London's Only Jack The Ripper Specialist Dealer

JUST IN - SIDNEY FOX'S CRIME The true story of Sidney Fox and the Margate hotel murder, by Glenn Chandler (creator of 'Taggart') Signed. Illus., Sources and Index. 264pp. p/back. Highly recommended. £15.00 + postage at the local rate.

BACK IN STOCK : THE WHITECHAPEL MURDERS OF 1888: ANOTHER DEAD END? by John Malcolm - Signed, Numbered Limited Edn. (to 100). A revised and updated edition of 'Confessions of a Ripperologist' first published in 2005. The book is also illustrated with modern full-colour photos of what remains of the murder sites, as well as several contemporary photos. It is very different from the 2005 version - it's still full colour throughout, and the production is far superior this time. Illus., Propaganda/Appendix or Unnecessary Addenda. 214pp. trade size softcover. SIGNED, NUMBERED (to 100) LIMITED EDITION. ​  Price : £25.00 + postage at the local rate.

THREE NEW TITLES FROM MANGO BOOKS - See details in 'Featured Books' below.

NEW IN FROM MANGO BOOKS :

TRIAL OF CHRISTIANA EDMUNDS Ed. by Kate Clarke Notable British Trials Series No. 92. SIGNED, NUMBERED LIMITED EDITION (to 25)With tipped-in bookplate Signed by Kate Clarke. Published by Mango Books.  8vo. Hardback in dw. Price : £25.00 + postage at the local rate.

NOW IN STOCK : Jack the Ripper The Scenes of Crime by Robert Clack. A journey through the streets of Jack the Ripper's London from the past to the present. Profusely illustrated in colour and black/white + Maps. 201pp. 4to hardback with pictorial glazed covers. Includes tipped-in label SIGNED BY ROB. Published by Wee Hoose Books. Price : £25.00 + postage at the local rate. 

As the result of recent acquisitions, it has been necessary for me to introduce a new catalogue entry : General Books (Not True Crime). The books I'm currently cataloguing fall into this category, as they are from the library of the legendary Scotland Yard detective, the late Leonard 'Nipper' Read, who very sadly died in April last year. His interests (apart from true crime titles already catalogued), included boxing (he was Chair then President of the British Boxing Board of Control), military and Scott's expedition to the Antarctic plus other miscellaneous titles, including detective fiction, particularly John Grisham.

JUST ARRIVED FROM THE HISTORY PRESS :

THE LONG SILENCE by Paul Stickler. 8vo. Hardback in dw. With tipped-in label SIGNED by Paul. The true story of James Hanratty and the A6 murder by Valerie Storie, the woman who lived to tell the tale.  Illus. + Bibliog., Notes and Index. 288pp. Published by The History Press. All details can be found under 'Featured Books' below. Price : £20.00 + postage at the local rate.

NEW IN FROM MANGO BOOKS :

BEHIND THE BLUE LAMP  by Alan Moss, David Swinden and Peter Kennison. A NUMBERED, LIMITED EDITION (to 100) SIGNED by all 3 authors. The book reveals the histories of more than 400 police stations operated by the Metropolitan Police over the course of its existence, from pre-Peel Parish watch houses to the New Scotland Yard headquarters on Victoria Embankment. The lives of the officers who served - and sometimes lived - in these police stations are related, charting a developing social history across the capital of almost two centuries. Profusely illustrated this is an amalgamation of an earlier trilogy of books - 'Behind the Blue Lamp: Policing North and East London' (2003), 'More Behind the Blue Lamp: Policing South and South-East London' (2011) and 'Discovering More Behind the Blue Lamp: Policing Central, North and South-West London' (2014), so that 190 years of policing history is now collated in one volume, updated, newly-edited and indexed. 507pp. 4to. Hardback published by Blue Lamp Books an imprint of Mango Books. All details can be found under 'Featured Books' below.  Price £30.00 + postage at the local rate. 

ROWAN AND MAYNE A Biography of the First London Police Commissioners by Tony Moore. 8vo. Hardback. SIGNED, NUMBERED, LIMITED EDITION (to 50). This book is the first full-length biography of both men. Illus. in colour and b/w, Appendix, Bibliog. and Index. 436pp. Hardback with pictorial glazed covers. published by Blue Lamp Books an imprint of Mango Books. All details can be found under 'Featured Books' below.  Price £25.00 + postage at the local rate.

POLICING FROM BOW STREET Principal Officers, Runners and The Patroles. - by Peter Kennison and Alan Cook.  Illus. in colour and b/w, Timeline, Abbreviations, Bibliog. and Index. 427pp. lge. 8vo. h/back. FLATSIGNED BY PETER KENNISON. All details can be found under 'Featured Books' below and in the online catalogue. Price £25.00 + postage at the local rate. A fairly heavy book which will require additional postage if shipped overseas. 

TRIAL OF FREDERICK BAKER. Ed. by David Green. Notable British Trials Series No. 91. 8vo. Hardback in dw. With tipped-in bookplate SIGNED by David Green. Limited, Numbered Edition (to 25). Published by Mango Books. Price £20.00 + postage at the local rate.

PICTURES OF THE ABYSS by Andrew Firth. 4to Hardback (dw. not required). SIGNED. Andrew has created a unique visual survey of what now remains of the old ‘Abyss’. The book contains over sixty photo-montages and over 150 colour and monochrome photographs of the scenes as they appear today. The book also features a 142 landscape pages in full colour throughout. Published by Mango Books. All details can be found under 'Featured Books' below. Price : £25.00 + postage at the local rate. A heavy book which may require additional postage if shipped overseas. 

CHECKMATE The Wallace Murder Mystery by Mark Russell Signed, Numbered Limited Edn. (to 50) Illus., Appendices, Bibliog. and Index. 332pp. 8vo. hardback. Published, to mark the 90th anniversary of the murder, dispelling several of the myths and inaccuracies that have surrounded the case for decades, by Mango Books. Price : £20.00 + postage at the local rate. 

TRIAL OF RONALD LIGHT The Green Bicycle Case.  Ed. by Sally Smith. Notable British Trials Series Number 87. 8vo. Hardback in dw. Published by Mango Books. Price : £20.00 + postage at the local rate. 

THE WHITECHAPEL ALBUM:
JACK THE RIPPER’S EAST END IN 1995
Compiled by Loretta Lay and Adam Wood


New Softcover.
Although the occasional photograph had been taken of locations associated with Jack the Ripper since 1888 by journalists, interested individuals and early authors, it was in the 1960s, with the advent of the more affordable camera, that budding young photographers with an interest in the Ripper case began visiting Whitechapel, Spitalfields and Aldgate, in the process creating a visual record of the area. The black-and-white images captured by the likes of John Gordon Whitby, Stewart Evans and Christian Wheeldon gave the now-familiar sites a uniquely haunting air.

Among these visitors during the Sixties was Ray Luff, a keen Ripperologist who went to the murder sites in 1965. As increasing numbers of visitors with cameras and video equipment visited Whitechapel throughout the 1970s and 80s so that the area became more frequently catalogued, Ray himself returned in the mid-1990s to comprehensively photograph the streets and sites he had captured thirty years previously.

His collection of more than 430 photographs taken in 1995 was acquired by true crime bookdealer Loretta Lay, and 87 of these have been carefully selected for this book by Adam Wood, author and editor of Ripperologist magazine, to represent the area as it was a quarter of a century ago, when many reading this will have first become familiar with the buildings and streets of Whitechapel.

THE WHITECHAPEL ALBUM contains images of buildings such as the dilapidated Board School on Durward Street and the long-neglected Soup Kitchen for Poor Jews on Brune Street, both since completely renovated into expensive City apartments, alongside images of the more recently demolished Mitre Square. How many visiting the area in the 1990s stopped for a sandwich at the little café at the top of Church Passage?

Other striking images include Wood’s Buildings, still accessible in 1995, and the Wash House on Old Castle Street, closed and redeveloped within three years of Ray Luff’s visit.

For some, the 87 photographs in this book will be the first time these places have been seen, while for many they will represent a nostalgic step back in time. Whereas today the area has seen change at an incredible rate, with more fully expected, the mid-1990s Whitechapel seems now, looking back, to have to been the cusp on which development began. Many of the Victorian buildings were certainly run down, abandoned and neglected, but they still stood - it was possible to get a glimpse of Jack the Ripper’s East End.

The photographs in this book are a vivid reminder of those times.

£15.00 (+p&p at the local rate). A4 softcover, colour throughout.

 

TRIAL OF HENRY HUNT AND OTHERS Ed. by Caitlin Kitchener. Notable British Trials Series Number 89. Signed, Numbered Limited Edn. (to 50) 8vo. Hardback in dw. Published by Mango Books. The Peterloo Massacre. Price : £20.00 + postage at the local rate. A fairly heavy book which may require additional postage, if shipped overseas.  

 'MAKE ME AN OFFER'. If I have a higher priced title on the website which, in the current climate, is a little out of reach financially for you, please feel free to make contact via the link and, literally, make me an offer. I will consider all/any offers made and get back to you with a yes or no, or possibly negotiate. I will be listing the titles that are available over the next week or so, and will include any 'newly added' titles which fall into this category as I catalogue them. This offer only applies to those books indicated, and are always £50.00 or more in value.

Welcome to Loretta Lay Books website, which you will see caters for those interested in not just antiquarian and out-of-print true crime books, but also some of those elusive Jack the Ripper titles.

Payments can be made via PayPal, as well as by cheque (as long as it is in sterling on a British bank), or directly into my bank account (details will be provided upon request). Unfortunately I will no longer be processing credit cards myself - so apologies to those customers this is likely to affect, but it is very simple to sign-up with PayPal. I would actually recommend that you open an account with Loretta Lay Books via the website, for ease of transaction. All information provided is secure, and doesn't involve any credit card information.

The messageboard is available for those of you who need help with research, or want to promote a true crime book you have written, or for general messages including opinions on any true crime or associated subjects. Reviews of titles you have bought (not just from my site) are most welcome. They don't have to be new books, but anything you consider to be required reading. Having said that, I do prefer positives rather than negatives!

The site can only work successfully with your input - put www.laybooks.com into your 'Favourites' and if you like it, recommend it to your friends.

I hope you find the book you are looking for, but if it's not there, contact me and I'll try to find it for you.

Your comments would be appreciated, so that I can assess what works, and perhaps what doesn't.

Thank you for visiting my website, come back again soon.

Loretta Lay

Featured Books

Author: Cory (Patricia)
Price: £200.00
Author: Lowndes (Mrs. Belloc)
Price: £350.00
Author: Jones (Christopher J.M.) & Dolgin (Dr Daniel L.)
Price: £30.00
Author: Lay (Loretta) & Wood (Adam)
Price: £15.00
Author: Whittington-Egan (Richard)
Price: £150.00
Author: Jinka (Katsuo) (pseud of Kanji Otsuka)
Price: £300.00
Author: Berry (James) & Ward (H. Snowden) Ed. by:
Price: £650.00

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