Murder, Poaching and Lemonade: Crimes and court cases from nineteenth century West Lothian

Since newspapers began journalists have known that crime stories sell copies. People can be fascinated, horrified or simply entertained by the scandals and wrong-doings of their fellows. This book gathers together a selection of stories which span the period 1801 to 1900. With a few digressions, they relate to the people and places of Linlithgowshire, the administrative area of the time which roughly corresponds to today’s West Lothian. As well as the human interest in the people, and the crimes which they may, or may not, have committed, these stories offer a window into everyday life in a period when Linlithgowshire, along with the rest of Britain, was being transformed in many ways.