"Let Him Have it, Chris"

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In the 2013 novel The Late Scholar by Jill Paton Walsh, the character Peter Wimsey notes that the Bentley case has reduced the support for capital punishment. The film's end titles state that Bentley's sister, Iris, was still fighting for his pardon. Seven years after the film was made and after numerous unsuccessful campaigns to get Bentley a full pardon, his conviction was eventually overturned by the Court of Appeal on 30 July 1998, one year after Iris's death. [4] Release [ edit ] Find sources: "Derek Bentley"– news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR ( August 2023) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) I’ve been watching the sea. There hasn’t been the trace of a ship. Perhaps we’ll never be rescued.” One of my favorite Horror tropes is the creepy kid trope. Friend definitely nailed that. Bonus points for them being twins and for the super-disturbing imaginary friend.

Ralph stood away from the pile and put the glasses into Piggy s groping hands. His voice subsided to a mutter. The synopsis stated this as being a "creeping, gothic psychological suspense" and that is exactly what was delivered. Any horror novel involving children is sure to send shivers down my spine but when they are twins, living in this vast abode, and with their trauma so recent in their minds it was transformed massively into something I struggled reading after dark. Secondly, there was controversy over the existence and meaning of Bentley's alleged instruction to Craig, "let him have it, Chris". Craig and Bentley denied that Bentley had said the words while the police officers testified that he had said them. Further, Bentley's counsel argued that even if he had said the words, it could not be proven that Bentley had intended the words to mean the informal meaning of "shoot him, Chris" instead of the literal meaning of "give him the gun, Chris".This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( September 2020) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) By the time Ralph finished blowing the conch the platform was crowded. There were differences between this meeting and the one held in the morning. The afternoon sun slanted in from the other side of the platform and most of the children, feeling too late the smart of sunburn, had put their clothes on. The choir, noticeably less of a group, had discarded their cloaks. and them little ‘uns was wandering about down there where the fire is. How d’you know they aren’t still there?”

Bentley was examined twice by EEG: a reading on 16 November 1949 [1] indicated he was an epileptic and a reading on 9 February 1950 was "abnormal". Both were taken at the Burden Neurological Institute in Bristol. [4] Release from Kingswood [ edit ] And sooner or later a ship will put in here. It might even be Daddy’s ship. So you see, sooner or later, we shall be rescued.” Bentley's body was removed from Wandsworth Prison and reinterred near his ancestors at Croydon Cemetery during 1966. His gravestone reads, "Here lies Derek William Bentley, a victim of British justice". Derek Bentley’s case is one that shook England’s belief in capital punishment. It was a landmark case in British legal history. As the end credits of the film point out, his family continued their fight after the execution. This led to a 45-year long campaign to win Derek a posthumous pardon, granted in 1993 (two years after the release of the film). Another campaign was also led for the quashing of his murder conviction in 1998. The film is an eye-opener about the merciless justice system that we have in place. It poses a question all of us need to ask ourselves — what is the meaning of justice?

Following the execution there was a public sense of unease about the decision, resulting in a long campaign to secure a posthumous pardon. The campaign was initially led by Bentley's parents until their deaths in the 1970s, after which the drive to clear Bentley's name was led by his sister Iris. In March 1966 his remains were removed from Wandsworth Prison and reburied in a family grave. On 29 July 1993, Bentley was granted a royal pardon in respect of the sentence of death passed upon him and carried out. However, in English law this did not quash his conviction for murder. The ensuing story is one that is chilling and eerie and so creepy and disturbing, I had to stop reading at times, especially right before bedtime. It features all the ingredients for a disturbing read: a set of headstrong twins, an imaginary friend (or foe?), a cult-like family history, bizarre dreams, all set in a big old house with too many rooms and a chilling history. The build-up is slow and unsettling, don't expect gory horror, but rather subtle psycho games between family members that will leave you wondering what is reality and what isn't; and at the end if there is any form of paranormal occurrences at all.

At last Ralph induced him to hold the shell but by then the blow of laughter had taken away the child’s voice. Piggy knelt by him, one hand on the great shell, listening and interpreting to the assembly. All at once he found he could talk fluently and explain what he had to say . He passed a hand through his fair hair and spoke. Enlisting the help of his sister-in-law, a psychotherapist, they make a plan to figure out what is actually haunting the girls. The 1991 feature film Let Him Have It, starring Christopher Eccleston as Bentley and Paul Reynolds as Craig, relates the story, as do the songs "Derek Bentley" by Karl Dallas (in which the lyrics imply that Bentley was guilty but sympathise with him), " Let Him Dangle" by Elvis Costello, "Let Him Have It" by The Bureau, and "Bentley and Craig" by Ralph McTell, whose mother was a friend of the Bentley family, also covered by June Tabor (on Aleyn, TSCD490, 1997). The setting is perfect, in a falling down house called Hart House with peeling walls and a winding staircase. It’s just the type of house you’d picture a horror movie would take place in. Whatever is happening, you sense that it is tied to the house, because Julia’s now dead sister also claimed to see a man in her room in that house when she was a child. But surely, it isn’t the same man, right?

Advance Praise

UPDATE** There's a major motion picture on its way...starring Kevin Costner as George and Diane Lane (!!) as Margaret. It's billed as a thriller...not quite sure I see it as one, but the fact is those actors are more than capable of making these people live. I will say the pacing felt a little off in places. I couldn't always quite work out the timeline of events. I don't think this necessarily had a huge negative impact on the plot in any way, it just gave me that feeling of being lost a few times. Also to note, the ending (which I absolutely adored) is one that's ambiguous, and I know this is something a lot of readers don't enjoy, so it's worth pointing out!⁠ Featuring two of the creepiest tropes in horror -- twins and imaginary friends -- William Friend's chilling debut Let Him In is the scary book to add to your October reading list. Friend's book starts strong with a tale of twin girls (yeah - my mind always jumps to the Overlook Hotel), and their imaginary friend, but loses steam by becoming too convoluted. This novel could easily be edited down to a very taut short story. The other problem I had with the book was that I didn't really didn't care about ANY of the characters, or what was happening to them. As far as chilling books to read this spooky season, I'd put this one near the bottom of the list. A group of uniformed police officers arrived and were sent onto the roof. The first to reach the roof was Police Constable Sidney Miles, who was immediately killed by a shot to the head. After exhausting his ammunition and being cornered, Craig jumped 30 feet (10 metres) from the roof onto a greenhouse, fracturing his spine and left wrist, and had to remain in hospital.

Kilmuir, 1st Earl of (1964). Political adventure: the memoirs of the Earl of Kilmuir. Weidenfeld and Nicolson. p. 206. {{ cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list ( link) Startled, Ralph realized that the boys were falling still and silent, feeling the beginnings of awe at the power set free below them. The knowledge and the awe made him savage. Moving beyond the cover, I found the text itself to be exceptional. The sentences and phrases were delightful and effectively punctuated to amplify the sinister atmosphere permeating the entire book. The author skillfully manipulates both the characters' and readers' minds, leaving them in a state of constant anticipation. Just when you believe you have the story figured out, the author throws a curveball that takes you by surprise. It was after 45 long, arduous years that Bentley was granted a full pardon by the British justice system. The film played a very significant role in obtaining justice for Bentley. The pardon was granted because of Bentley’s family’s continuous fight after he was hanged. In fact, the end credits of the movie mention that his sister was still fighting at the time the movie was released. Numerous filmmakers, writers and people of influence were pushed to take up the case, so that word about the case could be spread widely through movies and books. Derek Bentley’s tombstone fittingly reads — A Victim of British Justice. Analysis

Kwei Quartey

Watson, Geoffrey (2016). "Let him have it: the short, sad life of Derek Bentley" (PDF). The New South Wales Bar Association . Retrieved 28 September 2020. Another factor in the posthumous defence was that a "confession" recorded by Bentley, which was claimed by the prosecution to be a "verbatim record of dictated monologue", was shown by forensic linguistics methods to have been largely edited by policemen. Linguist Malcolm Coulthard showed that certain patterns, such as the frequency of the word "then" and the grammatical use of "then" after the grammatical subject ("I then" rather than "then I"), were not consistent with Bentley's use of language (his idiolect), as evidenced in court testimony. [17] These patterns fit better the recorded testimony of the policemen involved. This is one of the earliest uses of forensic linguistics on record. What I enjoyed about the events that unfold after this is that debut author William Friend blurs the boundaries between the real and the imagined using grief, guilt and trauma as a catalyst, leaving me uncertain about what was truly happening. The book was, at times, slowly and deliberately paced, and while I could appreciate why it was done, it might’ve been a little bit too slow for my tastes.