ABSTRACT
The narrative structure and iconography of the Anglo-American jury trial — with its competing theories, examination of the evidence, closing speeches, and climatic verdict — has, as Carol Clover argues, been ‘fantastically generative’ in popular culture.10 In addition, the Bywaters and Thompson trial has produced a rare thing: an intimate epistolary archive by a lower-middle-class woman, in a distinctive personal voice. This archive, together with the case as a whole, has provided the basis for numerous fictional retellings and stagings, both sympathetic and hostile to Thompson. Early novels include EM Delafield’sMessalina of the Suburbs (1923) and Dorothy Sayers The Documents in the Case (1935).11 Fryn Tennyson Jesse’s A Pin to See the Peepshow (1934) remains the classic novel of the case.12 More recently, Thompson’s letters have inspired Jill Dawson’s novel, Fred and Edie (2000), and PD James features the case in The Murder Room (2004).13
