WHEN true crime writer and diarist Kate Clarke tired of London, she certainly hadn’t tired of life.

After more than 20 years teaching in London schools, Kate moved to Hayon- Wye to concentrate on her writing and has just published Bad Companions: Six London Murderesses Who Shocked the World.

“I am fascinated by murder,” says Kate, who has collaborated on five previous true crime books.

“Most of the cases I have written about have been women, and were tied up with the social history of the time.

“They were often women who were cornered and had few options to escape their situation.”

Of the six women, Kate admits to finding Eliza Fenning the most sympathetic.

“She was described as young, petite and pretty. She was charged with poisoning the dumplings she made for her employers’ dinner but protested her innocence to the end.

“Sadly,” says Kate, “she went to the gallows, wearing an embroidered bonnet she had made for her wedding, and her best lilac boots.

Press coverage of the case was huge and many, including Charles Dickens some years later, thought her innocent.”

Other cases include that of the ill tempered and extremely violent maid, Kate Webster, who murdered her elderly mistress and dismembered the body.

Bizarrely, a skull unearthed in the garden belonging to Sir David Attenborough in 2010 was formally identified as that of Julia Thomas by the West London coroner who recorded a verdict of unlawful killing, 130 years after the crime.

Bad Companions by Kate Clarke is published by The History Press, historypress.co.uk.