~ Reader and Writer of Supernatural Tales
Elizabeth Eleanor Siddall (changed later to Siddal) was born in London in 1829, and, despite being a model and muse for the Pre-Raphaelite artists and gaining John Ruskin’s support for her own artistic endeavours, little is known of her life.
Interest in the Jack the Ripper murders never seems to fade, yet these terrible crimes took place over 135 years ago. In short, in the second half of 1888, five, possibly six, women were murdered by the man known to us as Jack the Ripper.
London’s population grew dramatically in the first part of the 19th century, but the land given over to bury the dead remained largely unchanged. This, coupled with the vast number of deaths at the time from diseases such as typhoid and cholera meant graveyards were overflowing.
In my short novel A Strange Death in Devell’s Wood, which is set in the Victorian era, my main character often takes laudanum. But what is laudanum and why was it so popular in the 1800s? Laudanum is an alcoholic tincture of powdered opium, a substance obtained from opium poppies….