Vote the Diary

[Spider]

They All Love Jack
by Bruce Robinson
0.0 of 5 stars 0.00 · rating details · 0 ratings · 1 review
The iconoclastic writer and director of the revered classic Withnail & I—“The funniest British film of all time” (Esquire)—returns to London in a decade-long examination of the most provocative murder investigation in British history, and finally solves the identity of the killer known as “Jack the Ripper”

It was a £10 bet that led Bruce Robinson to ten years of research. Robinson, the cult writer and filmmaker who last directed Johnny Depp in The Rum Diary, was researching an unsolved Victorian murder for a film project when he met an old friend who had become a Ripperologist. “Y’know,” the guy said, “There’s one case that will never, ever be solved.” And that’s all the motivation Robinson needed.

11 years later, a barn on Robinson’s property is filled to bursting with the artifacts of his research, and the makings of an epic work of nonfiction that identifies the most notorious criminal of the Victorian age. In a literary high-wire act reminiscent of both Hunter S. Thompson and Errol Morris, Bruce Robinson offers a radical reinterpretation of Jack the Ripper, contending that he was not the madman of common legend, but the vile manifestation of the Victorian Age’s moral bankruptcy.

Supported by primary sources and illustrated with 75 to 100 black and white photographs, this breathtaking work of cultural history dismisses the theories of previous “Ripperologists.” As Robinson persuasively makes clear with his unique brilliance, The Ripper was far from a poor resident of Whitechapel . . . his way was the way of life.

Jan 2015 - title changed from 'The Name of the Ripper' to 'They All Love Jack'. (less)

Hardcover, 464 pages

Expected publication: September 8th 2015 by Harper (first published May 21st 2015)

ISBN
006229637X (ISBN13: 9780062296375)

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22693213-they-all-love-jack

It's up on Amazon too, but can't be purchased until the release date:

http://www.amazon.com/They-All-Love-Jack-Busting-ebook/dp/B00LSRQZO4/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=&qid=

They All Love Jack: Busting the Ripper [Kindle Edition]
Bruce Robinson (Author)
Print List Price: $29.99
Kindle Price: $16.99
You Save: $13.00 (43%)
Sold by: HarperCollins Publishers

Does this imply from the title, that Mr Robinson is putting Michael Maybrick in Jack the Ripper's shoes? ;-)

[MayBea]

I guess Paul meant a Diary written over decades.

Except for a couple of entries in blue, I basically used the same black pen for almost a year in my diary.

Nibs obviously have an unlimited supply of ink from wells so aren't like today's disposable pens.

[GUT]

I must confess i have not viewed the diary.
However i wonder if the diary is written over a long period of time i would be very suspicious if the same writing implement was used in every entry.

Why?

People didn't exactly have a lot of pens, even today I know people who use the same pen all the time.

[MayBea]

The Diary is supposed to have been written over a period of about a year.

The writing is consistent with someone writing with a ink well and a nib. That would indicate consistent use of the same or similar writing implement.

http://www.casebook.org/dissertation...l?printer=true

[paul g]

I must confess i have not viewed the diary.
However i wonder if the diary is written over a long period of time i would be very suspicious if the same writing implement was used in every entry.

[Livia]

There's hope for us yet, Caz

They All Love Jack
by Bruce Robinson
0.0 of 5 stars 0.00 · rating details · 0 ratings · 1 review
The iconoclastic writer and director of the revered classic Withnail & I—“The funniest British film of all time” (Esquire)—returns to London in a decade-long examination of the most provocative murder investigation in British history, and finally solves the identity of the killer known as “Jack the Ripper”

It was a £10 bet that led Bruce Robinson to ten years of research. Robinson, the cult writer and filmmaker who last directed Johnny Depp in The Rum Diary, was researching an unsolved Victorian murder for a film project when he met an old friend who had become a Ripperologist. “Y’know,” the guy said, “There’s one case that will never, ever be solved.” And that’s all the motivation Robinson needed.

11 years later, a barn on Robinson’s property is filled to bursting with the artifacts of his research, and the makings of an epic work of nonfiction that identifies the most notorious criminal of the Victorian age. In a literary high-wire act reminiscent of both Hunter S. Thompson and Errol Morris, Bruce Robinson offers a radical reinterpretation of Jack the Ripper, contending that he was not the madman of common legend, but the vile manifestation of the Victorian Age’s moral bankruptcy.

Supported by primary sources and illustrated with 75 to 100 black and white photographs, this breathtaking work of cultural history dismisses the theories of previous “Ripperologists.” As Robinson persuasively makes clear with his unique brilliance, The Ripper was far from a poor resident of Whitechapel . . . his way was the way of life.

Jan 2015 - title changed from 'The Name of the Ripper' to 'They All Love Jack'. (less)

Hardcover, 464 pages

Expected publication: September 8th 2015 by Harper (first published May 21st 2015)

ISBN
006229637X (ISBN13: 9780062296375)

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22693213-they-all-love-jack

It's up on Amazon too, but can't be purchased until the release date:

http://www.amazon.com/They-All-Love-Jack-Busting-ebook/dp/B00LSRQZO4/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=&qid=

They All Love Jack: Busting the Ripper [Kindle Edition]
Bruce Robinson (Author)
Print List Price: $29.99
Kindle Price: $16.99
You Save: $13.00 (43%)
Sold by: HarperCollins Publishers

[caz]

We'll get there eventually Graham, I just hope I live long enough to see all the outraged reactions to the Battlecrease evidence.

It seems you were posting your reply to me as I was editing my post and adding to it.

Love,

Caz
X

[Graham]

Hi Caz!

Yes, Diary World! Nothing's really changed.....but thanks for the welcome back.

My wife can't keep herself out of junk-shops, and if she sees an old unused or partly-used diary, notebook, exercise-book, whatever, she'll buy it for 'jotting'. I'm sure the careful, penny-pinching Victorians did much the same, no matter how loaded they might have been.

Any word from Keith Skinner re: Battlecrease, yet? I've sometimes wondered if the 'diary' book was pinched from Battlecrease, written in, then returned with some pages missing but with a whole s**t-load of stuff for the titillation of future readers.

Cheers,

Graham

[caz]

I have never really understood why the excised pages from the 'diary' should render it impossible to date from the Victorian period. If someone wished to keep a record, fictional or otherwise, of his or her doings, real or imagined, then why shouldn't he or her re-cycle a good-quality manuscript book? Just slice out a few already-used pages and get on with it. In fact, I believe a (fictional) character in one of M R James' ghost-stories says that he often bought part-used manuscript books in which to jot down his own bits and pieces.

No way was this a 'diary' in the strict sense of the term. There is no day-to-day discipline for a start. It doesn't strike me as having been written on a day-to-day basis at all. Whoever did write it, I think wrote large chunks of it at one go. And very likely as some kind of joke, the punch-line of which has long been forgotten........

Graham

Hi Graham,

Good to see you back here in Diary World.

My late father used to keep every bit of old scrap paper he could lay his hands on for all his writing purposes, despite being able to afford a new pad or book for every occasion. As we got older we would make fun of his penny-pinching, but it was probably why he could have afforded better.

Talking of the mystery of those excised diary pages, I am reminded of the entry for October 30, 1888, in The Diary of a Nobody, which begins:

I should very much like to know who has wilfully torn the last five or six weeks out of my diary. It is perfectly monstrous! Mine is a large scribbling diary, with plenty of space for the record of my everyday events, and in keeping up that record I take (with much pride) a great deal of pains.
I asked Carrie if she knew anything about it. She replied it was my own fault for leaving the diary about with a charwoman cleaning and the sweeps in the house.

There is also a mention of a double event, in the entry for January 5th, 1889.

Love,

Caz
X

[Pcdunn]

I guess my point was, why remove them if it was genuine.

I don't think it is genuine, so we needn't worry about that.

[GUT]

Modern hoax or forgery: he or they know from the failed "Hitler Diary" hoax the need is to use period materials to write it in, so he/they search for a LVP blank diary, but only manage to find a photo album or scrapbook, which is mostly blank but not completely... So the first few pages are removed, to make the item completely blank, as well as to remove conflicting clues, such as the name of the old book's first owner, etc. It's hard not to come to this conclusion.

Old hoax or forgery: Victorian authors loved pranks, especially written ones. Ever hear of the "Moon Men" newspaper hoax? A series of articles claiming scientists had used a powerful telescope to determine there was humanoid life on the moon-- very popular, but eventually admitted to be a hoax. Now imagine how the Jack the Ripper case had received global attention. All the papers competed to produce new details. Could the MayBrick "diary" have been drafted by a newspaperman, hoping to create a sensational "scoop" by tying together two of London's biggest news personages? Or perhaps it was intended as a private prank, to be shared among a small circle of friends. If the latter, any old used book or photo album would do.

I guess my point was, why remove them if it was genuine.

[Pcdunn]

Must have blank pages...

That's about removing mistakes in effect, but why remove these pages? Or had he done a draft of the "diary" that he didn't like?

Modern hoax or forgery: he or they know from the failed "Hitler Diary" hoax the need is to use period materials to write it in, so he/they search for a LVP blank diary, but only manage to find a photo album or scrapbook, which is mostly blank but not completely... So the first few pages are removed, to make the item completely blank, as well as to remove conflicting clues, such as the name of the old book's first owner, etc. It's hard not to come to this conclusion.

Old hoax or forgery: Victorian authors loved pranks, especially written ones. Ever hear of the "Moon Men" newspaper hoax? A series of articles claiming scientists had used a powerful telescope to determine there was humanoid life on the moon-- very popular, but eventually admitted to be a hoax. Now imagine how the Jack the Ripper case had received global attention. All the papers competed to produce new details. Could the MayBrick "diary" have been drafted by a newspaperman, hoping to create a sensational "scoop" by tying together two of London's biggest news personages? Or perhaps it was intended as a private prank, to be shared among a small circle of friends. If the latter, any old used book or photo album would do.

[GUT]

I have often torn out a draft of my fiction from a notebook, either because it has been finished (or I'm mad at my efforts and starting over!), so that isn't so odd to me. At the same time, the speculation that the "diary" contained unrelated material, such as photos, can't be overlooked in the modern hoax solution. It just makes too much sense.

That's about removing mistakes in effect, but why remove these pages? Or had he done a draft of the "diary" that he didn't like?

[GUT]

I have never really understood why the excised pages from the 'diary' should render it impossible to date from the Victorian period. If someone wished to keep a record, fictional or otherwise, of his or her doings, real or imagined, then why shouldn't he or her re-cycle a good-quality manuscript book? Just slice out a few already-used pages and get on with it. In fact, I believe a (fictional) character in one of M R James' ghost-stories says that he often bought part-used manuscript books in which to jot down his own bits and pieces.

No way was this a 'diary' in the strict sense of the term. There is no day-to-day discipline for a start. It doesn't strike me as having been written on a day-to-day basis at all. Whoever did write it, I think wrote large chunks of it at one go. And very likely as some kind of joke, the punch-line of which has long been forgotten........

Graham

Using an old book is one thing, but why remove the old pages?

[Graham]

I have never really understood why the excised pages from the 'diary' should render it impossible to date from the Victorian period. If someone wished to keep a record, fictional or otherwise, of his or her doings, real or imagined, then why shouldn't he or her re-cycle a good-quality manuscript book? Just slice out a few already-used pages and get on with it. In fact, I believe a (fictional) character in one of M R James' ghost-stories says that he often bought part-used manuscript books in which to jot down his own bits and pieces.

No way was this a 'diary' in the strict sense of the term. There is no day-to-day discipline for a start. It doesn't strike me as having been written on a day-to-day basis at all. Whoever did write it, I think wrote large chunks of it at one go. And very likely as some kind of joke, the punch-line of which has long been forgotten........

Graham