Chronicles of Bow Street Police-Office

Percy Fitzgerald (1834-1925) was a prolific author, critic, painter and sculptor. He was born in Ireland and attended Stonyhurst College in Lancashire, and then Trinity College Dublin. When he moved to London, he became a contributor to Charles Dickens' periodical Household Words. This two-volume work, published in 1888, gives a stirring account of the work of London's eighteenth-century law enforcers, the Bow Street Runners. Drawing on records of criminal cases, it tells how magistrates Henry Fielding and his blind half-brother Sir John Fielding helped to set up the Runners. Their actions dramatically reduced violent crime in the city and paved the way for the modern police force. Volume 1 covers the formation of the Runners and introduces the key players in the successes that followed. It also describes a number of fascinating incidents that are variously tragic, amusing or shocking.