
They All Love Jack: Busting the Ripper
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Narrated by:
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Bruce Robinson
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Phil Fox
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By:
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Bruce Robinson
About this listen
A book like no other – the tale of a gripping quest to discover the identity of history’s most notorious murderer and a literary high-wire act from the legendary writer and director of Withnail and I.
For over a hundred years, ‘the mystery of Jack the Ripper’ has been a source of unparalleled fascination and horror, spawning an army of obsessive theorists, and endless volumes purporting finally to reveal the identity of the brutal murderer who terrorised Victorian England.
But what if there was never really any ‘mystery’ at all? What if the Ripper was always hiding in plain sight, deliberately leaving a trail of clues to his identity for anyone who cared to look, while cynically mocking those who were supposedly attempting to bring him to justice?
In THEY ALL LOVE JACK, the award-winning film director and screenwriter Bruce Robinson exposes the cover-up that enabled one of history’s most notorious serial killers to remain at large. More than twelve years in the writing, this is much more than a radical reinterpretation of the Jack the Ripper legend, and an enthralling hunt for the killer. A literary high-wire act reminiscent of Tom Wolfe or Hunter S. Thompson, it is an expressionistic journey through the cesspools of late-Victorian society, a phantasmagoria of highly placed villains, hypocrites and institutionalised corruption.
Polemic, forensic investigation, panoramic portrait of an age, underpinned by deep scholarship and delivered in Robinson’s inimitably vivid and scabrous prose, THEY ALL LOVE JACK is an absolutely riveting and unique book, demolishing the theories of generations of self-appointed experts – the so-called ‘Ripperologists’ – to make clear, at last, who really did it; and more importantly, how he managed to get away with it for so long.
©2015 Bruce Robinson (P)2015 HarperCollins Publishers LimitedCritic reviews
"One of Britain's biggest cult films." (Jamie Russell, BBC.com)
Praise for The Peculiar Memories of Thomas Penman: "This book hums with particularity and vision.... Thomas Penman is the work of a genuine prose-writer - and a gifted one at that." ( Observer)
"Robinson careers brilliantly through the illicit fascinations and sickening thrills of adolescence." ( Select)
"This book is in a league-table of revulsion all its own." ( Sunday Times)
Praise for Smoking in Bed: "Enthusiasts will relish his razor-sharp wit and comic timing." ( Scotland on Sunday)
"Furious and lyrical." ( Sunday Times)
"Robinson's conversation is a work of art." ( Guardian)
"The recollections of Robinson are a treat." ( Independent)
"The next best thing to a one-on-one." ( Time Out)
Brilliant
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This book definitely is not enjoyable as an audiobook. But, I suppose it has uses for 'academic' purposes... I.e. it's best used in paper copy, and completely boring as an audiobook.
Yawn.
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The issue I found hardest to cope with ( apart from some of the graphic detail) was some of the language used... sluts and worse used frequently when referring to the victims, who he seems very uninterested in. I'm assuming he was trying to echo the attitudes of the times he was writing about with all the rampant victorian hypocrisy but it was often hard to read and really felt uncomfortable and provocative. If you do not like frequent use of every expletive this may not be a book for you. His rage at Victorian society andFreemasonry is absolutely palpable, quite possibly justified . He also sneeringly expresses his attitudes towards ripperologists, which felt unnecessarily belligerent. He obviously sees himself as a very different investigator.
Overall a very dense and articulate read ( caveat above) and a fascinating theory. Certainly recommended for anyone interested in the subject.
Fascinating read with caveats..
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Absolutely Fascinating
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Best book I've ever read
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Brilliant detailed account of
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Wide Conspiracy Theory & Troubling Language
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Loved it
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In this book, writer and movie director Bruce (Withnail and I) Robinson takes a very particular view on the subject. In this meticulously researched tome, he explores the idea that the identity of the mysterious Jack was a conspiracy created and prolonged by Freemasons, the Metropolitan Police, the British Government and a bevy of coroners, doctors and bent witnesses.
I bought the paperback version of this ages ago, but as it runs to more than 800 pages and has a font size that I’d need a microscope to read, I also bought the audio version. Narrated by Phil Fox, with an introduction by the author, this is a fascinating book that uses police and court reports, newspaper articles, letters and witness statements to back up the theory that Freemason Michael Maybrick was the man behind the murders, and how his letters to Commissioner Charles Warren taunted the pudding-headed policeman with clues that even a black cat in a coal cellar at night couldn’t have failed to follow.
Robinson’s style pulls no punches and he makes it very clear what he thinks of all these alleged conspirators, using language that would put a hardened navvy to shame. Though his theory is a complex one and demands that dozens, if not hundreds of individuals must have been involved in the conspiracy, it nevertheless sounds plausible, and explains why even now certain documents are still not available for public viewing.
A fascinating and thoroughly enjoyable book that puts the scribblings of Ripperologists everywhere firmly in the shade.
Fascinating
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It.
Fascinating
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