In his enjoyable book The Frighteners (2018) FT’s Revd Peter Laws drew attention to the marked popular tendency of revelling in true stories of murder, crime and horror.
Now, merely being curious and wanting to read or hear about such things is a very human characteristic. George Orwell reflected in an essay in 1946 – “Decline of the English Murder” – on how, relaxing after a perfect Sunday lunch in “blissful circumstances, what is it that you want to read about? Naturally, about a murder.” Orwell then went on to deplore how in the aftermath of World War II a growing casualness and brutality was becoming apparent in contemporary homicides, compared with the more discreet and passion-driven domestic crimes that had characterised the settled and buttoned-up pre-war years.
In one sense, stories of crimes and murder absorbed in unthreatening surroundings create an effect like hearing a good ghost story for entertainment around a cheerful fireside in pleasant company. Warmth and security are taken for granted and the introduction of a frightening thought in a completely safe environment can generate an enjoyable and contrasting imaginative frisson of excitement, having the effect of making one appreciate the congenial surroundings all the more. One might not find a story quite so comfortable if sitting in a lonely, rat-infested barn, listening to the wind blowing a funereal dirge outside.
There is no doubt an interest in true crimes can be a source of mental stimulation, a recreation or an entertainment and diversion from ordinary affairs.
