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Death in the Air: The True Story of a Serial Killer, the Great London Smog, and the Strangling of a City
A real-life thriller in the vein of The Devil in the White City, Kate Winkler Dawson's debut Death in the Air is a gripping, historical narrative of a serial killer, an environmental disaster, and an iconic city struggling to regain its footing.
London was still recovering from the devastation of World War II when another disaster hit: for five long days in December 1952, a killer smog held the city firmly in its grip and refused to let go. Day became night, mass transit ground to a halt, criminals roamed the streets, and some 12,000 people died from the poisonous air. But in the chaotic aftermath, another killer was stalking the streets, using the fog as a cloak for his crimes.
All across London, women were going missing--poor women, forgotten women. Their disappearances caused little alarm, but each of them had one thing in common: they had the misfortune of meeting a quiet, unassuming man, John Reginald Christie, who invited them back to his decrepit Notting Hill flat during that dark winter. They never left.
The eventual arrest of the "Beast of Rillington Place" caused a media frenzy: were there more bodies buried in the walls, under the floorboards, in the back garden of this house of horrors? Was it the fog that had caused Christie to suddenly snap? And what role had he played in the notorious double murder that had happened in that same apartment building not three years before--a murder for which another, possibly innocent, man was sent to the gallows?
The Great Smog of 1952 remains the deadliest air pollution disaster in world history, and John Reginald Christie is still one of the most unfathomable serial killers of modern times. Journalist Kate Winkler Dawson braids these strands together into a taut, compulsively readable true crime thriller about a man who changed the fate of the death penalty in the UK, and an environmental catastrophe with implications that still echo today.
London was still recovering from the devastation of World War II when another disaster hit: for five long days in December 1952, a killer smog held the city firmly in its grip and refused to let go. Day became night, mass transit ground to a halt, criminals roamed the streets, and some 12,000 people died from the poisonous air. But in the chaotic aftermath, another killer was stalking the streets, using the fog as a cloak for his crimes.
All across London, women were going missing--poor women, forgotten women. Their disappearances caused little alarm, but each of them had one thing in common: they had the misfortune of meeting a quiet, unassuming man, John Reginald Christie, who invited them back to his decrepit Notting Hill flat during that dark winter. They never left.
The eventual arrest of the "Beast of Rillington Place" caused a media frenzy: were there more bodies buried in the walls, under the floorboards, in the back garden of this house of horrors? Was it the fog that had caused Christie to suddenly snap? And what role had he played in the notorious double murder that had happened in that same apartment building not three years before--a murder for which another, possibly innocent, man was sent to the gallows?
The Great Smog of 1952 remains the deadliest air pollution disaster in world history, and John Reginald Christie is still one of the most unfathomable serial killers of modern times. Journalist Kate Winkler Dawson braids these strands together into a taut, compulsively readable true crime thriller about a man who changed the fate of the death penalty in the UK, and an environmental catastrophe with implications that still echo today.
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First published October 17, 2017
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About the author
Kate Winkler Dawson
5 books737 followersKate Winkler Dawson joined the University of Texas at Austin's School of Journalism as a senior lecturer in 2009. Before then, she was on the faculty of Fordham University's Marymount College for two years. A seasoned documentary producer, news writer and TV news producer, her work has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, United Press International in London, WCBS News, ABC News Radio, Fox News Channel, “PBS NewsHour” and “Nightline.” She's on the board of the Texas Center for Actual Innocence and lives in Austin, Texas with her family. This is her debut book.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 590 reviews
April 27, 2018
The best selling author, Erik Larson, set the stage for books that take two disparate events/people and weave them into a story that illustrates how events connect them into a fascinating synchronicity. In this book, Kate Dawson used the same format but I feel that she missed the boat.
She first addresses the killer smog that enveloped London in 1952.(The word "smog" came into use as a result of this event). It was caused by the lack of environmental control and the use of brown coal by householders who could not afford anthracite. The majority of homes in London were heated by open fireplaces and the cheap coal gave off noxious and dangerous fumes which filled the air. Major industries also burned coal and when a low pressure system stalled over the city, the air became a killer. It is estimated that 12,000 citizens died. Secondly, she introduces us to Reg Christie, one of Britain's most notorious serial killers who live at an address which is still recognized, 10 Rillington Place. And this is where the overlapping story device falls apart. There is no connection between the two killers.....the smog and the man. Granted, Christie lived during the time of the killer smog but it had no effect on his murder spree.
The majority of the book concentrates on the smog and is extremely interesting and informative. The sections regarding Christie almost seem to be an afterthought even though his trial led to the eventual elimination of the death penalty in Britain. The two stories just don't meld and the author might have been better served by writing separate books on each subject. The story will hold your interest but really doesn't gel as he author intended.
She first addresses the killer smog that enveloped London in 1952.(The word "smog" came into use as a result of this event). It was caused by the lack of environmental control and the use of brown coal by householders who could not afford anthracite. The majority of homes in London were heated by open fireplaces and the cheap coal gave off noxious and dangerous fumes which filled the air. Major industries also burned coal and when a low pressure system stalled over the city, the air became a killer. It is estimated that 12,000 citizens died. Secondly, she introduces us to Reg Christie, one of Britain's most notorious serial killers who live at an address which is still recognized, 10 Rillington Place. And this is where the overlapping story device falls apart. There is no connection between the two killers.....the smog and the man. Granted, Christie lived during the time of the killer smog but it had no effect on his murder spree.
The majority of the book concentrates on the smog and is extremely interesting and informative. The sections regarding Christie almost seem to be an afterthought even though his trial led to the eventual elimination of the death penalty in Britain. The two stories just don't meld and the author might have been better served by writing separate books on each subject. The story will hold your interest but really doesn't gel as he author intended.
March 23, 2018
This is the fascinating history of London in 1952, when a killer smog led to the deaths of thousands of people. It seems almost inconceivable that so many people (many already suffering with health conditions) should have been killed by fog, but, reading this, it is apparent that other countries were also struggling with the terrible effects of pollution and there were those, such as Norman Dodds, who were determined to do something about it.
The weather conditions which led to this heavy, immovable, smog, was combined with the effects of a cheap, non rationed fuel, called ‘Nutty Slack,’ which contained small lumps of coal along with dust, and the pollution from vehicles and trains, to cause the air to become poisonous. The fog lay over London for five days – after seven days, over 4000 people had died. Along the way we follow the stories of those caught up in the fog; a beloved father reunited with his family after fighting in WWI, now choking in an upstairs bedroom, policemen who cannot see even their own hand in front of their face, unable to do anything while criminals took full advantage of the gloom, and hospitals trying to cope with the influx of people pouring through their doors.
Along with the fog, there was another killer on the streets of London that year. John Reginald Christie, who lived at 10 Rillington Place, had actually previously given evidence against his neighbour, Timothy Evans, charged with killing his young wife, and baby daughter. It seems that nobody suspected this mild mannered, softly spoken man, of murder. Despite the fact that he had a previous criminal record, despite the claims by Evans that he had killed his wife, regardless of the odd smell, noted by visitors, in his flat, his constant digging in the garden, the woman’s thigh bone propping up the fence… All went ignored, maybe commented on, but generally overlooked.
Kate Winkler Dawson cleverly combines the case of Christie, along with the choking, fog, to create a very interesting combination of social history and true crime. She paints a vivid picture of the days of the fog; the tendrils creeping through windows and down chimneys, layering dust wherever it invaded, obliterating visibility and causing those in contact with it to choke and cough. It also outlines the aftermath of these events and how the government were forced to react to it. For London was a city with other pressures – still ravaged by bomb sites and housing shortages, with rationing still in place and everything in short supply.
I listened to the audiobook version of this and Graeme Malcom read it beautifully; bringing the people involved alive. He was quite chilling as the softly spoken Christie (who claims he damaged his voice after a gas attack in WWI) and enhanced the book for me. If you like true crime, social history or books about London, then you will enjoy this.
The weather conditions which led to this heavy, immovable, smog, was combined with the effects of a cheap, non rationed fuel, called ‘Nutty Slack,’ which contained small lumps of coal along with dust, and the pollution from vehicles and trains, to cause the air to become poisonous. The fog lay over London for five days – after seven days, over 4000 people had died. Along the way we follow the stories of those caught up in the fog; a beloved father reunited with his family after fighting in WWI, now choking in an upstairs bedroom, policemen who cannot see even their own hand in front of their face, unable to do anything while criminals took full advantage of the gloom, and hospitals trying to cope with the influx of people pouring through their doors.
Along with the fog, there was another killer on the streets of London that year. John Reginald Christie, who lived at 10 Rillington Place, had actually previously given evidence against his neighbour, Timothy Evans, charged with killing his young wife, and baby daughter. It seems that nobody suspected this mild mannered, softly spoken man, of murder. Despite the fact that he had a previous criminal record, despite the claims by Evans that he had killed his wife, regardless of the odd smell, noted by visitors, in his flat, his constant digging in the garden, the woman’s thigh bone propping up the fence… All went ignored, maybe commented on, but generally overlooked.
Kate Winkler Dawson cleverly combines the case of Christie, along with the choking, fog, to create a very interesting combination of social history and true crime. She paints a vivid picture of the days of the fog; the tendrils creeping through windows and down chimneys, layering dust wherever it invaded, obliterating visibility and causing those in contact with it to choke and cough. It also outlines the aftermath of these events and how the government were forced to react to it. For London was a city with other pressures – still ravaged by bomb sites and housing shortages, with rationing still in place and everything in short supply.
I listened to the audiobook version of this and Graeme Malcom read it beautifully; bringing the people involved alive. He was quite chilling as the softly spoken Christie (who claims he damaged his voice after a gas attack in WWI) and enhanced the book for me. If you like true crime, social history or books about London, then you will enjoy this.
July 24, 2018
Interesting book. Emily, I think you and especially Chris might like this b/c it follows the Parliament trying to dig themselves out of WWII debt and dealing with getting rid of the cheapest energy from that time, coal. What a terrible time for London. And.....at one point there is mention of Croydon Road. What the what? The book alternated between the killing "fog" (as they call it) and the serial killer, John Reginald Christie during the 1950s. Written by a UT Journalism professor. Have to admit, I skimmed some of the government passages - it goes on and on and on - hence my 3 star rating, but read every word of the killer detail. Something is wrong with me? We're discussing it tonight at the Mueller Book Club, we'll see what others think.
March 20, 2018
This is a pretty good book about the lethal London fog of 1952 (estimated 12,000 deaths attributable to the fog and, no, I did not mistype that) welded to an okay-ish book about the serial killer John Reginald Christie in that structure that's become so popular lately of "Phenomenon A + Murderer B = Book C." This can work well, and I've seen it done, but not in this book. There's no particular connection between Christie and the fog except that he was living in London in 1952. He did not kill anyone during the fog; he did not pick his victims based on some weird fog criterion. He suffocated, or partially suffocated, some of them with coal gas, but as a connection between him and the deadly London particulars, that's pretty weak. Dawson doesn't really have any new insights to offer into Christie or his murders or his horrible habit of keeping his victims close to him (under the floorboards, in the garden, in a plastered over cupboard), and while I thought what she had to say about the fog--and about the way that the Conservative government dealt (badly) with the fog and the inconvenient implications of the fog (air pollution kills people! oh dear)--was interesting, it was weakened by being one of two foci of attention instead of being alone at center stage.
I also personally dislike the structure of "find Everypersons X, Y, and Z and follow them through Phenomenon A and its aftermath." Again, it can be done well, but it's too easy to do, not even badly, but mediocre-ly, and Dawson certainly doesn't do it much better than mediocre-ly. Her Everypersons don't connect with each other, they don't connect with the government, they don't connect with Christie. If you're going to try to write a book using an artificial structure, go big or go home. Find ways to make your assemblage into a story, or what's the use of making the assemblage in the first place?
I think, although I admit I am not sure, that Dawson was primarily interested in the fog and saw Christie as a way to make the book more marketable, because that's what serial killers do for popular history. I, of course, was primarily interested in Christie (although boy howdy did I learn a lot about London fogs, which is not irrelevant to anyone who loves Sherlock Holmes), and if you're writing about Christie as Murderer B, your best Phenomenon A is the death penalty, since the vexed and unanswerable question of Tim Evans' guilt or innocence has a lot to do with why there is no death penalty in Britain any more. Were there two murderers living at 10 Rillington Place? It seems so unlikely, and yet the deaths of Beryl and Geraldine Evans don't fit Christie's pattern. He raped and murdered women he brought home from pubs, not his neighbor and her little girl. And Tim Evans himself manifestly and literally could not tell the truth to save his life. None of his versions of what happened to Beryl and Geraldine makes sense. And Christie's versions aren't any better.
I think it's more likely than not that Tim Evans murdered his wife and daughter and it's just a ghastly coincidence that he was living upstairs from a serial killer at the time. But I don't know.
So this was an interesting book, and certainly not a bad book, but it could have been a much better book if it had been about either the fog or the serial killer.
I also personally dislike the structure of "find Everypersons X, Y, and Z and follow them through Phenomenon A and its aftermath." Again, it can be done well, but it's too easy to do, not even badly, but mediocre-ly, and Dawson certainly doesn't do it much better than mediocre-ly. Her Everypersons don't connect with each other, they don't connect with the government, they don't connect with Christie. If you're going to try to write a book using an artificial structure, go big or go home. Find ways to make your assemblage into a story, or what's the use of making the assemblage in the first place?
I think, although I admit I am not sure, that Dawson was primarily interested in the fog and saw Christie as a way to make the book more marketable, because that's what serial killers do for popular history. I, of course, was primarily interested in Christie (although boy howdy did I learn a lot about London fogs, which is not irrelevant to anyone who loves Sherlock Holmes), and if you're writing about Christie as Murderer B, your best Phenomenon A is the death penalty, since the vexed and unanswerable question of Tim Evans' guilt or innocence has a lot to do with why there is no death penalty in Britain any more. Were there two murderers living at 10 Rillington Place? It seems so unlikely, and yet the deaths of Beryl and Geraldine Evans don't fit Christie's pattern. He raped and murdered women he brought home from pubs, not his neighbor and her little girl. And Tim Evans himself manifestly and literally could not tell the truth to save his life. None of his versions of what happened to Beryl and Geraldine makes sense. And Christie's versions aren't any better.
I think it's more likely than not that Tim Evans murdered his wife and daughter and it's just a ghastly coincidence that he was living upstairs from a serial killer at the time. But I don't know.
So this was an interesting book, and certainly not a bad book, but it could have been a much better book if it had been about either the fog or the serial killer.
August 8, 2021
A curiously structured book. First, a well-researched recounting of the stalled-weather front that created a smog event (and the invention of the word 'smog') in London, December 1952. 12,000 people were killed by the poisonous, particle-filled air (those with respiratory and circulatory health issues) and tens of thousands of others were injured and had their lives shortened. The authorities minimized the impact, suppressed the statistics, and generally kept the magnitude of the problem quiet to avoid the disastrous cost. (Londoners needed to replace cheap, dirty coal with clean-burning heating fuel.)
This is an amazing event and worth of a book.
Here's the curious part: Dawson apparently couldn't gather enough material on this subject to fill a whole book. (Really? 12,000 immediate victims--she couldn't find enough survivors to tell their story?) So the book is also the story of a peculiar, poorly-socialized, marginalized clerk who killed five women, beginning in the 1940s and continuing until 1953. His only connections to the smog story is that he lived in London and he was caught a few months afterward. His story is not particularly worthy or engaging. He had obvious socialization/behavior problems--couldn't hold a job, was arrested for petty crimes, couldn't relate to women (though he was married.) He killed women because he feared their contempt, or something. His story is not enough to make a book. He's no Ted Bundy.
But the killer's tawdry crimes, coupled with the condensed story of the smog disaster, make enough pages to call it a book.
The airborne pollution is an amazing disaster, and worth reading. The other thing I found fascinating was how close to the edge lower-class workers lived in 1952 London, partly due to the crushing costs and destruction of the war. Their apartments were heated with coal, SUPPLIED WEEKLY BY A MAN LUGGING A BAGFUL. It seems so Dickens.
This is an amazing event and worth of a book.
Here's the curious part: Dawson apparently couldn't gather enough material on this subject to fill a whole book. (Really? 12,000 immediate victims--she couldn't find enough survivors to tell their story?) So the book is also the story of a peculiar, poorly-socialized, marginalized clerk who killed five women, beginning in the 1940s and continuing until 1953. His only connections to the smog story is that he lived in London and he was caught a few months afterward. His story is not particularly worthy or engaging. He had obvious socialization/behavior problems--couldn't hold a job, was arrested for petty crimes, couldn't relate to women (though he was married.) He killed women because he feared their contempt, or something. His story is not enough to make a book. He's no Ted Bundy.
But the killer's tawdry crimes, coupled with the condensed story of the smog disaster, make enough pages to call it a book.
The airborne pollution is an amazing disaster, and worth reading. The other thing I found fascinating was how close to the edge lower-class workers lived in 1952 London, partly due to the crushing costs and destruction of the war. Their apartments were heated with coal, SUPPLIED WEEKLY BY A MAN LUGGING A BAGFUL. It seems so Dickens.
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November 13, 2018Account of the 1952 Great Smog and subsequent efforts to get clean air legislation passed. This is written alongside an account of serial killer John Reginald Christie, who was operating at the time, and of a teenage girl whose father died in the smog.
Unfortunately the three stories are basically unconnected. Christie didn't use the smog as a cover for his crimes, he just happened to live through it. The teenager doesn't encounter Christie; her story is given in exhaustive detail as far as I can see simply because the author happened to interview her. This makes for a pretty unsatisfying read, overall. The smog parts are well written, and the girl's story as it pertains to that is very telling about the foul conditions, but the overall impression is of three pieces spliced together rather than a book.
I had issues with the Christie parts. For one, the author presents his racist views about West Indian immigrants unchallenged, as if part of a factual account. For another, the writing veers into serious overwriting when discussing the murdered women, including a bizarre habit of describing the corpses's feelings on being buried, jammed into a coal cellar, decomposition etc as though they were alive. And the use of American slang throughout in a London-focused book just doesn't work. One passage described 1950s Notting Hill as having been a "tony district" that had become "skid row" and talks about "blocks". Yeah, no.
Interesting on the smog but not, overall, a success for me.
Unfortunately the three stories are basically unconnected. Christie didn't use the smog as a cover for his crimes, he just happened to live through it. The teenager doesn't encounter Christie; her story is given in exhaustive detail as far as I can see simply because the author happened to interview her. This makes for a pretty unsatisfying read, overall. The smog parts are well written, and the girl's story as it pertains to that is very telling about the foul conditions, but the overall impression is of three pieces spliced together rather than a book.
I had issues with the Christie parts. For one, the author presents his racist views about West Indian immigrants unchallenged, as if part of a factual account. For another, the writing veers into serious overwriting when discussing the murdered women, including a bizarre habit of describing the corpses's feelings on being buried, jammed into a coal cellar, decomposition etc as though they were alive. And the use of American slang throughout in a London-focused book just doesn't work. One passage described 1950s Notting Hill as having been a "tony district" that had become "skid row" and talks about "blocks". Yeah, no.
Interesting on the smog but not, overall, a success for me.
September 13, 2017
This is the story of how the fog in London in the early 1950s, combined with emissions from factories and vehicles, and especially thanks to the unrationed and inferior coal dust nuggets known as nutty slack, killed thousands of Londoners and made life miserable for millions more. During the winter especially, when there was no wind for several days and the air didn't move, the fog became the worst. The weather was too cold to go without heat and most people relied on the cheap and plentiful and unrationed nutty slack. The government encouraged people to use the smoky and dirty coal even though it was becoming increasingly apparent that the coal was a major contributor to fogs so gritty and thick that some people remembered that you couldn't see your fingers when your arm was extended in front of you. Member of Parliament Norman Dodds was a particular thorn in the side of Prime Minister Harold MacMillan, who preferred to ignore the problem. Thanks to Dodd the press and eventually the government, recognized the problem and began to deal with it.
I enjoyed this bit of history, which was mostly new to me, and well told. I was confused however, with the parallel story of serial murderer Reg Christie. These events also took place during the early 1950s, but were not a result of the fog. Christie had not used the fog as a cover for his crimes and the fog hadn't driven him insane as far as we can tell. It almost seems as if the author was not convinced that the story of the killer fog would be compelling enough on its own and threw in a contemporaneous crime story to liven things up a bit. Eventually I began to skip this part of the book to concentrate on the more interesting and more relevant story of a deadly weather phenomenon.
(Thanks to NetGalley and Hachette Books for a digital review copy.)
I enjoyed this bit of history, which was mostly new to me, and well told. I was confused however, with the parallel story of serial murderer Reg Christie. These events also took place during the early 1950s, but were not a result of the fog. Christie had not used the fog as a cover for his crimes and the fog hadn't driven him insane as far as we can tell. It almost seems as if the author was not convinced that the story of the killer fog would be compelling enough on its own and threw in a contemporaneous crime story to liven things up a bit. Eventually I began to skip this part of the book to concentrate on the more interesting and more relevant story of a deadly weather phenomenon.
(Thanks to NetGalley and Hachette Books for a digital review copy.)
March 17, 2018
Kate Winkler Dawson has written a social history of London in December, 1952, when a "fog" of killer proportions blanketed the city for four days, killing hundreds of people, through asphyxiation and other respiratory problems. The book, "Death In the Air: The True Story of a Serial Killer, the Great London Smog, and the Strangling of a City", is also the story of Reg Christie, who, between 1943 and 1952, killed at least eight people and then buried their bodies under the garden and the floor boards of his apartment at 10 Rillington Place in Notting Hill.
Many authors have used dual stories in their non-fiction work. Erik Larson's "The Devil in the White City", set in Chicago in 1893, is the story of the Chicago World's Fair. He uses the joint figures of Daniel Burnham - the architect - and H H Holmes, a Chicago doctor. who "dispatched" somewhere between 27 and 200 people around the same time of the fair. In Dawson's book, she is looking at both a "mass killer" (the smog) and a "serial killer", (Reg Christie).
My definition of a "social history" is an account of a time or place where the author intersperses individuals to give the story a more personal effect. Readers can sympathise with young Rosemary Sargent, who lost her father to a choking death as the smog settled through the house walls, asphyxiating him in his bed. Dawson gives numbers...but she also looks at some of the people behind the numbers.
The Great Smog of December 1952, which took Rosemary's father and countless other, was caused by increased use of coal, and in particular the cheaper coal that burned dirty. A somewhat bizarre weather pattern, including an "anti-cyclone" and a temperature inversion. settled the filthy air onto London for four days or so. Visibility outside was terrible and many sufferers couldn't leave their homes and literally choked to death in their beds. As a result of the Great Smog of 1952, the problems with burning coal was recognised by the government and steps were put in place to, finally, eradicate the fog from forming. Meanwhile, 10 Rillington Place is becoming the center of a murder investigation, which would ultimately
lead to Reg Christie being hung for his crimes. (Another figure in the case may, or may not, have unfairly been hanged, as well.)
Kate Winkler Dawson's book is a good combination of scientific, criminal, and social histories.
Many authors have used dual stories in their non-fiction work. Erik Larson's "The Devil in the White City", set in Chicago in 1893, is the story of the Chicago World's Fair. He uses the joint figures of Daniel Burnham - the architect - and H H Holmes, a Chicago doctor. who "dispatched" somewhere between 27 and 200 people around the same time of the fair. In Dawson's book, she is looking at both a "mass killer" (the smog) and a "serial killer", (Reg Christie).
My definition of a "social history" is an account of a time or place where the author intersperses individuals to give the story a more personal effect. Readers can sympathise with young Rosemary Sargent, who lost her father to a choking death as the smog settled through the house walls, asphyxiating him in his bed. Dawson gives numbers...but she also looks at some of the people behind the numbers.
The Great Smog of December 1952, which took Rosemary's father and countless other, was caused by increased use of coal, and in particular the cheaper coal that burned dirty. A somewhat bizarre weather pattern, including an "anti-cyclone" and a temperature inversion. settled the filthy air onto London for four days or so. Visibility outside was terrible and many sufferers couldn't leave their homes and literally choked to death in their beds. As a result of the Great Smog of 1952, the problems with burning coal was recognised by the government and steps were put in place to, finally, eradicate the fog from forming. Meanwhile, 10 Rillington Place is becoming the center of a murder investigation, which would ultimately
lead to Reg Christie being hung for his crimes. (Another figure in the case may, or may not, have unfairly been hanged, as well.)
Kate Winkler Dawson's book is a good combination of scientific, criminal, and social histories.
December 9, 2024
A quick read, and it has its moments. The serial killer and the lethal smog are not really connected, except both occurring in London, and Dawson struggles trying to give a voice to each corpse. Does a corpse have consciousness?
I found all the chapter headings (literary references to London fog) to be repetitive and did not resonate very well with each chapter's theme. The cover blurb compares this tale to The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America, and making that comparison certainly does not do this book any favours because it will only remind readers how much more they enjoyed the other book.
I found all the chapter headings (literary references to London fog) to be repetitive and did not resonate very well with each chapter's theme. The cover blurb compares this tale to The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America, and making that comparison certainly does not do this book any favours because it will only remind readers how much more they enjoyed the other book.
August 10, 2017
In the winter of 1952, the city of London was blanketed with a suffocating fog, for five, long, stifling days, killing hundreds of people, with a poisonous smog, generated by the use of cheap, dirty coal. How was I not aware of this horrifying story? Talk about burying history. This is very similar to what the people of Salem, Massachusetts, did, by destroying any trace of the Salem Witch Trials. Shame, perhaps?
Running parallel to the deadly fog story, is one of a serial killer, who was strangling young women and burying them in and around his residence. A terrifying monster.
The author has done a stellar job, here braiding these stories together. Her research is meticulous and her narrative prose is strong and fluid. Fans of Erik Larson should find plenty to enjoy here, along with fans of the TV series, The Crown, since Queen Elizabeth had her coronation shortly after these events and Churchill was Prime Minister.
Running parallel to the deadly fog story, is one of a serial killer, who was strangling young women and burying them in and around his residence. A terrifying monster.
The author has done a stellar job, here braiding these stories together. Her research is meticulous and her narrative prose is strong and fluid. Fans of Erik Larson should find plenty to enjoy here, along with fans of the TV series, The Crown, since Queen Elizabeth had her coronation shortly after these events and Churchill was Prime Minister.
September 11, 2017
Book received from NetGalley.
The book was ok, but not great. I think the author would have done better either focusing on the deadly London smog or the serial killer, but not both. I believe the book was just too short to do either story she was trying to tell justice.
The book was ok, but not great. I think the author would have done better either focusing on the deadly London smog or the serial killer, but not both. I believe the book was just too short to do either story she was trying to tell justice.
April 30, 2022
A fascinating serial killer accounting interwoven with a historical environmental emergency! Dawson is a great storyteller and I'm excited to read another of her books.
February 14, 2019
Kate Winkler Dawson w fascynujący sposób połączyła w swojej książce historie dwóch morderców: tego niewidzialnego, pod postacią smogu i tego jak najbardziej realnego w postaci Johna Christie. W „Śmierć wisi w powietrzu” dostajemy do rąk reporterskie śledztwo z niemal kryminalną opowieścią, tym bardziej przerażającą, że prawdziwą. Warto zauważyć, że dzieje Bestii z Rilington Place są umiejętnie wplecione w opowieść o zabójczym smogu, który odgrywa główną rolę tej historii. To na tych pięciu tragicznych dniach w dziejach historii Londynu Dawson kładzie główny nacisk, ujawniając tym samym skalę tego zjawiska. „Śmierć wisi w powietrzu” to mocna i bezkompromisowa lektura, która jest tym bardziej ważna, kiedy pomyślimy o smogu dzisiaj, prawie siedemdziesiąt lat po tamtych wydarzeniach, bo czy możemy sobie obiecać, że coś takiego już nigdy więcej się nie powtórzy?
Nietuzinkowy reportaż, który czyta się jednym tchem.
Nietuzinkowy reportaż, który czyta się jednym tchem.
January 20, 2018
You know things are grim when debutantes make a fashion statement by wearing pearls and tying their designer scarves around their nose and mouth to block out toxic air. Dawson’s parallels two killers, polluted air produced by weather, anticyclone that keeps air trapped along with the need for cheap but smoke spewing cheap coal, and a strange man who enjoys molesting and strangling women. No one was breathing well in December 1952 London.
Both these stories are so extreme I’m amazed they are better known. America also was coming to terms with environmental issues as were other countries. The seven murders of women and one of the women’s baby are guaranteed to be sensational but the estimated 4,000 to 12,000 deaths due to pollution were barely a blip that year because the newspapers buried the story away from the front page and that’s if they covered them at all. This was the dawning of Clean air initiatives everywhere. That’s the positive outcome.
Though the outrageous number of pollution related deaths is appalling Death in the Air wouldn’t be such a page turner without the juxtaposition of John Reginal Christie’s murder rampage. The two accounts together make for interesting reading. The one thing that bothers me is how positively Dawson writes of how Americans dealt with similar air cleanliness issues versus the bigger struggle the UK had. America was in a post World War II economy boom where England had been bombed, had a struggling economy, and still had rationing for essentials such as coal.
Thank you to the publisher for providing an advance reader’s copy.
Both these stories are so extreme I’m amazed they are better known. America also was coming to terms with environmental issues as were other countries. The seven murders of women and one of the women’s baby are guaranteed to be sensational but the estimated 4,000 to 12,000 deaths due to pollution were barely a blip that year because the newspapers buried the story away from the front page and that’s if they covered them at all. This was the dawning of Clean air initiatives everywhere. That’s the positive outcome.
Though the outrageous number of pollution related deaths is appalling Death in the Air wouldn’t be such a page turner without the juxtaposition of John Reginal Christie’s murder rampage. The two accounts together make for interesting reading. The one thing that bothers me is how positively Dawson writes of how Americans dealt with similar air cleanliness issues versus the bigger struggle the UK had. America was in a post World War II economy boom where England had been bombed, had a struggling economy, and still had rationing for essentials such as coal.
Thank you to the publisher for providing an advance reader’s copy.
May 19, 2019
3.5
Dawson's book chronicles the battle against the London Smog and the murders of Reg Christie. There isn't much to connect the stories outside of the time period - so there doesn't seem to be a connection between the smog and the murder.
Which in lesser hands would make at least one of the stories feel like padding. It is to Dawson's credit that this does not occur.
I was slightly more interested in the Christie case because I recently read Who's Buried Where in London which mention and listed the grave sites of the victims. Yet, I found the smog story to be the most interesting, in part because the people that the smog kills are everyday people, in part because of the relevance to today's climate (why the earth hasn't killed people yet, I don't know), and because the smog deals with politics and change.
This isn't to say that the serial killer isn't just as insulting, in particular when he goes on the ran and is almost like the smog, an not 100% visible killer, but I just found the smog story more interesting, and quite frankly, would have gladly just read about that. However, I can understanding the desire to pair it with a murder - to be honest, it is what drew my attention - so the marketing does make sense.
If you are interested in the history of London, this is an important read.
Dawson's book chronicles the battle against the London Smog and the murders of Reg Christie. There isn't much to connect the stories outside of the time period - so there doesn't seem to be a connection between the smog and the murder.
Which in lesser hands would make at least one of the stories feel like padding. It is to Dawson's credit that this does not occur.
I was slightly more interested in the Christie case because I recently read Who's Buried Where in London which mention and listed the grave sites of the victims. Yet, I found the smog story to be the most interesting, in part because the people that the smog kills are everyday people, in part because of the relevance to today's climate (why the earth hasn't killed people yet, I don't know), and because the smog deals with politics and change.
This isn't to say that the serial killer isn't just as insulting, in particular when he goes on the ran and is almost like the smog, an not 100% visible killer, but I just found the smog story more interesting, and quite frankly, would have gladly just read about that. However, I can understanding the desire to pair it with a murder - to be honest, it is what drew my attention - so the marketing does make sense.
If you are interested in the history of London, this is an important read.
October 1, 2017
A very informative book that goes very in depth about a great fog and smog that killed thousands of people in London in a week in early December 1952. At the same time, serial killer John Reginald Christie just happened to be going around knocking off women, a minimum of 6, probably more. A very creepy, terrible time in London to be sure and there apparently was a lot of cover-up going on by the government over the number of fog deaths and what the real reason was behind it for many, many years. But the seeds were also planted to begin to turn things around too. Quite a read for history and true crime fans. An ARC was provided by NetGalley and the publisher for an unbiased review.
March 23, 2018
interesting book with the dual story of Christie and the great smog of 1952
February 24, 2021
The weather bits: 4 stars. The serial killer bits: 1 star. The idea that somehow these two things belonged in the same book: -3 stars.
Honestly, what was the editorial process like on this book?
First the good: really well-written weather reporting, that makes high and low pressure actions understandable to the layperson (hello), along with a really nicely done background on economic pressure, the war recovery effort, and a surprisingly readable tale of how this all shook out in Parliament. Useful and interesting.
But.
Why in the world has this fascinating meteorology tale been paired with a salacious and confusing story of a serial killer? Why? What was hoped to be gained from this? I did not see the parallel the author insisted was there, between a fog that destroyed people's lungs, and a dude who strangled women and hid them in his house. Nope. Nyet. Non. No sale.
I could very easily have read a whole book about the weather catastrophe, touching as it did on parallel and related smog disasters in other countries, legislative reform, survivors' accounts, and Parliamentary in-fighting. It's not often someone opts for Margaret Thatcher over a serial killer, but this is one of those moments.
Additionally, very early on, the author makes this throwaway observation about how the fog in London was so extreme and omnipresent that Victorian authors routinely and systematically incorporated it into their literature and holy cats do I need that book yesterday. I need to write that book*, or at least roll around in the lovely evocative literature quotes (Victorian & Modernist! huzzah!) that open each chapter.
*Semi-regular reminder to myself: We are not going back to grad school. We are not going back to grad school. We are not--
Honestly, what was the editorial process like on this book?
First the good: really well-written weather reporting, that makes high and low pressure actions understandable to the layperson (hello), along with a really nicely done background on economic pressure, the war recovery effort, and a surprisingly readable tale of how this all shook out in Parliament. Useful and interesting.
But.
Why in the world has this fascinating meteorology tale been paired with a salacious and confusing story of a serial killer? Why? What was hoped to be gained from this? I did not see the parallel the author insisted was there, between a fog that destroyed people's lungs, and a dude who strangled women and hid them in his house. Nope. Nyet. Non. No sale.
I could very easily have read a whole book about the weather catastrophe, touching as it did on parallel and related smog disasters in other countries, legislative reform, survivors' accounts, and Parliamentary in-fighting. It's not often someone opts for Margaret Thatcher over a serial killer, but this is one of those moments.
Additionally, very early on, the author makes this throwaway observation about how the fog in London was so extreme and omnipresent that Victorian authors routinely and systematically incorporated it into their literature and holy cats do I need that book yesterday. I need to write that book*, or at least roll around in the lovely evocative literature quotes (Victorian & Modernist! huzzah!) that open each chapter.
*Semi-regular reminder to myself: We are not going back to grad school. We are not going back to grad school. We are not--
January 10, 2018
In December of 1952, a brutal winter and inferior heating coal collided with London's infamous fogs to produce a killer smog so lethal, it took the lives of thousands and literally strangled a city. Meanwhile, serial killer John Reginald Christie was adding to the body count, hiding his victims about his home and property.
Kate Winkler Dawson does a masterful job of weaving the stories of these two different harbingers of death on the streets of London, and displaying how each impacted that city in near equal measure, and left their filthy fingerprints on the pages of it's history.
Extensively researched and beautifully written, this book proves that history can be as engaging as any fictional work.
Highly recommended.
Kate Winkler Dawson does a masterful job of weaving the stories of these two different harbingers of death on the streets of London, and displaying how each impacted that city in near equal measure, and left their filthy fingerprints on the pages of it's history.
Extensively researched and beautifully written, this book proves that history can be as engaging as any fictional work.
Highly recommended.
October 26, 2017
Death in the Air is a dual exploration of two murderers in 1950s London: The Great Smog of 1952 and John Reginald Christie, a serial killer. Over five days in December 1952, the smog killed thousands of people. Christie murdered at least seven women between 1943 and 1953, including his wife, Ethel. The tenuous thread between the two is that they caused death by asphyxiation, and both were catalysts for policy change regarding the environment and the death penalty, respectively. Ultimately, the author failed to convince me as to why she put them together in one narrative since, truthfully, they have nothing to do with each other except thematically.
Both subjects could have been interesting on their own, given the proper focus and format, but neither narrative is quite given its due. The descriptions of the Great Smog --which take up a good chunk of the first part of the book -- were unfortunately repetitive, though the aftermath covered in the latter half was more interesting. I also found Christie to be uninteresting, as far as serial killers go. Still, there are important and very relevant lessons to be learned from the role government negligence (and influence from special interest groups) played in causing the fog and the subsequent push for better regulations on pollutants and clean air policies.
Despite my issues with the book, I believe the book could be enjoyed by a variety of people: true crime readers, those interested in environmental policy, and readers interested in modern London history will find something of interest. There also may he heightened interest due to the smog's appearance in the TV series "The Crown" on Netflix.
* I received a review copy from NetGalley/Hatchette
Both subjects could have been interesting on their own, given the proper focus and format, but neither narrative is quite given its due. The descriptions of the Great Smog --which take up a good chunk of the first part of the book -- were unfortunately repetitive, though the aftermath covered in the latter half was more interesting. I also found Christie to be uninteresting, as far as serial killers go. Still, there are important and very relevant lessons to be learned from the role government negligence (and influence from special interest groups) played in causing the fog and the subsequent push for better regulations on pollutants and clean air policies.
Despite my issues with the book, I believe the book could be enjoyed by a variety of people: true crime readers, those interested in environmental policy, and readers interested in modern London history will find something of interest. There also may he heightened interest due to the smog's appearance in the TV series "The Crown" on Netflix.
* I received a review copy from NetGalley/Hatchette
March 12, 2018
This well-researched book reminds me of Erik Larson’s Devil In The White City with two parallel events taking place, both with a serial killer at the core. This time, Death in the Air, tells the story of two killers, the London fog which killed thousands, and Reginald Christie who killed a mere half dozen or so (no one knows the exact number).
As a Londoner who’d lived through that era, I found it especially interesting. I remember listening to the grim reports on the BBC on a daily basis as a kid, as the bodies were uncovered in Reginald Christie's scruffy abode, 10 Rillington Place in Notting Hill. The newspapers, of course, were having a wild time too, with screaming headlines and sordid accounts of Christie’s depravity.
The book meticulously chronicles the events leading up to the fog of 1952, seen through the eyes of various families with loved ones who suffered and died hideous, slow, choking deaths in their homes. Hospitals, if you could find them, were full of dying patients, and there were no beds to be found. There are many interesting aspects of the story. The press had not the first inkling that this was a huge story of mass death—an enormous tragedy taking place under their very noses.
Of course, with the emphasis on pollution today, it seems almost impossible to believe this could have happened—but these events were partially responsible for our present concerns and attitudes—even though the exact number of dead was covered up for years. It should be remembered that this was at a time, just after the war, when Londoners were broke and trying to survive and to stay warm in harsh winter conditions. Cheap coal was all that was available and the only means of staying warm. Every home in Great Britain had a fire grate with a coal fire burning. Unfortunately, that cheap, inferior fuel spewed thousands of tons of deadly pollutants into the air and with certain weather conditions caused it to hang over London and other big cities, like ‘pea soup’, choking and killing their residents.
The author of this saga, Kate Winkler Dawson, switches back and forth between Christie the murderer and the killer fog (later called smog), making it informative and interesting. The Christie story had aspects to it which make it seem like pulp fiction—as when a policeman visits Christie’s humble abode regarding another matter, and is almost overcome by the stench of rotting bodies under the floor boards and concealed in a closet sealed with wallpaper. Others who visit Christie’s garden, seeking the whereabouts of a missing neighbor, fail to notice a woman’s thigh bone conveniently propping up the garden fence. The unfolding story becomes more and more incredible and tragic, largely due to bumbling police work.
We find out that Christie’s neighbor, Tim Evans, a Welshman, was also a murderer, arrested for killing his wife and child. Evans paid the price. Justice was swift. He was hanged in Pentonville Prison. But was he the murderer, or just unfortunate to be living in the flat above our serial killer, Reginald Christie?
It was a good read for me as I grew up in London and familiar with the locations: Lewisham, Catford, Bromley, St. Paul’s and Notting Hill etc. I remember as a kid how dirty my white shirt collar was after one day at school; how when you blew your nose your handkerchief became covered in soot! Since then, they’ve done a good job of controlling pollution, no question. Of late however, by insistence of ‘the experts’ by urging the use of diesel engines to drive trucks and cars, things are reaching critical stage once more.
With the advent of the Clean Air Act came the big cleanup of the city. Stone cleaning companies have done all right. After scrapping and cleaning through the sixties and seventies, centuries of soot and grim were removed and London’s old buildings look fine indeed. In that same vein, did the execution of the wrong man, lead to the abolition of the death penalty in Britain? (Though of course, it was never admitted that the wrong man had swung for a crime he did not commit—and in all fairness, nobody actually knew, but the old phrase ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’ may have weighed more heavily with a jury.)
It took years for the London air to improve. I remember a bad one in 1962. I was traveling down the Edgeware Road on my way home to Brixton Hill (where Christie had been locked up in jail ten years earlier awaiting his fate). When I got to Marble Arch, where Oxford Street, Bayswater Road, Park Lane and Edgeware Road converge, traffic was at a standstill and drivers were standing around lost. The driver of an eighteen wheeler spoke to me in plaintively “Can you show me the road to Wales, mate?” he asked. Since I couldn’t see further than the end of my nose, I could only tell him he needed to get on the Bayswater Road heading west. I pointed into the fog in the opposite direction to which he was headed. I always wondered if the poor devil made it to Wales. Finally, after following a convoy I made it to Brixton Hill, but could not find my street. I got out of the car and went to look for it, but after locating Arodene Road, I could not find my car! Thank Goodness the days of peasoupers are over!
As a footnote: While researching more on this story I read where the hangman, Albert Pierrepoint received a complaint from one of his ‘clients’ whose hands and arms were trussed up behind his back.
‘My nose is itchy’ the condemned man cried.
“Don’t worry, it won’t bother you for long,” was Pierrepoint’s reply.
As a Londoner who’d lived through that era, I found it especially interesting. I remember listening to the grim reports on the BBC on a daily basis as a kid, as the bodies were uncovered in Reginald Christie's scruffy abode, 10 Rillington Place in Notting Hill. The newspapers, of course, were having a wild time too, with screaming headlines and sordid accounts of Christie’s depravity.
The book meticulously chronicles the events leading up to the fog of 1952, seen through the eyes of various families with loved ones who suffered and died hideous, slow, choking deaths in their homes. Hospitals, if you could find them, were full of dying patients, and there were no beds to be found. There are many interesting aspects of the story. The press had not the first inkling that this was a huge story of mass death—an enormous tragedy taking place under their very noses.
Of course, with the emphasis on pollution today, it seems almost impossible to believe this could have happened—but these events were partially responsible for our present concerns and attitudes—even though the exact number of dead was covered up for years. It should be remembered that this was at a time, just after the war, when Londoners were broke and trying to survive and to stay warm in harsh winter conditions. Cheap coal was all that was available and the only means of staying warm. Every home in Great Britain had a fire grate with a coal fire burning. Unfortunately, that cheap, inferior fuel spewed thousands of tons of deadly pollutants into the air and with certain weather conditions caused it to hang over London and other big cities, like ‘pea soup’, choking and killing their residents.
The author of this saga, Kate Winkler Dawson, switches back and forth between Christie the murderer and the killer fog (later called smog), making it informative and interesting. The Christie story had aspects to it which make it seem like pulp fiction—as when a policeman visits Christie’s humble abode regarding another matter, and is almost overcome by the stench of rotting bodies under the floor boards and concealed in a closet sealed with wallpaper. Others who visit Christie’s garden, seeking the whereabouts of a missing neighbor, fail to notice a woman’s thigh bone conveniently propping up the garden fence. The unfolding story becomes more and more incredible and tragic, largely due to bumbling police work.
We find out that Christie’s neighbor, Tim Evans, a Welshman, was also a murderer, arrested for killing his wife and child. Evans paid the price. Justice was swift. He was hanged in Pentonville Prison. But was he the murderer, or just unfortunate to be living in the flat above our serial killer, Reginald Christie?
It was a good read for me as I grew up in London and familiar with the locations: Lewisham, Catford, Bromley, St. Paul’s and Notting Hill etc. I remember as a kid how dirty my white shirt collar was after one day at school; how when you blew your nose your handkerchief became covered in soot! Since then, they’ve done a good job of controlling pollution, no question. Of late however, by insistence of ‘the experts’ by urging the use of diesel engines to drive trucks and cars, things are reaching critical stage once more.
With the advent of the Clean Air Act came the big cleanup of the city. Stone cleaning companies have done all right. After scrapping and cleaning through the sixties and seventies, centuries of soot and grim were removed and London’s old buildings look fine indeed. In that same vein, did the execution of the wrong man, lead to the abolition of the death penalty in Britain? (Though of course, it was never admitted that the wrong man had swung for a crime he did not commit—and in all fairness, nobody actually knew, but the old phrase ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’ may have weighed more heavily with a jury.)
It took years for the London air to improve. I remember a bad one in 1962. I was traveling down the Edgeware Road on my way home to Brixton Hill (where Christie had been locked up in jail ten years earlier awaiting his fate). When I got to Marble Arch, where Oxford Street, Bayswater Road, Park Lane and Edgeware Road converge, traffic was at a standstill and drivers were standing around lost. The driver of an eighteen wheeler spoke to me in plaintively “Can you show me the road to Wales, mate?” he asked. Since I couldn’t see further than the end of my nose, I could only tell him he needed to get on the Bayswater Road heading west. I pointed into the fog in the opposite direction to which he was headed. I always wondered if the poor devil made it to Wales. Finally, after following a convoy I made it to Brixton Hill, but could not find my street. I got out of the car and went to look for it, but after locating Arodene Road, I could not find my car! Thank Goodness the days of peasoupers are over!
As a footnote: While researching more on this story I read where the hangman, Albert Pierrepoint received a complaint from one of his ‘clients’ whose hands and arms were trussed up behind his back.
‘My nose is itchy’ the condemned man cried.
“Don’t worry, it won’t bother you for long,” was Pierrepoint’s reply.
February 25, 2019
3.5/5 gwiazdek. Nie było złe. Opowieść o dwóch mordercach. Jednym niewidocznym - smogu, drugim zauważalnym. Mężczyźnie, który trzymał pod deskami podłogowymi rozkładające się zwłoki. Mężczyźnie, który w tym samym czasie pielęgnował ogródek, gdzie zakopana była mała dziewczynka. W tym samym też momencie w Londynie smog i zanieczyszczenie powietrza, było takie duże, że ludzie umierali idąc z pracy do domu, a ofiary były liczone w tysiącach.
No wszystko ciekawie, ale strasznie chaotycznie. Styl jednak zaniża ocenę, bo mimo, że tematyka ciekawa to niestety mi się bardzo dłużyło.
No wszystko ciekawie, ale strasznie chaotycznie. Styl jednak zaniża ocenę, bo mimo, że tematyka ciekawa to niestety mi się bardzo dłużyło.
June 9, 2019
A fascinating read. True crime serial killer plus man made disaster that killed thousands.
September 20, 2017
WOW. You must read this book. I am so bummed I can't share my notes (I got an advance copy from NetGalley) because there are some truly alarming statistics in here―all the more important due to the conversations we're having today around climate change, pollution, and renewable energy.
Here are some callouts:
12,000 people died because of poisonous fog. And it was barely a blip in the news. Comparatively, John Reginald Christie (the other antagonist in this story) killed at least eight people, making headlines across the world. This book provides not only two fascinating narratives (the one about the deadly fog, and the one about the serial killer), but unique commentary around popular media, man-made disasters, and the fact that we still have a lot of work to do when it comes to environmental protection. People are STILL dying from smog―according to the author, about 4,000 people in China die every day, accounting for 17% of deaths in the country.
4/5 stars mainly because I found several sections to be repetitive. Some of the Parliamentary sessions discussing nutty slack dragged on too much for my liking.
This is a riveting story, and an important one. Highly recommended for folks who liked The Radium Girls by Kate Moore!
Here are some callouts:
"During both world wars, smoke became a defense strategy. In some areas of England,
pollution was produced with the intention of masking the city from enemy bombers."
"The accusation that the number of victims was twelve thousand, not four thousand, was tucked away in a graph [...] for more than fifty years."
12,000 people died because of poisonous fog. And it was barely a blip in the news. Comparatively, John Reginald Christie (the other antagonist in this story) killed at least eight people, making headlines across the world. This book provides not only two fascinating narratives (the one about the deadly fog, and the one about the serial killer), but unique commentary around popular media, man-made disasters, and the fact that we still have a lot of work to do when it comes to environmental protection. People are STILL dying from smog―according to the author, about 4,000 people in China die every day, accounting for 17% of deaths in the country.
4/5 stars mainly because I found several sections to be repetitive. Some of the Parliamentary sessions discussing nutty slack dragged on too much for my liking.
This is a riveting story, and an important one. Highly recommended for folks who liked The Radium Girls by Kate Moore!
November 15, 2017
this is about the fog/great london smog a lot more than it is about the killings that took place at the same time. the author would start writing about the murders committed by christie, start ramping up to something interesting, and then immediately change the subject back to the fog, whether it be the science of it, the governments response, or rosemary sargent and stanley crichton who were affected by the smog. it just got so boring to read the same thing over and over again - i get that the smog was deadly, can we talk about something else now?
the sections about rosemary and stanley kind of dropped off at the end and made me wonder why they were even included, especially since stanley is only written about like, twice. there's also two sections about dr. donald acheson but they were so short and with so little information i wondered why they were included as well.
i get that this is supposed to be about the smog as well as the murders but it seemed to me like the murders were included to be an interesting hook so that the author could talk about smog. there really didn't seem to be any correlation between the two events other than they took place at the same time - though christie began murdering several years before the fog, and having a section start with christie being affected by the fog and then being told to think back several years to the events of previous murders was confusing. this may be enjoyable to someone who really likes reading about the weather, poor quality coal, and how the british government responds to those two intersecting, but i am not that someone.
the sections about rosemary and stanley kind of dropped off at the end and made me wonder why they were even included, especially since stanley is only written about like, twice. there's also two sections about dr. donald acheson but they were so short and with so little information i wondered why they were included as well.
i get that this is supposed to be about the smog as well as the murders but it seemed to me like the murders were included to be an interesting hook so that the author could talk about smog. there really didn't seem to be any correlation between the two events other than they took place at the same time - though christie began murdering several years before the fog, and having a section start with christie being affected by the fog and then being told to think back several years to the events of previous murders was confusing. this may be enjoyable to someone who really likes reading about the weather, poor quality coal, and how the british government responds to those two intersecting, but i am not that someone.
October 28, 2017
Wow, I had no idea this had ever happened - how is this event not common knowledge? A fascinating and well researched book, unfortunately somewhat diluted by the addition of a second subject (a serial killer) which really wasn't necessary, as the great smog was entirely frightening enough on its own.
A sobering reminder of how easy it can be to cause, excuse, perpetuate and then deny/cover up great environmental harm. Feels particularly relevant now, in the US, as we watch the same type of greedy, selfish, shortsighted and arrogant old politicians gut the EPA, while selling snake oil to the credulous. Might be useful to remember this event in London, before we end up living a version of it ouselves.
A sobering reminder of how easy it can be to cause, excuse, perpetuate and then deny/cover up great environmental harm. Feels particularly relevant now, in the US, as we watch the same type of greedy, selfish, shortsighted and arrogant old politicians gut the EPA, while selling snake oil to the credulous. Might be useful to remember this event in London, before we end up living a version of it ouselves.
February 28, 2020
I'm visiting my Mum and Dad on Sunday - and the smog of 1952 will definitely be our dinner time conversation! I'm fascinated to know how they coped in the poisonous air cloaking our city. This book has a great storytelling style narration from this 'new to me' author - and I can see myself recommending this too lots of people in the months to come. The woven story of the west London serial killer, Christie, shouldn't of worked - but for the most part it did! That part of the story is so well known that it was more interesting to read about it against the backdrop of everything else that was happening in the capital at the time. So often true crime books strip all that away and focus on the crime in isolation.
January 2, 2020
“Śmierć wisi w powietrzu” zginęła gdzieś w zalewie wydawniczych nowości i przeszła bez większego echa. A szkoda! W swojej książce Kate Winkler Dawson w fascynujący sposób przybliża czytelnikowi historię dwóch londyńskich seryjnych morderców. Jednym z nich jest słynny zabójca z Rillington Place 10 - John Reginald Christie, a drugim - jakże bardziej śmiercionośnym, a mimo to na kartach historii praktycznie zapomnianym - Wielki smog londyński z 1952 roku. Obie historie - opowiadane naprzemiennie - szokują i mrożą krew w żyłach. Dawson operuje bardzo obrazowym językiem. Barwne i nie stroniące od szczegółów opisy sprawiają, że czytelnik ma wrażenie współuczestnictwa w przedstawianych historiach, wręcz przenosi się w trakcie lektury do ówczesnego Londynu. A nie jest to Londyn znany z brytyjskich komedii romantycznych - urokliwy, pełen przepięknych zaróżowionych od kwitnących drzew magnolii uliczek i gustownych kamieniczek. Powojenny Londyn to miasto ciemne, brudne, przykryte przez lepką sadzę i duszącą podrażniającą oczy i gardła mgłę. Powojenny Londyn to także miasto kryjące w sobie ulice, w które strach zagłębiać się w biały dzień - ze zrujnowanymi, zapuszczonymi kamienicami zamieszkałymi przez najgorszy element społeczny. Dawson tak bardzo realistycznie i żywie opisuje te nieprzyjazne miasto, że niejednokrotnie w trakcie lektury miałam ochotę umyć ręce bądź wytrzepać nieistniejący szary pył z włosów. A makabryczne szczegóły morderstw Christiego sprawiły, że czytanie “Śmierci” wolałam kończyć przed zmrokiem.
Książka niezmiernie wciąga już od pierwszych stron i dopiero pod sam koniec wkrada się lekkie - kiedy to autorka opisywanie historii ofiar smogu zamienia na przytaczanie kolejnych pomysłów polityków i ustaw mających na celu poprawę powietrza. Jednak nie mogę tego potraktować jako zarzut, gdyż chcąc napisać rzetelny reportaż Dawson nie mogła nie skupić się również i na tak znaczącej przy tej katastrofie politycznej części tej historii.
O tak dobrym reportażu jakim jest “Śmierć wisi w powietrzu” powinno być w książkowych internetach zdecydowanie głośniej. Tym bardziej, że śmiercionośny smog jest w naszym kraju tematem bardzo na czasie. Problem ważny i aktualny - lekturę książki Dawson polecam wszystkim, a już zwłaszcza przydałaby się prawicowym politykom - może w końcu uświadomili by sobie, co może czekać obywateli, jeśli nadal władze będą uważały problem smogu za “fanaberie i wymysły” psychoekologów i lewaków.
Książka niezmiernie wciąga już od pierwszych stron i dopiero pod sam koniec wkrada się lekkie - kiedy to autorka opisywanie historii ofiar smogu zamienia na przytaczanie kolejnych pomysłów polityków i ustaw mających na celu poprawę powietrza. Jednak nie mogę tego potraktować jako zarzut, gdyż chcąc napisać rzetelny reportaż Dawson nie mogła nie skupić się również i na tak znaczącej przy tej katastrofie politycznej części tej historii.
O tak dobrym reportażu jakim jest “Śmierć wisi w powietrzu” powinno być w książkowych internetach zdecydowanie głośniej. Tym bardziej, że śmiercionośny smog jest w naszym kraju tematem bardzo na czasie. Problem ważny i aktualny - lekturę książki Dawson polecam wszystkim, a już zwłaszcza przydałaby się prawicowym politykom - może w końcu uświadomili by sobie, co może czekać obywateli, jeśli nadal władze będą uważały problem smogu za “fanaberie i wymysły” psychoekologów i lewaków.
December 7, 2018
This was a fascinating read. The film noir hook of a killer fog and a serial killer are hard to resist. The author is clearly a journalist with impeccable research and investigative skills. She sets the scene as a novelist would while not straying from the facts.
The story takes place mostly in the early 1950s and touches on the impacts of WWII and how it impacted everyone for years after its end. It made me think of how people used to experience war, in ways that so few do now when a war isn't on their shore. I remember the writer Harold Pinter talking about what it was like to grow up with the threat of bombs dropping at any moment. It helped him know the impacts of war in a different way than someone who just sees war on the evening news. The tragedy with the fog that killed thousands is one of those impacts of war - years later.
It was poignant when reading about the victims of both storylines. I think there is something that resonates when reading about someone we know will meet a horrible end, especially when that person has no clue. It reminds us that none of us knows, or few of us anyway, when and how we will leave this life. No one or hardly anyone that gets taken horribly ever predicts the how or who or when of it.
In this book, the author makes the point that while a serial killer is horrible, they usually kill far fewer people than one's own government through the policy decisions they make or refuse to make. One pundit fighting the good fight for the people of London when it came to the fog said that more than evidence, he needed allies. This is often so true. Someone can have proof or a hunch of the dangers or remedies of some situation, but without enough (or important enough) allies it's akin to doing D-Day solo.
It was interesting, albeit typical, that one influential ally against dirty coal was the gas industry. Mostly because they would clearly profit from coal's demise. It seems no different today when different industries or manufacturers call out their competitors as the real culprits. All fuel or atrocity is dirty "except the one that makes me a lot of money" - or so the argument goes. The powers-that-be saw it as too expensive to make the conversion to electricity and impossible to have everyone burn cleaner coal because there was a shortage. The government was struggling financially after WWII and was selling their better fuel to other countries and selling the cheaper "nutty slack" to their citizens. Decisions like this still happen everyday in boardrooms and in government.
It was shocking how the story of more than 10,000 people dying from coal-infused fog wasn't, for the most part, front-page news. It was so quickly forgotten and then buried because it would cost too much for the government to accept responsibility. Wow, no different than some heartless corporations today. Even our own government didn't want to help 9-11 first responders, saying there wasn't enough proof their illness was related to the toxic event of 9-11. All while using 9-11 to get out the vote.
When it came to the serial killer storyline, it was expectedly creepy how twisted he was in thinking his killing was leading him to his destiny. I guess one does have to be delusional to be a serial killer. It's horrible knowing there are people walking around right now that are that delusional and violent. It made me think of the man that assassinated U.S. President Garfield in 1880s, he also thought it was his destiny to kill Garfield. While not a serial killer, he was clearly as delusional as the serial killer in this tale.
There were moments of empathy for the serial killer when the author shared a time when the serial killer knew the police were looking for him. As he eavesdropped on people discussing his crimes and the manhunt for him, no one noticed him right there - out in the open - making him feel invisible "as he had been for much of his life." When he was in the newspapers, he seemed to enjoy being seen finally. This explains most mass shooters who for the most part feel unseen or invisible. It's like that ancient tale of a man being caught after vandalizing statues. When asked why he was so overjoyed being that he would be put to death for his crime, the vandal replied "But I'll be remembered!"
It's sad that people feel invisible. Though I'm sure most that feel that way never commit heinous acts. Though it makes me think there is a component of an ego run-amok in most people that do horrible things. Anyway, it's sad that anyone feels being seen will make them complete somehow. It's sad that they don't understand it's about seeing, not being seen. Though in today's social media orgy, it's no wonder mass shootings have skyrocketed. It seems more people than ever want to be remembered, damn the cost.
As the book comes to resolution for both story lines, it's clear the serial killer captured people's imagination more than the killer smog. Even today, this would likely be the case. The book had some insights into government that are unfortunately still relevant today. How oftentimes those we elect to represent us do what is better for them politically and/or cheaper for the coffers and proactively try to bury real solutions for ones that often cost us dearly in the long-run.
The story takes place mostly in the early 1950s and touches on the impacts of WWII and how it impacted everyone for years after its end. It made me think of how people used to experience war, in ways that so few do now when a war isn't on their shore. I remember the writer Harold Pinter talking about what it was like to grow up with the threat of bombs dropping at any moment. It helped him know the impacts of war in a different way than someone who just sees war on the evening news. The tragedy with the fog that killed thousands is one of those impacts of war - years later.
It was poignant when reading about the victims of both storylines. I think there is something that resonates when reading about someone we know will meet a horrible end, especially when that person has no clue. It reminds us that none of us knows, or few of us anyway, when and how we will leave this life. No one or hardly anyone that gets taken horribly ever predicts the how or who or when of it.
In this book, the author makes the point that while a serial killer is horrible, they usually kill far fewer people than one's own government through the policy decisions they make or refuse to make. One pundit fighting the good fight for the people of London when it came to the fog said that more than evidence, he needed allies. This is often so true. Someone can have proof or a hunch of the dangers or remedies of some situation, but without enough (or important enough) allies it's akin to doing D-Day solo.
It was interesting, albeit typical, that one influential ally against dirty coal was the gas industry. Mostly because they would clearly profit from coal's demise. It seems no different today when different industries or manufacturers call out their competitors as the real culprits. All fuel or atrocity is dirty "except the one that makes me a lot of money" - or so the argument goes. The powers-that-be saw it as too expensive to make the conversion to electricity and impossible to have everyone burn cleaner coal because there was a shortage. The government was struggling financially after WWII and was selling their better fuel to other countries and selling the cheaper "nutty slack" to their citizens. Decisions like this still happen everyday in boardrooms and in government.
It was shocking how the story of more than 10,000 people dying from coal-infused fog wasn't, for the most part, front-page news. It was so quickly forgotten and then buried because it would cost too much for the government to accept responsibility. Wow, no different than some heartless corporations today. Even our own government didn't want to help 9-11 first responders, saying there wasn't enough proof their illness was related to the toxic event of 9-11. All while using 9-11 to get out the vote.
When it came to the serial killer storyline, it was expectedly creepy how twisted he was in thinking his killing was leading him to his destiny. I guess one does have to be delusional to be a serial killer. It's horrible knowing there are people walking around right now that are that delusional and violent. It made me think of the man that assassinated U.S. President Garfield in 1880s, he also thought it was his destiny to kill Garfield. While not a serial killer, he was clearly as delusional as the serial killer in this tale.
There were moments of empathy for the serial killer when the author shared a time when the serial killer knew the police were looking for him. As he eavesdropped on people discussing his crimes and the manhunt for him, no one noticed him right there - out in the open - making him feel invisible "as he had been for much of his life." When he was in the newspapers, he seemed to enjoy being seen finally. This explains most mass shooters who for the most part feel unseen or invisible. It's like that ancient tale of a man being caught after vandalizing statues. When asked why he was so overjoyed being that he would be put to death for his crime, the vandal replied "But I'll be remembered!"
It's sad that people feel invisible. Though I'm sure most that feel that way never commit heinous acts. Though it makes me think there is a component of an ego run-amok in most people that do horrible things. Anyway, it's sad that anyone feels being seen will make them complete somehow. It's sad that they don't understand it's about seeing, not being seen. Though in today's social media orgy, it's no wonder mass shootings have skyrocketed. It seems more people than ever want to be remembered, damn the cost.
As the book comes to resolution for both story lines, it's clear the serial killer captured people's imagination more than the killer smog. Even today, this would likely be the case. The book had some insights into government that are unfortunately still relevant today. How oftentimes those we elect to represent us do what is better for them politically and/or cheaper for the coffers and proactively try to bury real solutions for ones that often cost us dearly in the long-run.
December 5, 2021
“Śmierć wisi w powietrzu” zginęła gdzieś w zalewie wydawniczych nowości i przeszła bez większego echa. A szkoda! W swojej książce Kate Winkler Dawson w fascynujący sposób przybliża czytelnikowi historię dwóch londyńskich seryjnych morderców. Jednym z nich jest słynny zabójca z Rillington Place 10 - John Reginald Christie, a drugim - jakże bardziej śmiercionośnym, a mimo to na kartach historii praktycznie zapomnianym - Wielki smog londyński z 1952 roku. Obie historie - opowiadane naprzemiennie - szokują i mrożą krew w żyłach. Dawson operuje bardzo obrazowym językiem. Barwne i nie stroniące od szczegółów opisy sprawiają, że czytelnik ma wrażenie współuczestnictwa w przedstawianych historiach, wręcz przenosi się w trakcie lektury do ówczesnego Londynu. A nie jest to Londyn znany z brytyjskich komedii romantycznych - urokliwy, pełen przepięknych zaróżowionych od kwitnących drzew magnolii uliczek i gustownych kamieniczek. Powojenny Londyn to miasto ciemne, brudne, przykryte przez lepką sadzę i duszącą podrażniającą oczy i gardła mgłę. Powojenny Londyn to także miasto kryjące w sobie ulice, w które strach zagłębiać się w biały dzień - ze zrujnowanymi, zapuszczonymi kamienicami zamieszkałymi przez najgorszy element społeczny. Dawson tak bardzo realistycznie i żywie opisuje te nieprzyjazne miasto, że niejednokrotnie w trakcie lektury miałam ochotę umyć ręce bądź wytrzepać nieistniejący szary pył z włosów. A makabryczne szczegóły morderstw Christiego sprawiły, że czytanie “Śmierci” wolałam kończyć przed zmrokiem.
Książka niezmiernie wciąga już od pierwszych stron i dopiero pod sam koniec wkrada się lekkie - kiedy to autorka opisywanie historii ofiar smogu zamienia na przytaczanie kolejnych pomysłów polityków i ustaw mających na celu poprawę powietrza. Jednak nie mogę tego potraktować jako zarzut, gdyż chcąc napisać rzetelny reportaż Dawson nie mogła nie skupić się również i na tak znaczącej przy tej katastrofie politycznej części tej historii.
O tak dobrym reportażu jakim jest “Śmierć wisi w powietrzu” powinno być w książkowych internetach zdecydowanie głośniej. Tym bardziej, że śmiercionośny smog jest w naszym kraju tematem bardzo na czasie. Problem ważny i aktualny - lekturę książki Dawson polecam wszystkim, a już zwłaszcza przydałaby się prawicowym politykom - może w końcu uświadomili by sobie, co może czekać obywateli, jeśli nadal władze będą uważały problem smogu za “fanaberie i wymysły” psychoekologów i lewaków.
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Książka niezmiernie wciąga już od pierwszych stron i dopiero pod sam koniec wkrada się lekkie - kiedy to autorka opisywanie historii ofiar smogu zamienia na przytaczanie kolejnych pomysłów polityków i ustaw mających na celu poprawę powietrza. Jednak nie mogę tego potraktować jako zarzut, gdyż chcąc napisać rzetelny reportaż Dawson nie mogła nie skupić się również i na tak znaczącej przy tej katastrofie politycznej części tej historii.
O tak dobrym reportażu jakim jest “Śmierć wisi w powietrzu” powinno być w książkowych internetach zdecydowanie głośniej. Tym bardziej, że śmiercionośny smog jest w naszym kraju tematem bardzo na czasie. Problem ważny i aktualny - lekturę książki Dawson polecam wszystkim, a już zwłaszcza przydałaby się prawicowym politykom - może w końcu uświadomili by sobie, co może czekać obywateli, jeśli nadal władze będą uważały problem smogu za “fanaberie i wymysły” psychoekologów i lewaków.
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