A family in the spotlight

One of the many photos of the Pace family that featured in the press coverage on the case. (There were dozens more, some of which will be making their appearance here in the months to come.)

This would have appeared even before the inquest into Harry Pace's mysterious death properly began.

From left: Leslie, Dorothy, Selwyn, Beatrice and Doris Pace.

(World's Pictorial News, 5 February 1928.)

Selling the story: 'Eighteen Years of Hell'

Starting from the period in mid-January 1928 when the name 'Pace' hit the headlines in connection with the mysterious death of Beatrice's Husband Harry, the case remained a fixture in the sensation-hungry press of inter-war Britain.

The high point in press and public interest was, however, the trial itself in early July and the period immediately following it. I'll be posting more images and descriptions related to those events at some point. But for now something slightly different.

On the day after Beatrice's acquittal, the rights to her 'life-story' were sold to the Sunday Express (The story of how this came about features in one of the chapters of the book.)

This image shows an advertisement for the serialised autobiography which appeared in the Daily Mail.

Daily Mail 13 July 1928, p. 19. 

Not only did '18 years of Hell' become one of my chapter headings, but the text in the opening paragraph contained the phrase which is now the book's main title, 'the most remarkable woman in England'.