Cassie Britland is a Sydney-based writer, researcher, and editor. She spends half her week writing about holidays for a global travel company, the other half researching and writing about 130-year-old murders, and every day wondering how she got so lucky.

Cassie is currently working on a book about Mary Ann Britland, the first woman hanged at Strangeways Prison in Manchester, England. In 1886, Mary Ann Britland was convicted of the poisoning murder of her best friend, Mary Dixon, and believed to have also poisoned her daughter, Elizabeth Hannah Britland, and husband, Thomas Britland, as well. Mary Ann Britland also happens to be one of Cassie Britland’s distant ancestors, a fact that makes some of Cassie’s friends and acquaintances a tad nervous…

As Archives & Arsenic, CassieBritland.com offers a behind-the-scenes look at Cassie’s research and writing process. It provides writing tips, archival and family history research advice, and updates on Cassie’s work, as well as plenty of fascinating (read: salacious and occasionally gory) historical info. For lovers of history, true crime, and great stories, it’s a site to watch.