Messalina of the Suburbs is based on a famous murder case, in which Edith Thompson was convicted and hanged in 1923 as an accomplice of her lover Bywaters who attacked and killed her husband. Although she was certainly shocked and astonished by the attack, her letters to Bywaters describe her repeated attempts to poison her husband. E. M. Delafield (1890-1943) was a prolific English author who is ...