The Antelope Shipwreck and the Murder of Martha Reay

Blog

September 10, 2026

What more could a publisher want? A shipwreck in the South China seas and the shocking public murder of a London opera singer and high society mistress. The late 18th C wasn’t short of pamphleteers, printers and publishers ready to make a buck from an excited public. The two events come together in an unusual way in a book from 1788.  You can read about it here.


More articles

Nehemiah Grew, establishing plant anatomy as the foundation of plant form and function.

8th Oct 2023 - Science and Thinking

Is plant anatomy and morphology taught these days?  First year botany in the late 1960s had plant anatomy as the

Read more...

The dull catalogue of common things

29th Aug 2025 - Reading and writing

Sometimes when you are deep in reading, you get a jolt, a few lines or a paragraph which pulls you

Read more...