012: Introducing Dick Turpin, Spring-Heel'd Jack, and the Companions of Midnight!

INTRODUCING our NEW FORMAT!

FIRST — in Flash Academy, we'll learn what Paddington Fair Day, Darby's Fair, Barking Irons, and Cherry-Coloured Prads meant, in highwaymens' slang.

THEN — we plunder five different story papers!

In Sweeney Todd, Ch. 37 and 38 —

• We meet Major Bounce, the "swaggering companion" and Mrs. Lovett's beau ideal — who, unfortunately, has lost her favour and seems destined to end up in a pie ...
• Meanwhile, Tobias's mother tries to call him out of his delirium, but ends up making things worse.

In Varney the Vampyre, Ch. 2 —

• The brothers of Flora, the vampyre's maiden victim, rush to her assistance — or try to. They also try to shoot the vampyre, twice. The second time, he falls with a howling shriek! Is he dead? We shall see ... but it's only Chapter 2, so maybe not.

In Black Bess, Ch. 1 —

• We meet highwayman Dick Turpin preparing to rob the old Lord Mayor of London. But the ex-mayor's wife turns out to be a bit of a handful ... will Dick get away with this depredation?

In Spring-Heel'd Jack, Ch. 1 —

• we meet Jack, in disguise, standing treat in a pub. One of the patrons, a policeman, boasts that he'll surely nab Jack; so Jack unmasks and frightens him out of his wits ...

In The Black Band, Ch. 1 —

• We meet Colonel Bertrand. He is lurking at a masquerade ball, overhearing a conversation between an ice-hearted beauty and her handsome but impoverished would-be lover. She is hinting that if he would but murder his older brother, he would inherit the family wad and she would marry him; but, as things stand, it’s a no for her. What lengths will he go to to win her tainted love? And why is Colonel Bertrand taking such a strangely intense interest in him?

Join Professor Flash, a.k.a. Finn J.D. John. for a 90-minute spree through the story papers of old London! Grab a flicker of blue ruin, unload your stumps, and let's go!