Introduction

Long before the rise of the internet troll, malicious letters written by anonymous authors were causing untold grief to those who received them, and tugging at the seams of social cohesion in small communities. Speaking to Spencer Mizen, Emily Cockayne reveals why these spiteful missives caused such chaos in the Victorian and Edwardian eras.

(Ad) Emily Cockayne is the author of Penning Poison: A History of Anonymous Letters (OUP, 2023). Buy it now from Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Penning-Poison-Dr-Emily-Cockayne/dp/019879505X/?tag=bbchistory045-21&ascsubtag=historyextra-social-histboty

The HistoryExtra podcast is produced by the team behind BBC History Magazine and BBC History Revealed.

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