well ask before meeting this prolific author in Sussex’s capacious account, set at the birth of a genre that still entertains and engages readers today: the crime novel. Hume ...

In true Victorian style, you need only a few tantalizing details about Fergus Hume's The Mystery of a Hansom Cab to intrigue you. The 1886 murder mystery, part of an emerging genre of "shilling ...

Sadly, Hume sold the copyright for £50 and died in England at 73 on the edge of genteel poverty. This was despite having written scores of “shilling shockers”, albeit none so successful as his first.

The face in the portrait is arresting. The woman’s countenance is stern, her gaze direct and uncompromising. She doesn’t scowl or smile. Neither demure nor flamboyant, she makes no easy concession to ...

TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. About the Archive This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online ...