As October arrives and the nights draw in, there’s nothing we Brits like better than turning to a bit of ‘cosy crime’.
Whether you are looking forward to Season in the 4 of Only Murders Building, avidly keeping abreast of Richard Osman’s filming updates for The Thursday Murder Club, or taking refuge in your Poirot box set, it seems we can’t get enough of murder mysteries.
George Orwell noted this (unhealthy?) fascination back in 1946 in his essay ‘Decline of the English Murder’ in which he identified all the elements which made a real-life crime appeal to the popular imagination. These were a domestic setting, an outwardly respectable perpetrator, an illicit passion and a clever method. He cites Dr Crippen or The Brides in the Bath as examples of this sort of murder.
When did you last get lost in a good book?
A YouGov poll in 2025 stated that 40% of UK adults have not read or listened to a single book …