Frome historians’ book used in BBC Radio 4 series

A book by Frome historians David Lassman and Mick Davis has been used as source material in a BBC Radio 4 true crime series.

The book, Adventures of a Victorian Conwoman, explores the life and crimes of Mrs Annie Gordon Baillie, one of the most ‘notorious’ and ‘compulsive’ swindlers of the Victorian age.

The book has been used as a source of material for the BBC Radio 4 series, Lady Swindlers, presented by historian Lucy Worsley. The series explores what the lives and crimes reveal about women in the past, and how different things are for women today.

Both David Lassman and Mick Davis feature on the cover of the book, published in 2021, with the photograph taken by Frome Times photographer Martyn Payne.

Part of the book’s blurb reads, “During her life she used more than 40 aliases, produced four children and spent her way through millions of ill-gotten pounds, dollars and other currencies. But at the turn of the twentieth century, her notoriety was such that she took refuge in America and disappeared from history.”

The episode featuring material from David and Mick’s book can be heard on BBC Sounds’ Lady Swindlers with Lucy Worsley, series two.