{"product_id":"court-number-one-9781473651616","title":"Court Number One","description":"\u003cp\u003eA TELEGRAPH BOOK OF THE YEARA TIMES BOOK OF THE YEARA WATERSTONES PAPERBACK OF THE YEARSuperbly told Simon Heffer  Daily TelegraphA hamper of treats Sunday TelegraphGrant employs scholarship and depth of evidence London Review of BooksThese tales of eleven trials are shocking  squalid  titillating and each of them says something fascinating about how our society once was The TimesDeceptively thrilling Sunday Times Excellent . . . Thomas Grant offers detailed accounts of eleven cases at the Old Baileys Court Number One  with protagonists ranging from the diabolical to the pathetic. There is humour . . . but this is ultimately an affecting study of how the law gets it right - and wrong GuardianCourt Number One of the Old Bailey is the most famous court room in the world  and the venue of some of the most sensational human dramas ever to be played out in a criminal trial.The principal criminal court of England  historically reserved for the more serious and high-profile trials  Court Number One opened its doors in 1907 after the building of the new Old Bailey. In the decades that followed it witnessed the trials of the most famous and infamous defendants of the twentieth century. It was here that the likes of Madame Fahmy  Lord Haw Haw  John Christie  Ruth Ellis  George Blake (and his unlikely jailbreakers  Michael Randle and Pat Pottle)  Jeremy Thorpe and Ian Huntley were defined in history  alongside a wide assortment of other traitors  lovers  politicians  psychopaths  spies  con men and - of course - the innocent.Not only notorious for its murder trials  Court Number One recorded the changing face of modern British society  bearing witness to alternate attitudes to homosexuality  the death penalty  freedom of expression  insanity and the psychology of violence. Telling the stories of twelve of the most scandalous and celebrated cases across a radically shifting century  this book traces the evolving attitudes of Britain  the decline of a society built on deference and discretion  the tensions brought by a more permissive society and the rise of trial by mass media.From the Sunday Times bestselling author of Jeremy Hutchinsons Case Histories   Court Number One is a mesmerising window onto the thrills  fears and foibles of the modern age.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45651758448693,"sku":"ByrdShop_1473651611","price":277.94,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9781473651616.jpg?v=1781839785","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/court-number-one-9781473651616","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}