It is a truth universally acknowledged that around the town of Alton, Hampshire, UK, the most famous celebrity is the one and only Jane Austen.  However, about a mile and a half from her historic home is another landmark - the grave of Fanny Adams.  Today, the phrase "Sweet Fanny Adams" means, simply, "nothing" (EX: "I know Sweet Fanny Adams about that").  But who was Fanny Adams and how did her name become linked with the phrase we know today?  The truth is that the story of Fanny Adams is as tragic as it is disturbing.  On August 24th 1867,  eight-year-old Fanny was abducted and murdered by a man named Frederick Baker.  Not long after, a macabre rumor began circulating that ultimately gave way to the phrase, which even today, overshadows a crime that shook this small town for its depravity and the loss of a life that had barely begun.


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Sources:

Carney, Ann.  “Sweet Fanny Adams:  How a Horrific Child Murder became English Slang.”  The Crime Wire, The Arena Media Brands, LLC, 20th January 2023, https://thecrimewire.com/multifarious/Sweet-Fanny-Adams-The-Murder-of-an-Innocent-Child

Curtis Museum.  “Local History: The True Story of Sweet Fanny Adams.”  Hampshire Cultural Trust, https://www.hampshireculture.org.uk/sites/default/files/inline-files/FannyAdams.pdf 

Driscoll-Woodford, Heather.  “The seasonal Guildford guy riots.”  BBC, 30th October 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/surrey/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_8308000/8308764.stm 

McCloskey, Keith.  Killed a Young Girl, It Was Fine and Hot: The Murder of Sweet FA.  Keith McCloskey, 2016.

Talbot, Lucy Coleman.  “Sweet Fanny Adams.”  Death and the Maiden, 24th August 2016, https://deadmaidens.com/2016/08/24/sweet-fanny-adams/ 

Thorpe, Peter.  “The gruesome origin of ‘Sweet Fanny Adams.’”  History Answers, Future Publishing Limited Quay House, 14th October 2015, https://www.historyanswers.co.uk/people-politics/the-gruesome-origin-of-sweet-fanny-adams/ 

“Who Was Sweet Fanny Adams?”  Hampshire Geological Society, https://www.hgs-familyhistory.com/2014/10/sweet-fanny-adams/