Canals were the lifeblood of the Industrial Revolution, but prosperity had its price: crime. From the earliest days, canals had a shady reputation, and in Victorian Britain disturbing facts emerged to reveal the hidden side of the water, isolated places where sinister figures lurked in the shadows. When a brutal murder in 1839 created a national outcry, it seemed to confirm all the worst fears about boatmen, a tough breed of men surviving harsh conditions, who enforced their own kind of rough justice, and were swiftly branded as outlaws by the press. Drawing on a rich collection of original sources, this new study by historian Susan Law brings to life dramatic stories, gruesome, shocking and tragic. These evocative snapshots uncover the secret world of the waterways set apart on the edge of society, to reveal the real human cost of the Industrial Revolution.

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SUSAN C. LAW, a historian and career journalist with a focus on investigative and crime reporting, has worked as a volunteer for the Canal & River Trust since 2017. Her work has been published in a range of media, including BBC History Magazine, The Times Higher Education Supplement, Financial Times, and London Evening Standard. Dr Law completed her PhD in History at Warwick University, and has spent many years researching the 18th and 19th century aristocracy, servants, family life and country houses. She has previously written Through the Keyhole: Sex, Scandal and the Secret Life of the Country House.