Why a Booktrail?
1953: England Expects is a picture of celebrating the new Queen’s Coronation and…. a trail of murder…
England Expects
What you need to know before your trail
1953 is a year of celebration for England as a new and very young Queen sits on the throne. In the seaside resort of Brighton, Mirabelle Bevan, ex SOE agent, is working in a Debt Collection Agency and is working on the case of a racing journalist who has been found with his throat cut in a barber’s shop. What is stranger still is the fact that his body has been moved rather quickly by the police and Mirabelle thinks this is very suspicious.
Then a cleaning lady is found dead and those circumstances are suspicious as well. So into the world of betting slips, the freemasons and the dark side of Brighton they go in order to shine a light on the dubious goings on.
Travel Guide
1950s Brighton is a world filled with racism, sexism and murder and is certainly not what England Expects! The towns and cities are alive with excitement after the coronation of the new Queen.
Brighton
Home of Mirabelle Bevan and the setting for the Debt Agency. Racism is rife here as Vera, a black woman feels its wrath. At the time this would be a strange sight – to see a black woman investigating a crime, drinking in a pub and being independent.
A Brighton Barber shop becomes just like the establishment in Sweeney Todd, a journalist has his throat slit and his body is moved with speed, although not down a chute in this case. This is also the world of the Freemasons where the cleaner is murdered and where the sights and sounds of Brighton are crumbling – from the small shabby streets to Brighton Pavillion.
Cambridge
The town of bicycles and punts which turns out to be very symbolic to the investigation for its the city of architecture and masonic at that. Mirabelle knows the town and the university well for she was keen on debating in her student days and found it competitive. This town forms a new lead and direction in the investigation and the buildings of the iconic university and surroundings of its institutions are evoked amongst the noise from the church spires, bells and the clatter of students weaving their way past the Masonic lodge.
London
The city is alive with the cheers of the Coronation and is still clinging to the vestige of this excitement and promise of change. This is post war london for the old viaduct over the london road and the odeon cinema has been rebuilt. However some parts of the tracks are still strewn with bricks. Here is where the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Masonic lodge hold quite a few secrets.
Streetview Maps
C) Brighton Pavillion
D) Brighton - Grand Hotel
E) Cambridge - St Radegunds pub
H) London - Buckingham Palace
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