Alice Loxton

1 month ago | spectator.com.au | Alice Loxton

My friend Ruby recently started a TikTok channel called ‘Too Long Didn’t Read’. With boundless enthusiasm and a colourful wardrobe, she prances around Hampstead Heath, summarising classic novels in 60 seconds. The channel ‘sums up anything ever written so you can talk about it to your mates’. Ruby is not alone in her approach of offering such educational digests.

1 month ago | spectator.co.uk | Alice Loxton

My friend Ruby recently started a TikTok channel called ‘Too Long Didn’t Read’. With boundless enthusiasm and a colourful wardrobe, she prances around Hampstead Heath, summarising classic novels in 60 seconds. The channel ‘sums up anything ever written so you can talk about it to your mates’. Ruby is not alone in her approach of offering such educational digests. Scan the tables at Hatchards in Piccadilly and you will find endless shortest histories, or – for brevity’s sake – ‘shistories’.

Feb 19, 2025 | spectator.com.au | Alice Loxton

Thou Savage Woman: Female Killers in Early Modern Britain William Collins, pp.304, 16.99 On 27 January 1688, Mary Hobry, a French midwife living in London, strangled a man to death. The corpse lay in her bed for several days before she carved it up. Then, in the dead of night, she used her petticoat to drag the dismembered body through the neighbourhood – Castle Street, Drury Lane, Parker’s Lane – to be disposed of.

Feb 18, 2025 | spectator.co.uk | Alice Loxton

On 27 January 1688, Mary Hobry, a French midwife living in London, strangled a man to death. The corpse lay in her bed for several days before she carved it up. Then, in the dead of night, she used her petticoat to drag the dismembered body through the neighbourhood – Castle Street, Drury Lane, Parker’s Lane – to be disposed of. The torso was dumped on a rubbish heap; the legs, arms and head were tossed in a cesspit. What did Mary think, I wonder, as she tiptoed home, finally rid of her husband?

Nov 8, 2024 | thetimes.com | Alice Loxton

On June 19, 1921, the people of England and Wales heard a knock at their door. The visitor was a government official, sent to collect a folded piece of paper. With this, he disappeared into the night. The contents of the document were to be kept secret for 100 years. The caller was the enumerator, tasked with collecting the census.One young couple to receive such a visit were Wilfred and Isabel Moore, from Keighley, Yorkshire.