Nationality of the author

[Steven Russell]

This poll follows on from discussions held on Defective Detective's thread 'Written in an imitative Irish/"foreign" patois?'

Looking forward to seeing the results,
Steve.

[Sally]

Hi Steve

I think the author may have been Irish, because perhaps a person might write as they spoke - seems quite logical. I think it's slight evidence though, and not at all conclusive.

Ginger Beer bottles not withstanding, I don't see how this would implicate, say, Barnett at all though, since having been born and bred in London I think there's a fairly good chance he would have sounded local.

Depends. Cultural identity's a tricky thing to quantify. The Lusk letter is disturbing. I personally feel it could have come from Jtr. It's possible.

Best regards

Sally.

[JTRSickert]

I, for one, think it may be the writing of an illiterate Cockney, or maybe the writing of an uneducated immigrant with little grasp of English, who is writing it the way he hears it.