 |  | | | Lucy Moore | 16 February 2005 | | |
on Con Men and Cutpurses
In November 1726 a woman called Mary Toft appeared to give birth to 17 fully-grown rabbits. Eventually Mary was exposed as a fraud. She admitted that she had staged the whole thing hoping that she might profit from her celebrity and was thrown in jail.
The dark, cobbled streets of eighteenth century London offered plenty of opportunity to women keen to achieve fame and fortune if not always by honest means.
Lucy Moore is the author of Conmen and Cutpurses. Anna McNamee went to meet her in the City of London at the site of Newgate Prison to learn more about some of the most notorious criminals of the day.
Lucy Moore
Con Men and Cutpurses
Published by Penguin
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