British poet, journalist, and avid amateur historian Joseph Smith Fletcher went on to become one of the foremost figures in the genre of detective fiction in the early to mid-twentieth century. Set in a quiet community in the north of England, The Borough Treasurer is an enjoyable mystery that will keep even the most astute readers guessing.

Originally published in 1985, this book was a study of one example of an all-purpose, unitary, borough council in the UK. It covers the years since the democratization of the borough councils in 1835, through the attainment of county borough status in 1888, the major expansion in local government services in the first six decades of the 20th Century, and the decline, after reorganization, of both the boroughs in particular and local government in general. The book assesses the impact of the Borough Council on the town of Reading and its inhabitants, dealing with the politics of territorial expansion, the attempts to make a coherent education and the process by which local politics became dominated by political partisanship. The book’s examination, largely based on original sources, of government and politics in one English town, is of broader relevance to fields such as political history and the development of the party system. It will be of interest to local and urban historians and students of politics and public administration.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1874.