Harriet Waugh
Doppelganger Problem
Lord Lucan’s murder of his children’s nanny and his subsequent disappearance is one of the most rehashed fables of our times. Everyone has a pet theory, the most likely being that he drowned himself in the early hours of the morning after the debacle. The theory I like best, though, is my husband’s. He believes that Lord Lucan did not necessarily intend to murder his wife so much as kidnap his children. His gambling friends had set up an escape route for him, and, after he bungled the ‘rescue’ (while inadvertently murdering the nanny), he absconded and is probably now drinking too many tequilas on a ranch somewhere.
Muriel Spark’s lively novella Aiding and Abetting, although interested in the bloodiness of Lord Lucan’s crime, takes up the story at this point. The murder is twenty-five years in the past, and Lord Lucan, if he is Lord Lucan, is in need of both psychiatric help and money, as his
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
'It’s long been known that there is an optimum reproductive window and that women enjoy a considerably shorter one than men. For both sexes this window is opening and closing earlier than it used to.' (£)
https://literaryreview.co.uk/the-end-of-babies
Sixty years ago today, the Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to enter outer space. @Andrew_Crumey looks at his role in the space race.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/one-giant-leap-for-mankind
On the night of 5th July 1809, a group of soldiers kidnapped Pope Pius VII on the orders of Napoleon Bonaparte. Munro Price looks at what happened next.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/bonaparte-meets-his-match