You couldn’t have a beastie, a snake-thing, on an island this size,” Ralph explained kindly. “You only get them in big countries, like Africa, or India.” Find sources: "Derek Bentley"– news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR ( August 2023) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) The details of Bentley’s unfortunate childhood created much sympathy for his case, with two hundred MPs signing a petition to have the teenager reprieved. David Maxwell Fyfe, the Home Secretary, was his last hope. Alfie calls upon Julia—Pippa’s sister and a psychiatrist—to oust the malignant tenant from their lives. But as Alfie himself is haunted by visions and someone watches him at night, he begins to question the true character of the force that has poisoned his daughters’ minds, with dark and violent consequences. The passionate noise of agreement from the assembly hit him like a wave and he lost his thread. He thought again.

The book features several passages that I thoroughly enjoyed, particularly in terms of the author's choice of words and phrasing. In just a few sentences, the author conveys an immense sense of despair and more.Things take a turn though when the girls wake Alfie one night stating, 'Daddy, there's a man in our room...' Amid a summer night, Alfie awakens to his twin daughters' claims of a lurking shadow in their room. Blaming it on a nightmare due to their mother Pippa's passing nine months earlier, he initially dismisses their distress. The twins create an imaginary companion, seemingly a harmless reaction to grief, but it takes a darker turn as they set places for him, whisper ominously, and hint at being taken away. It was within Fyfe’s power to advise the newly crowned Queen Elizabeth to show mercy, commuting Bentley’s death sentence to life imprisonment. He did not do so, arguing that this would be “intervening in the due process of the law”. Now we come to the most important thing. I’ve been thinking. I was thinking while we were climbing the mountain.” He flashed a conspiratorial grin at the other two. “And on the beach just now. This is what I thought. We want to have fun. And we want to be rescued.” The biggest question that this film poses to its viewers is whether Derek Bentley deserve to die? Now we know that the answer to this question is a big no. Even the Court of Appeal admitted that a mistake had been made in convicting Bentley and quashed his conviction for murder in 1998. However, that proved to be too little, too late. It is often said, that justice delayed is justice denied. I cannot find a better example to justify these words.

I am hard-pressed to find anything negative to say about this book as it truly is exceptional. There were a few words that I didn't comprehend immediately and had to look up, but that is solely a reflection of my own language proficiency. Thanks to Poisoned Pen Press through Netgalley for a copy of this psychological horror to review. Let Him In will be out October 3rd. and them little ‘uns was wandering about down there where the fire is. How d’you know they aren’t still there?”Watson, Geoffrey (2016). "Let him have it: the short, sad life of Derek Bentley" (PDF). The New South Wales Bar Association . Retrieved 28 September 2020. Simon, John Ivan (2005). John Simon On Film: Criticism, 1982-2001. Milwaukee: Applause Theatre & Cinema Books. ISBN 9781557835079 . Retrieved 24 October 2012.

William Friend’s Let Him In is the perfect spooky read for October. With its eerie little twin girls, an old mansion in England called Hart House, and a menacing shape-shifting entity, this novel had me hooked from the first chapter! The film's end titles state that Bentley's sister, Iris, was still fighting for his pardon. Seven years after the film was made and after numerous unsuccessful campaigns to get Bentley a full pardon, his conviction was eventually overturned by the Court of Appeal on 30 July 1998, one year after Iris's death. [4] Release [ edit ]Friend's book starts strong with a tale of twin girls (yeah - my mind always jumps to the Overlook Hotel), and their imaginary friend, but loses steam by becoming too convoluted. This novel could easily be edited down to a very taut short story. The other problem I had with the book was that I didn't really didn't care about ANY of the characters, or what was happening to them. As far as chilling books to read this spooky season, I'd put this one near the bottom of the list. Below the other side of the mountain top was a platform of forest. Once more Ralph found himself making the cupping gesture. Thirdly, there was disagreement over whether Bentley was fit to stand trial in light of his mental capacity. The Principal Medical Officer responsible was Dr Matheson and he referred Bentley to Dr Hill, a psychiatrist at the Maudsley Hospital. Hill's report stated that Bentley was illiterate and of low intelligence, what we would today describe as having learning difficulties. However, Matheson was of the opinion that whilst agreeing that Bentley was of low intelligence, he did not have epilepsy at the time of the alleged offence and he was not a "feeble-minded person" under the Mental Deficiency Acts. Matheson said that he was sane and fit to plead and stand trial. English law at the time did not recognise the concept of diminished responsibility due to retarded development, though it existed in Scottish law (it was introduced to England by the Homicide Act 1957). Criminal insanity– where the accused is unable to distinguish right from wrong– was then the only medical defence to murder. Bentley, while he had a severe debilitation, was not insane. The 1990 book Let Him Have It, Chris written by M J Trow explores the inconsistencies in the police version of events. William Friend’s haunting debut Let Him In is a creeping, gothic psychological suspense about a young, newly widowed father struggling to raise twin daughters obsessed with an imaginary friend.

They gazed intently at the dense blue of the horizon, as if a little silhouette might appear there at any moment. The boys were dancing. The pile was so rotten, and now so tinder-dry, that whole limbs yielded passionately to the yellow flames that poured upwards and shook a great beard of flame twenty feet in the air. For yards round the fire the heat was like a blow, and the breeze was a river of sparks. Trunks crumbled to white dust. The public outcry over his execution made waves in British culture, including the 1975 play Example , the 1990 book Let Him Have It, Chris by Welsh crime author M J Trow, 1991 movie Let Him Have It and several songs including “Let Him Dangle” by Elvis Costello. Derek Bentley’s case is one that shook England’s belief in capital punishment. It was a landmark case in British legal history. As the end credits of the film point out, his family continued their fight after the execution. This led to a 45-year long campaign to win Derek a posthumous pardon, granted in 1993 (two years after the release of the film). Another campaign was also led for the quashing of his murder conviction in 1998. The film is an eye-opener about the merciless justice system that we have in place. It poses a question all of us need to ask ourselves — what is the meaning of justice? I will say the pacing felt a little off in places. I couldn't always quite work out the timeline of events. I don't think this necessarily had a huge negative impact on the plot in any way, it just gave me that feeling of being lost a few times. Also to note, the ending (which I absolutely adored) is one that's ambiguous, and I know this is something a lot of readers don't enjoy, so it's worth pointing out!⁠Alfie recently lost his wife, Pippa, and raising twin daughters, Sylvie and Cassia. His daughters are found standing at the foot of his bed in the middle of the night reporting a man is in their room. When the evidence is not there, he discounts it as psychological and missing their mom. He begins to have nightmares also and is afraid his dark secrets are haunting him. When he ask Pippa's twin sister Julia, a psychiatrist to come and observe the girls speaking to an imaginary friend, setting the table for him and speaking of what he is going to do them he needs some clarity of a dangerous presence. I really enjoyed my time with this story. I did end up listening to the audiobook and appreciate that it included the use of dual narration. Having a different voice for both Alfie and Julia helped to bring the story to life. Another factor in the posthumous defence was that a "confession" recorded by Bentley, which was claimed by the prosecution to be a "verbatim record of dictated monologue", was shown by forensic linguistics methods to have been largely edited by policemen. Linguist Malcolm Coulthard showed that certain patterns, such as the frequency of the word "then" and the grammatical use of "then" after the grammatical subject ("I then" rather than "then I"), were not consistent with Bentley's use of language (his idiolect), as evidenced in court testimony. [17] These patterns fit better the recorded testimony of the policemen involved. This is one of the earliest uses of forensic linguistics on record. Berry-Dee, Christopher; Odell, Robinn (1991). Dad, Help Me Please: The Story of Derek Bentley. London: W. H. Allen. ISBN 978-1-852-27131-2. The well-known phrase 'don't judge a book by its cover' applies in various domains, but sometimes a cover that catches your eye can conceal a valuable gem inside, as I discovered with this book.