The Netflix series deals with the murders in detail, but the love affair between Elizabeth Haysom and me comes up a little short. What was our relationship really like back then? How could I have fallen so deeply in love with Elizabeth that I was willing to get involved in a double-murder?
I wrote about this years ago in "A far, far better thing" (Lantern Books 2017). While the focus of that book is on the murders, seven chapters have almost nothing to do with the crime. Instead, they describe the passionate early months of Elizabeth’s and my affair, as well as the five months we spent together on the run in south-eastern Europe, Asia and Great Britain.
In this audiobook, I read these seven chapters from "A far, far better thing myself." This material is perfectly capable of standing on its own; listeners don’t need to know anything about the murder case in order to be drawn into the romantic spell of the story.
Was Elizabeth’s and my affair really just a nightmare of manipulation and deception?
Or was it perhaps also, at least for a time, something beautiful?