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Malcolm Bland
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Friday, January 06, 2006 - 9:21 am: | 
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Having read several Patricia Cornwell novels I had looked forward to "Portrait of a Killer". However, whereas I have to accept her American information as accurate [knowing no better], I have been dismayed by her basic errors of fact in this English story.
On the very first page she refers to the bells of St George's Chapel, Windsor, ringing all day. St George's Chapel has no bells! It was intended to hang bells in 1477 in a great central tower over the new chapel but the chapel tower was never built. There are bells across Horseshoe Cloister, in the Curfew Tower, and they may have been rung for a bank holiday, but not all day! The tenor bell in that tower weighs 26cwt. Try swinging that through 360 degrees all day!
On page 28 she states "The City of London ... can be traced back to 1 A.D. when the Romans founded the city..." Caesar mades his first tentative excursion to Britain in August of 55 BC. He left in September but tried agian the following year with little more success and left again the same year. Nearly a century passed before the British were troubled again. The Roman invasion and conquest came in 43 A.D. and the city of London was established circa 50 - 60 A.D.
Page 62. We never had "First Class Honors" in the matricuation Exams, though you could pass with honour.
Alright, so I'm picking up small errors, but such inaccuracies undermine confidence in the rest of the book. What other errors are there which I have taken for fact?
I've only reached page 78 so far and I am detecting strong bias and some very suspect conclusions.
Has anyone else noted errors of fact in this book?
Malcolm Bland |
Dan Norder
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Dannorder
Post Number: 1102
Registered: 4-2004
| | Posted on Sunday, January 08, 2006 - 6:11 pm: |
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Hi Malcolm,
Yes, the book is just loaded with factual errors, and then a number of things that are facts but taken completely out of context to try to make them sound totally different from reality, plus heaps of unsupported speculation presented as if they were facts, and a conspicuous lack of mention of well known facts that would poke holes in her theory had she included them.
If you'd like to see some of these discussed, there's the section of this message board about her book, the section of the board specifically about her suspect, and the main Sickert suspect page, which has links to several dissertations on the topic.
Dan Norder, Editor
Ripper Notes: The International Journal for Ripper Studies
 Profile  Email  Dissertations  Website
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Thomas C. Wescott
Chief Inspector
Username: Tom_wescott
Post Number: 549
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Sunday, January 08, 2006 - 9:03 pm: |
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Malcolm,
You're better off just enjoying 'Portrait of a Killer' as another of her fiction novels. Cornwell has yet to write a non-fiction book.
Yours truly,
Tom Wescott |
Glenn G. Lauritz Andersson
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Glenna
Post Number: 4316
Registered: 8-2003
| | Posted on Sunday, January 08, 2006 - 9:13 pm: |
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Ha, Tom! Good one.
Couldn't have said it better myself.
G. Andersson, writer/historian
-----
"It's a BEAUTIFUL day - watch some bastard SPOIL IT."
Sign inside the Griffin Inn in Bath
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Howard Brown
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Howard
Post Number: 1341
Registered: 7-2004
| | Posted on Sunday, January 08, 2006 - 9:48 pm: |
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Ditto Tom...good shot.
Nice job with providing links,Dan. An effort appreciated.
Mr.Bland: Her "American information" has fallen on hard times as of late. Recently she spent a lot of money for an ad in a British paper and despite the bold claim of her book's title, Case Closed, has admitted more work needs to be done in researching Sickert.
I'm reminded of her every morning,Mr. Bland. I see her fiction books at a local convienience store prominently displayed in big letters. |
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