Jack the Ripper: CSI Whitechapel

[Simon Wood]

Hi Paul,

Cliches are difficult to avoid with JtR.

Suggestion of fog/mist, plus spectral figure in top hat, gaslight, narrow cobbled street, glowering sky.

Your book will sell by the shed-load. I've put a copy on my Christmas list.

As I said earlier, I wish you and John every success.

Regards,

Simon

[Henry Flower]

The book sounds fantastic - I've longed for something like this for a decade now. One of my favourite books is Gunn and Hart's superb James Joyce's Dublin, in which every section of Ulysses is mapped and explored with topographical and chronological exactitude, recreating the streets of Dublin as they were on June 16th 1904, when Leopold Bloom a.k.a 'Henry Flower' did everything he could to avoid going home to his adulterous wife.

Many's the time I've pored over the maps and timelines and wished that Ripperology had an equivalent resource; and it sounds as though now perhaps it does - for which, many thanks indeed. I'll steal a copy as soon as it hits the shops

[Stephen Thomas]

Apart from the top-hatted figure, what other things on the jacket constitute this 'anthology', or otherwise collection, of Ripper cliches?

Apart from the murder, Mrs Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?

[Monty]

Me too Henry,

Which is why I wrote a Timeline article on Eddowes with Jake and Coles with John Simons.

Its great to see such a thing in one bookm

Monty

[Cogidubnus]

Its great to see such a thing in one bookm

Bookm Danno, this is Whitechapel 5-O...

Dave

[Monty]

Typo Dave,

I post off my phone where to get a full stop I have to hit alt then m.

I missed the alt.

.Onty

[mariab]

To Henry Flower:
Try also London's JTR then and now by Rob Clack and Philip Hutchinson.

[PaulB]

Hi Paul,

Cliches are difficult to avoid with JtR.

Suggestion of fog/mist, plus spectral figure in top hat, gaslight, narrow cobbled street, glowering sky.

Your book will sell by the shed-load. I've put a copy on my Christmas list.

As I said earlier, I wish you and John every success.

Regards,

Simon

Hi Simon,
As you say, it's impossible to avoid cliches as far as the Ripper is concerned, but I could have mentioned serious cliches to the publisher, as John has already mentioned the top-hatted Ripper, hence my asking. There is nothing I can do about narrow, cobbled, gas-lit streets because that's how the streets were. A cliche, perhaps, but the reality; a bit like putting the picture of a ship on the cover of a book about the Titanic. The narrow, cobbled, gas-lit,street in question is one of Jake's images of Bucks Row and I am given to understand is as accurate as he could get. The hint of fog, which I don't honestly see, is, if anything, the haze created by the gas-lighting. Jake, whose depth of detail involves brick textures, knows way too much about this subject to put in fog.
Paul

[Stephen Thomas]

it's impossible to avoid cliches as far as the Ripper is concerned

No it isn't, Paul.

You and John, as experts, know perfectly well that JTR didn't wear a top hat.

So why put out a book with a top-hatted JTR on the cover?

[John Bennett]

No it isn't, Paul.

You and John, as experts, know perfectly well that JTR didn't wear a top hat.

So why put out a book with a top-hatted JTR on the cover?

We didn't put the top hat on the cover, whoever designed the cover did. We had no input into that design whatsoever. I've already said that I wasn't keen on the top hat and have suggested a change, so a change may well come.

In the meantime, despite my reservations, I would still be content if the book went out like that. It's a striking (and rather modern ) design.

Besides, as Monty said, it's what's inside that's important, surely?

JB

[DGB]

I would imagine the publishers have a great deal of influence over these things. The title and the top hat probably sell to a wider market.

The Bucks Row picture is awesome.

[PaulB]

No it isn't, Paul.

You and John, as experts, know perfectly well that JTR didn't wear a top hat.

So why put out a book with a top-hatted JTR on the cover?

Stephen,
Try reading. We had already objected to the top-hatted man with the publisher before posting the cover. Frankly, I liked the old one which gave the impression the book was about Jerusalem and featured absolutely none of the Ripper cliches. Not a one. However, if you want a straightforward answer to your question: publishing is a commercial venture, books are product, and the aim of the publisher is to sell as many units as it can. The purpose of the jacket and increasingly the title of a book is the same as any packaging, namely to create an appealing impression and catch the eye and attention of a prospective purchaser. The vast majority of the book-buying public instantly recognise images such as the caped and top-hatted figure with a black bag - and image as iconic as Sherlock Holmes and his deerstalker and Meerschaum pipe - and such images are iconic because the eye and brain instantly recognise them. They are therefore selling tools, and those who know about such things will take a lot of persuading not to use them, even though a factually accurate image might be more pleasing to the expert eye. Since the publisher has the final say so in such things as marketing, the author can do no more than offer a recommendation. We have done that. But the bottom line is that I, like you, have to put food on the table and if a top-hatted man on the front of the book helps me to do that, the top-hatted man can stay there and be illuminated by neon lights as far as I am concerned. It's the real world.

And sorry, on re-reading that I realise that 'try reading' sounds rather rude, which was unintentional. I merely meant that we had stated our own objection to the image earlier on the thread.

[PaulB]

I would imagine the publishers have a great deal of influence over these things. The title and the top hat probably sell to a wider market.

The Bucks Row picture is awesome.

I wish I had expressed myself that succinctly!

And I think Jake's artwork really is awesome. In fact, the artwork and some of the modern photography is by some exceptionally talented people. There are some truly brilliant people involved in Ripperology.

[Stephen Thomas]

Stephen,
Try reading. We had already objected to the top-hatted man with the publisher before posting the cover. Frankly, I liked the old one which gave the impression the book was about Jerusalem and featured absolutely none of the Ripper cliches. Not a one. However, if you want a straightforward answer to your question: publishing is a commercial venture, books are product, and the aim of the publisher is to sell as many units as it can. The purpose of the jacket and increasingly the title of a book is the same as any packaging, namely to create an appealing impression and catch the eye and attention of a prospective purchaser. The vast majority of the book-buying public instantly recognise images such as the caped and top-hatted figure with a black bag - and image as iconic as Sherlock Holmes and his deerstalker and Meerschaum pipe - and such images are iconic because the eye and brain instantly recognise them. They are therefore selling tools, and those who know about such things will take a lot of persuading not to use them, even though a factually accurate image might be more pleasing to the expert eye. Since the publisher has the final say so in such things as marketing, the author can do no more than offer a recommendation. We have done that. But the bottom line is that I, like you, have to put food on the table and if a top-hatted man on the front of the book helps me to do that, the top-hatted man can stay there and be illuminated by neon lights as far as I am concerned. It's the real world.

And sorry, on re-reading that I realise that 'try reading' sounds rather rude, which was unintentional. I merely meant that we had stated our own objection to the image earlier on the thread.

Oh OK. The top hat it is then.

And yes, the 'try reading' comment was indeed rude so thanks for the apology.

[Hunter]

Well I think the title should be changed altogether, since we know there was no Jack the Ripper and many of the murders occurred in parishes other than Whitechapel.

It ought to read:

THE KILLER OR KILLERS OF LOW CLASS WOMEN IN THE EAST END OF LONDON AND ITS METROPOLITAN AREA / 1888-1891

CSI: SPITAFIELDS, BETHNEL GREEN, ALDGATE, ST. GEORGES-IN-THE EAST,POPLAR and a little whitchapel thrown in for good measure.

Now that'll be an eye catcher.