I’ve just finished The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: or the Murder at Road Hill House,which my daughter gave me for Father’s Day. I didn’t know anything about it, so I approached it as a who dunnit – which is not what it is, so part of me is feeling a bit let down because I was waiting for the great revelation, which never came and was never intended to come.

It’s a wonderful, forensic study of a horrible Victorian crime. It shows us that the obsessions of the press, (and their readers) are the same now as they were then. I was surprised by the compassion shown to the guilty party. We have been brought up to believe Dickens was Victorian Britain – Jarndice versus Jardice – lock’em up and let’em rot – but it’s good to know that sympathy could also be added to the mix where justice was concerned.

Nothing much really changes. We think we are so clever and modern, so different from our ignorant predecessors. While we are still Human, we can always learn from the lessons of the past. there is nothing new under the sun.