The Wicked Boy: Shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction 2017
Kate Summerscale
Aug 2026 · Bloomsbury GB Audio · Narrated by Ethan Reid
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8 hr 48 min
Unabridged
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About this audiobook
Bloomsbury presents The Wicked Boy by Kate Summerscale, read by Ethan Reid.
FROM BRITAIN’S TOP-SELLING TRUE CRIME WRITER
'The queen of Victorian true crime is back' MAIL ON SUNDAY
SHORTLISTED FOR THE CWA GOLD DAGGER FOR NON-FICTION
On 8 July 1895, thirteen-year-old Robert Coombes and his younger brother Nattie set out from their East London home to watch a cricket match. Over the next ten days they spend extravagantly, visiting the theatre and eating out. The boys tell neighbours their father has gone to sea, and their mother to visit family in Liverpool. But when a strange smell begins to emanate from the house, the police are called. What they find throws the press into a frenzy – and the boys into a highly publicised trial.
‘An accomplished feat of research and storytelling . . . Wrapping controversial issues into a tense, fluent narrative’ HILARY MANTEL
'Riveting . . . Once again the author proves a subtle pathologist, her scalpel slicing away the skin of late-Victorian Britain’ DOMINIC SANDBROOK, SUNDAY TIMES BOOKS OF THE YEAR
‘A remarkably heartening story’ JOHN PRESTON, DAILY MAIL
‘An extraordinary book which will stay with you’ DAILY EXPRESS
‘It would be impossible to read this dry-eyed’ SPECTATOR
Note: There is a chance the book cover you receive may differ from the cover displayed here
FROM BRITAIN’S TOP-SELLING TRUE CRIME WRITER
'The queen of Victorian true crime is back' MAIL ON SUNDAY
SHORTLISTED FOR THE CWA GOLD DAGGER FOR NON-FICTION
On 8 July 1895, thirteen-year-old Robert Coombes and his younger brother Nattie set out from their East London home to watch a cricket match. Over the next ten days they spend extravagantly, visiting the theatre and eating out. The boys tell neighbours their father has gone to sea, and their mother to visit family in Liverpool. But when a strange smell begins to emanate from the house, the police are called. What they find throws the press into a frenzy – and the boys into a highly publicised trial.
‘An accomplished feat of research and storytelling . . . Wrapping controversial issues into a tense, fluent narrative’ HILARY MANTEL
'Riveting . . . Once again the author proves a subtle pathologist, her scalpel slicing away the skin of late-Victorian Britain’ DOMINIC SANDBROOK, SUNDAY TIMES BOOKS OF THE YEAR
‘A remarkably heartening story’ JOHN PRESTON, DAILY MAIL
‘An extraordinary book which will stay with you’ DAILY EXPRESS
‘It would be impossible to read this dry-eyed’ SPECTATOR
Note: There is a chance the book cover you receive may differ from the cover displayed here
Bloomsbury presents The Wicked Boy by Kate Summerscale, read by Ethan Reid.
FROM BRITAIN’S TOP-SELLING TRUE CRIME WRITER
'The queen of Victorian true crime is back' MAIL ON SUNDAY
SHORTLISTED FOR THE CWA GOLD DAGGER FOR NON-FICTION
On 8 July 1895, thirteen-year-old Robert Coombes and his youn...
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About the author
Kate Summerscale is the author of the number one bestselling The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, winner of the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction, the Galaxy British Book of the Year Award, a Richard & Judy Book Club pick and adapted into a major ITV drama. Her first book, the bestselling The Queen of Whale Cay, won a Somerset Maugham award and was shortlisted for the Whitbread biography award. Her third book, Mrs Robinson’s Disgrace, was a Sunday Times bestseller. Kate Summerscale was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2010. She lives in London.
Kate Summerscale is the author of the number one bestselling The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, winner of the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction, the Galaxy British Book of the Year Award, a Richard & Judy Book Club pick and adapted into a major ITV drama. Her first book, the bestselling The Queen o...
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