Madame Guillotine

‘It was bitterly cold that morning and I could hardly bear to get out of bed, not that it made any difference as the threadbare cotton of my sheets were barely able to keep my freezing toes warm, no matter how much I curled them under.

‘Come on sleepy head,’ my brother said with a laugh. ‘We are expected at the Louvre this afternoon and you know how sour Mama gets when we are late.’

‘I don’t want to go,’ I said with a sniff, pulling the covers over my head. ‘Everyone there laughs at me because I wear old clothes and Cousin Philippe says that I’m not a real princess.’

‘Does he indeed?’ Charles stopped laughing and I pushed back the sheet to sneak an uncertain look at his face. He didn’t look cross, which was something and would have been unusual, but there was something brooding and pensive about his eyes that I had never before seen and which made me feel suddenly uneasy. ‘Well, well, good old cousin Philippe.’

‘It isn’t a nice thing to say, is it Charles?’ I asked hesitantly. ‘Mama tells me every day that I am a princess and that I shouldn’t pay attention to Philippe but…’

‘But…’ Charles gently pulled back the sheet so that he could look me in the eyes. ‘I know. It’s hard to feel like a real princess when your shoes have holes, when your dress is far too small and your stomach is growling because you haven’t had enough to eat.’

I nodded, then sat up in the bed, hugging my thin knees beneath the offending sheet. I smiled ruefully up at my brother. ‘Cousin Louis says that I am too thin,’ I said, rubbing my elbows. ‘He calls me the relic of the Holy Innocents. On account of all my bones, I suppose.’

‘He’s a fool.’ Charles reached out to gently touch my cheek. ‘And what is more he’ll realise it one day and rue his words, the idiotic young whelp.’ He took me by the hand and pulled me from the bed, dancing me around the room until I forgot the cold and almost cried with laughter. ‘Besides,’ he said, pausing for a moment to bow over my hand, his long almost black hair brushing against my fingers, ‘people can say what they like about we Stuarts, and they frequently do, but they can’t deny that we know how to have fun.’

As I may have mentioned from time to time, my next novel is about the ravishing Henriette Anne, daughter of Charles I and Henriette Marie; sister of Charles II and early love and sister in law of Louis XIV. Poor Henriette, who was called Minette by her adoring brother, died on the 30th June 1670 at the age of twenty six. It was rumoured at the time that she had been poisoned, probably by her husband’s nasty boyfriend, the Chevalier de Lorraine but it’s more likely that she died of natural but untimely causes.

Henriette’s death plunged the court into mourning and devastated both her brother in law, Louis XIV and brother, Charles II, both of whom had adored her. In fact it has been said that Charles loved his Minette more than any other woman, which is quite an accolade when you think about it.

I’ve wanted to write about Henriette for a long time now, although I am slightly put off by Margaret Irwin’s Royal Flush, which is a rightly much loved and respected account of the dramas of her short but dazzling life. It’s quite amazing really – Henriette was born in Exeter on the 16th of June 1644 while her mother was on the run during the English Civil War (she would escape to France soon afterwards, leaving the baby princess in the care of her fiercely protective governess, Lady Morton – mother and daughter would not be reunited for two years) and would later be smuggled to France as a toddler. It’s said that the little princess was dressed in boy’s clothes for this adventure but was infuriated by this lese-majesté and insisted on informing everyone she encountered that she was not a boy after all but a princess!

Several things draw me to Henriette and make me keen to tell her story – the classic Cinderella rags to riches aspect to her story, the tragic Stuart dark sparkle that she appears to have had in spades and the fact that she was loved by the two most powerful and charismatic men of her time. After her escape to Paris, the princess lived in very straitened circumstances first in the Louvre then the Palais Royal with her mother, Henriette who was reduced to accepting an allowance from her French relatives, most of which she sent on to aid the war effort in England. They were very much the poor relations of Louis XIV, who was also growing up in straitened circumstances, under the control of his mother and Cardinal Richelieu. Henriette’s siblings were scattered all over Europe, in particular her elder, adored brother Charles II, who became known as The Wandering Prince as, exiled from his own throne in England, he travelled between the courts of relatives, borrowing money, trying to gather support and seducing ladies in waiting.

Nonetheless, it was her mother’s wish that her youngest daughter, the final link with her husband that she was raising in Paris to be as much like herself as possible, should in time marry her cousin, Louis XIV but fond though Louis’ mother might be of her sister in law and niece, she had no wish to see her adored elder son marry into the Stuarts, a family of impoverished and unlucky exiles, whose prestige had never been lower. Not to mention the fact that she was more inclined to favour a match between her son and another cousin, her own blood niece, the Infanta Maria Teresa of Spain.

Ineligible though she may have been, Henriette was still much admired at the French court when she made her rare appearances there. Her talent at dancing and public speaking was much commented on and she was considered to be extremely pretty and elegant if a little too thin, with even Louis, normally so courteous but apparently feeling he might say whatever he liked about a little cousin, referring to her dismissively as ‘the bones of the Holy Innocents’ and, more crushingly, refusing to dance with her at a court ball, saying that ‘I do not like little girls’.

After the Restoration of Charles II, however, things began to change for the better and although she was to be denied the prize of Louis XIV, who was instead married to the Infanta as his mother had planned, Henriette was instead betrothed to his younger brother Philippe, Duc d’Orléans, with her brother providing a more than satisfactory dowry of 840,000 Livres.

After a very brief honeymoon period, during which the couple seemed to be sincerely attached to each other, the marriage was predictably miserable. Henriette was desperate for love, romance and affection and her husband, who later admitted that he loved his wife for only a fortnight after their wedding, was a self centered, extravagant, vainglorious bully who prefered to surround himself with perfumed, pretty young boyfriends but at the same time was insanely jealous of Henriette, who was beginning to blossom into a beauty and was known at court as simply ‘Madame’.

Of course, this being the Cinderella princess, Louis was soon to eat his earlier words when the charm and prettiness of the little English princess, whose fortunes had been so much transformed won his heart.

‘If I wish myself at Saint Cloud it is not because of its grottoes or the freshness of its foliage. Here we have gardens fair enough to console us, but the company which is there now, is so good that I find myself furiously tempted to go there, and if I did not expect to see you here tomorrow, I do not know what I should do, and could not help making a journey to see you…‘ Louis XIV to Henriette, whose country seat was the Chateau de Saint Cloud.

Clearly her magnificent cousin had got over his early dislike of her looks as soon after her marriage to his brother, he began to pay her such marked attention that it was generally believed that they were more than likely lovers or at least a bit in love with each other. There is a story that, frustrated with the scrutiny of the gossipy court and fed up with tantrums from Philippe and moralising from their respective scandalised mothers, they cooked up a scheme to deflect attention from their affair by pretending that he was paying court to her most humble lady in waiting Louise de la Vallière, only to have the plan go sadly awry for Henriette when Louis actually did fall for Louise, who was a shy, quiet blonde with a penchant for hero worship, martyrdom and flouncing away from court and declaring that she was going to become a nun whenever things didn’t go quite her way.

That they had a flirtation is clear, but no one will ever know just how far it went. What is clear though is that once his love for her had cooled, he remained very fond of Henriette and was sincerely distressed by her death.

The main purpose of the Orléans’ marriage was to produce children as well as bring the Bourbon and Stuart families closer together and within a year of the wedding, Henriette did her duty and produced a daughter, Marie Louise. However, it was whispered that the baby was not Philippe’s but had in fact been fathered by either his brother Louis or one of his favourite boyfriends, the Comte de Guiche, who had had a brief affair with Henriette, much to the amusement of all the court who had been kept fully entertained by her husband’s tantrums when he learned of the double betrayal.

When Henriette died, Louis was just thirty two years old and in his prime: the building of his great palace at Versailles was underway, he was in thrall to Athénaïs de Montespan and his prestige both in France and abroad had never been higher. The death of Henriette, a girl that he had known since childhood must have shaken him terribly as it was the first passing on within the intimate circle of young people that he had created around himself.

We are told that the normally self controlled to the point of coldness Louis sobbed openly at her deathbed and pleaded with the doctors to save her life, despite the clear hopelessness of the situation. ‘Ah, do not weep, Sire, or you will make me weep too. You are losing a good servant who has always feared the loss of your good graces more than death itself,’ she said gently to Louis as she lay dying.

Much later on, Henriette’s granddaughter, Marie Adélaïde, would travel from her home in Savoy to Versailles to marry her cousin, Louis XIV’s grandson, the Duke de Bourgogne. Weirdly, both she and her mother would follow in Minette’s unfortunate footsteps and die at the sadly young age of twenty six. The Duchesse was mother of the future Louis XV, which means that thanks to Minette, Louis XV and his grandson, Louis XVI were both descended from Mary Queen of Scots and Charles I.

Minette, my novel about Henriette Anne, should be released sometime next year.

Although historical fiction is my passion, I find that whenever I am stressed out I resort to the calming embrace of vintage crime. This may seem odd to a few of you but I find few things as soporific as a good Christie novel or film. In fact, rather embarrassingly, for the weeks that preceded the vile moving house experience, I watched NOTHING but the ITV Marple adaptations on repeat while locked away in our bedroom.

Now, purists may well loathe and detest the ITV series but I happen to love it with a passion even if they can be cringe inducingly awful at times and play fast and loose with the original plot by changing the identity or motivation of the murderer, adding peculiar subplots or even shoehorning Miss Marple into stories that she has no business being in. I still love them though for their vibrancy and kitschy glamour. In fact I am watching At Bertram’s Hotel right now and loving it.

My other big passion is, of course, the novels of Georgette Heyer so it was inevitable that sooner or later I would have a break from her Regency novels and give her mystery novels a whirl and if you are a fan of both Christie and Heyer as well then I’d recommend you do so as well, unless of course you already have.

Heyer’s murder mysteries have a dark sparkle that is missing from Christie’s works but if you are a fan of her Regency novels then the language employed by her characters can be more than a bit disconcerting as they tend to speak in the exact same way, using the same idiom and slang. Except these aren’t the dashing habitués of Regency London speaking, but their 1930′s descendants who motor down to the country at weekends, work in respectable and well qualified professions in the city or law and like nothing better than a dinner with chums at their clubs.

You’ll find echoes of her Regency characters here too – in A Blunt Instrument (1938), there is an estranged but secretly madly in love married couple who would later inspire Nell and Cardross in April Lady (1957).

‘Tell me this, Helen; would you have married me if I had not been a rich man?’ – A Blunt Instrument.

‘Had I not been possessed of a large fortune, you wouldn’t have married me, would you, Nell?’ – April Lady.

Anyway, so far in this spree of well bred crime and debonair iniquity, I have read: A Blunt Instrument (very good and extremely amusing in places); Death in the Stocks (also very good although you can spot the killer a mile off); Footsteps in the Dark (less good but has some good moments) and am now half way through Why Shoot a Butler? (I’m not sure that I am enjoying this one to be honest but I’ll persevere). I still have quite a few to go but am having a break after Why Shoot a Butler? to read I Remember You by Harriet Evans and Daisy Goodwin’s My Last Duchess. I’ll be reviewing them all when I’m done.

In summary, if you enjoy Christie and Heyer then you’ll probably enjoy these books – especially if you absolutely delight in Heyer’s dry humour, excellent use of language and sparkly characterisation. Ever wondered what the delightful Freddy from Cotillion would be like if he was a washed up 1930s alcoholic? You’ll find out in Death in the Stocks...

Of course all of this makes excellent preparation for tomorrow when I will be spending the day pretending to be a 1930′s housewife for Proctor and Gamble! There’s even going to be video evidence of me doing my chores! Gosh golly.

Also, if you’re intrigued by snippets of my novel about Marie Antoinette, you may like to know that it is currently £1.72 on Amazon UK and $2.74 on Amazon US.

‘Louis XIV is one of the best-known monarchs ever to grace the French throne. But what was he like as a young man—the man before Versailles?

After the death of his prime minister, Cardinal Mazarin, twenty-two-year-old Louis steps into governing France. He’s still a young man, but one who, as king, willfully takes everything he can get—including his brother’s wife. As the love affair between Louis and Princess Henriette burns, it sets the kingdom on the road toward unmistakable scandal and conflict with the Vatican. Every woman wants him. He must face what he is willing to sacrifice for love.

But there are other problems lurking outside the chateau of Fontainebleau: a boy in an iron mask has been seen in the woods, and the king’s finance minister, Nicolas Fouquet, has proven to be more powerful than Louis ever thought—a man who could make a great ally or become a dangerous foe . . .

Meticulously researched and vividly brought to life by the gorgeous prose of Karleen Koen, Before Versailles dares to explore the forces that shaped an iconic king and determined the fate of an empire.‘

I still remember the huge thrill of reading Karleen Koen’s first book, the incredible Through A Glass Darkly – an amazingly rich novel set in the early eighteenth century, where the winsomely lovely heroine Barbara loses then finds herself against the backdrop of George I’s London and the decadent Paris of the Regency, where orgies, duels and dissolute iniquity are very much the order of the day.

I’ve devoured Karleen’s subsequent books – Now Face to Face and then Dark Angels and so was very excited to find out that a fourth book was on the cards: Before Versailles: A Novel of Louis XIV. Dark Angels was set at the court of the young Louis XIV and was a superb evocation of a dazzling and fascinating period in French history so I can’t wait to read more just as soon as I get my mitts on a copy! It’s released today and if it is anything like her previous books then it will be amazing.

I was lucky enough to get a Q&A session with Karleen Koen, where she talks about her books, history and the writing process…

MG. What was the initial inspiration for Through A Glass Darkly?

KK. I had a personal heartbreak; I wanted to convey the emotion of that.

MG. Do you have a favourite character from your books?

KK. That’s a hard question to answer. The Duchess must be very dear to my heart because I’m so involved in writing about her as a young woman right now.

MG What happened to Barbara in the end? Will there be a third book about her at some point?

KK. There will be. I think my imagination just needed time to rest and regroup. Through A Glass Darkly and Now Face to Face are both long and complicated.

MG. I love your descriptions of the Hanoverian court in Britain (a much underused period in history) – did you enjoy writing about that period?

KK. Yes, I did. I didn’t know much about it. As you say, it is rarely used as a background, and so it was fun to learn all the people and events of interest in it. And the South Sea Bubble is so fascinating.

MG. If you had to choose between the two periwigged cousins, which would it be: Louis XIV or Charles II?

KK. Knowing what I know, I wouldn’t take either, but that’s not fair. Both were open-hearted and brave, wonderful young men. I really loved Louis in the time period I wrote about in Before Versailles. I loved him so much he became the main character. And Charles II as Prince of Wales was gallant and dear. Unfortunately, Charles’s time in exile made him cynical, and Louis’s success made him overly proud. 

MG. I’m currently researching a book about Minette, the sister of Charles II and love your depiction of her – what were your impressions of this princess? It’s hard to come out of Margaret Irwin’s shadow isn’t it?

KK. I don’t know Margaret Irwin, but it looks as if I must go and discover her. I found Henriette hard to grasp. I find that very often in researching females in history. They are lightly glossed over by the historians of their time. 

MG. If you could go back to any period in history, just for a brief visit, which would it be?

KK. I’d want to meet young Elizabeth I and Robert Dudley and draw my own conclusions about their relationship. I would want to meet Louis XIV, but only in the early 1660s. I’d loved to have witnessed the relationship between Charles I and his son, Charles II, during the civil war as time and circumstance began to pound them. 

MG. Your books are always filled with magnificent detail but at the same time never shy away from the harrowing and tragic aspects of history (like the fate of Barbara’s siblings, which still makes me well up decades after first reading it). Do you ever hesitate before you write something tragic and think ‘I could make this a happy ending’? I struggle with this one myself, you see and was interested to see if other writers have that moment of ‘I don’t have to guillotine Marie Antoinette – she could escape!’ ;)

KK. I’m really following impulse, instinct, where the story takes me. The heartbreak isn’t deliberate; it’s an innate part of the story. I think I need to lighten up.

MG.  You are equally at home writing about the courts of Paris and London – do you have a preference between them?

KK. English. The French court was in a narrower cage.

MG. My next book is set in 17th century Paris – is there an unmissable spot there that is inspiring and really evokes that period for a writer? When you go there, where is your first port of call?

KK. The Marais district.

MG. Your latest book is about the young Louis XIV – what drew you to the young King and made you decide to write about him?

KK. Actually, I was drawn to Henriette and Louise and their relationship with Louis’s impact on them both. But I ended with Louis as the compelling force. I found I really liked him at age 22, and the decisions he had to make, as I attempted to articulate them, drew me to him.

MG. What other writers have inspired you while on your writing journey?

KK. Winston Graham, Daphne du Maurier, Mary Stewart.

MG: Other writers do re-enactment or dress in period clothes in order to get a ‘feel’ for the time that they are writing about – do you do anything like that to help you get under the skin of your characters?

KK. I do like to visit an actual location. That gives me a sense of scale and feel. Otherwise, i use whatever knowledge of human nature I’ve acquired and then a bit of the cultural mileau characters would have been in. No dress up, but I like it that others do. Whatever it takes to write……

MG. Do you know what your next book will be about – or is that a secret for now? :)

KK. I think it’s about Alice and Richard again, sort of picking up where Dark Angels left off. It’s barely begun, however, so I really don’t know much about it.

MG. Do you have any advice for budding historical fiction writers out there?

KK. Don’t let the history overwhelm you. Let the story do so.

Thanks so much Karleen for such an interesting interview and hurray, more Barbara and the Duchess to look forward to in the future! Good luck with the book release and I’ll be posting a review just as soon as I have read Before Versailles!

The fact that I write books (hey, I’m a Proper Writer now as the Romantic Novelists Association have let me join as a full member and everything! Anyone else going to their Regency Heyer and Austen day in October?) seems to have caused some ripples of surprise lately so I thought it was time for an update about the whole writing process, such as it is right now. The thing is that I am hideously shy and have a terrifyingly low opinion of myself and my abilities so the whole ‘BUY MY BOOK, IT’S JOLLY GOOD’ thing doesn’t exactly come easily to me. I find myself cringing away half admiring, half mortified (okay, that’s not true – it’s more like 10% admiring and 90% mortified) from the efforts of other self published authors to get people to read their books, but I’m sure that’s just me being a gawky idiot as usual.

I haven’t done much to promote my first book, The Secret Diary of a Princess but have been amazed by how well it is selling. The subject matter helps of course – Marie Antoinette can shift pretty much anything, I find. The weird thing is that I didn’t set out to be a Marie Antoinette writer (I love the period, obviously but I prefer Marie Antoinette to stay in the background of my novels) and didn’t look at the book again once it was finished and edited. I re-read it last week though while we were moving and actually really loved it – is it awful to say that about one’s own book? I’d completely forgotten about writing any of it and had to keep stopping to ask myself: ‘Did I really write this?’

Reviewers on Amazon US and Amazon UK have been very lovely about it too so here’s a pick of a few of the reviews it has had so far:

‘What does it feel like to grow up in a royal palace, to be forever aware that so much is expected of you, to be married at 14 years old to a boy prince, potential King of France, whom you’ve never even met? Melanie Cleggs book answers these questions and so many more by creating in her Marie Antionette a solid, engaging and entirely believeble character. The book takes the form of a diary written by Marie Antionette herself and is a skillful blend of historical fact, warm and lively characterisation and vividly sensual descriptions of the colours, tastes and fashions of the Hapsburg court. Having finished the book, I miss her like an absent friend! ‘

‘The characters of the various groups of people are very strongly displayed; the matriarchy of the Empress and her son the Emperor in Vienna, the slimy rudeness mixed with obsequiousness of the French courtiers, and the closeness yet rivalry of the Austrian sisters are all compellingly portrayed and I was left really feeling that I knew these people.’

‘If you love history, particularly the lavish 18th century, then this book is a must. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, even though I knew very little of the Austrian Archduchess who was to become Marie Antoinette. The well written detail and diary form style is very absorbing and I found myself getting lost in Marie’s world, so much so, that I didn’t want it to end.’

‘An avid reader, I am always a little bit wary of Kindle books that are greatly reduced in price because they often end up being poorly written. This book was a complete steal for the price and it’s now one of my favorite all time books. I loved every minute of it. I couldn’t put it down but didn’t want it to end either.’

‘This book is amazingly well written, I felt like I was being talked to by an old friend by the time I was done. The author really draws you into the story and makes you feel like you are actually there. Even though I was familiar with Marie Antoinette’s story I found myself holding my breath and waiting to see what happened next. I felt her pain, and embarrassment, the whole thing is so vividly detailed! Once I started this book I could NOT stop reading it! (I even read while cooking :P)’

Thanks so much to everyone who has read the book and extra thanks to those who left a review! I’ve had a lot of requests for a sequel and although it wasn’t my intention to take the diary any further, I am now thinking about writing a special something for Maria Antonia’s fan club. It might not be a full book just yet but wait and see…

My second book, Blood Sisters is due out later this year and apparently the edits are coming back to me next month, which is a bit exciting! We’ll get to see the cover soon too hopefully – which of course I will be posting here as soon as I have it in my inbox! I had to write a little description of the sort of thing the cover should maybe have, which was fun although I wonder what they made of my ramblings about white dresses, red ribbons around the neck, pensive looking redheads and guillotines.

I’m thinking about doing some sort of blog tour type thing for the release of Blood Sisters so if you’re a history/book/historical fiction/whatever blogger or tweeter and fancy getting involved let me know! Blood Sisters is an epic set during the French Revolution and has lots of shimmying around Versailles, dank prisons, executions and lurid She Saw Something Dreadful In The Gazebo moments.

My third book, Before The Storm, which is another Edith Wharton inspired epic set during the French Revolution is almost finished but I’ve been dragging my heels a bit as I’m not entirely sure what to do with it once it is done. I’ve had interest from agents, but am too terrified to actually let any of them see it thanks to an unfortunate incident a couple of years ago when an agent said something so breathtakingly rude to me that I’ve been timorously avoiding them all like the plague ever since.

Also, I’m really rather keen on the thrill and control of self publishing. Yes, people may well knock it from here to kingdom come but I think it’s brilliant, I really do – especially now that writers who could very well write for more traditional publishing houses are getting on board and releasing their books themselves. I’m not sure what to do really – I have people who actively WANT to read my books now and I want that to happen as speedily and smoothly as possible so I guess doing it myself is the way forward then!

Of course there is a high probability that even if I DID let the agents see it, they wouldn’t want to take it on (I think it’s the best thing that I have written to date but people may well disagree and probably will) and then I would be defaulting to self publishing rather than wilfully and boldly making the decision for myself, which would rub the shine off the whole process just a little, don’t you think?

Which leads me on to book four, Minette which has so far involved a LOT of reading about the courts of Louis XIV and Charles II. I’m really excited about departing Revolutionary Paris and heading off to the seventeenth century city as well as the embryonic Versailles, but I’m a bit scared too. To add to the terror, I’m considering starting English Civil War re-enactment again to give me a feel for the period, which I seem to have lost in the years since I left the Sealed Knot. It also means that I can start acquiring flouncy seventeenth century dresses from Merchant’s Row again, which is always a bit of an incentive!

As you can imagine, I absolutely love to surround myself with art so when I was contacted by the lovely Nina of Bags of Love with an offer to transform a picture of my choice into a canvas print, I was a bit excited! I must admit that I had previously always associated Bags of Love with family portraits so I was keen to try something a bit different to see how one of my art history photographs worked when blown up and transformed into a canvas print.

I really deliberated over which photograph to choose before settling on this close up shot that I took of Madame Récamier’s feet in her gorgeous portrait by Gérard, which hangs in the Musée Carnavalet in Paris. ‘Is that the whole painting?’ my husband asked rather dubiously when I proudly showed him my choice. ‘Um, yes,’ I responded, feeling a little bit like a caught out foot fetishist. The thing is that I absolutely adore the little details of portraits and thought this was  particularly gorgeous with the soft saffron cashmere of her robe, the gentle draping of her muslin skirts and the elaborate gold tassel on her mauve silk cushion.

I wasn’t advised of a time scale when I gleefully emailed my picture to Nina, but was nonetheless amazed when the finished product arrived at our house 24 hours later. My husband still thinks I’m a bit weird but I think it is heavenly – what do you think? I love the way that they have accurately captured the glowing colours and the tactile softness of the fabrics. It’s currently taking pride of place in our new sitting room and I think it looks pretty amazing – a bit unusual but elegant.

I’m so enamoured that I’m thinking of ordering a matching print of Empress Joséphine’s feet too. In fact, I may not stop there and might order a whole array of Parisienne feet to decorate my home!

I’m extremely impressed both by the workmanship and also the speed with which Bags of Love got my picture to me. They don’t just do canvas prints either – they also offer photo books, a personalised diary, pillows and all sorts of excitement, which would be perfect for both wedding gifts and anniversary gifts. I’ve definitely bookmarked their site now for future present occasions as clearly there is scope there to create some really original pieces of art that people will love.

It’s pretty serendipitous that the newly revamped Bristol museum, M-Shed should have opened in the week that we became Bristol residents once again and of course we couldn’t wait to visit and see what all the fuss is about! We were actually supposed to go at the weekend (I even booked timed tickets for the occasion) but were so busy with moving house that we didn’t make it.

I wasn’t sure what to expect but have to say that we were very impressed by M-Shed and thought that it was extremely interesting and well laid out. The display begins on the ground floor with a gallery devoted to Bristol Places, with themed displays about each district of the city, complete with photos and items designed to evoke the very different histories of each area. Of course, we made a beeline for the section about Brislington, which involved Arnos Cemetery (I will be doing a separate post about this as it is the most amazing, huge Victorian graveyard), Robinson’s jam and the Arnos estate.

Residents of Brislington will be very familiar with the Black Castle pub in Sainsbury’s car park, which is actually a castle folly from the glory days of Brislington when it was populated by the mansions of wealthy Bristolian slavers and merchants. I was interested to see a lovely print of the castle in its heyday!

The highlight of the gallery was a huge floor map of Bristol, where we could pick out our house, Concorde, my husband’s workplace and everywhere we have lived in the city! There was also a double decker bus and working traffic lights, which my boys really loved. In fact there is lots in M-Shed for younger visitors to touch, look at and explore and it’s definitely well worth taking children there as they can learn so much – there’s even an interesting array of head gear from New Model Army helmets to Medieval merchants’ hats to try out.

It’s not just a history of Bristol, of course – there’s much to be learned about the social history of the whole country here.

Upstairs were more displays devoted on one side to Bristol Life, with displays about the cultural and everyday life of the city and on the other side, Bristol People, which highlighted Bristolians past and present, both well known and obscure. I thought this made for a fascinating glimpse into the history of a fascinating and vibrant city and was particularly moved by the displays devoted to the tremendous devastation of the Bristol Blitz in WWII and also the separate section about the slave trade, how horrible it was and its impact on the city’s fortunes. Bristol’s long history of riots and social disorder wasn’t ignored either.

The really special thing about the museum was that it was full of older visitors, all of whom were clearly having a brilliant time looking at the displays, reminiscing about Bristol in the past and exclaiming over forgotten memories. It was really great. In fact the atmosphere was just really nice throughout with Bristolians clearly taking great pride both in their (our? As the wife and mother of true Bristolians, I think I can claim some part of Bristol now, can’t I?) city and its latest addition – and rightly so.

For more information about M-Shed, check out their website.

‘I have heard of ancient men, of good credit, report that these single women were forbidden the rites of the church, so long as they continued that sinful life, and were excluded from Christian burial, if they were not reconciled before their death. And therefore there was a plot of ground called the Single Woman’s churchyard, appointed for them far from the parish church’ - John Stow, Survey of London, 1598.

One of the saddest spots in central London, a few minutes walk away from the busy, thriving Borough Market in Southwark, Cross Bones graveyard is the final resting place of around 15,000 Londoners, mostly women and infants who had been denied a proper burial in consecrated ground.

The earliest burials at the site were of prostitutes, also familiarly known as Winchester Geese as since 1161 they had been licensed by the Bishop of Winchester to work the streets and alleys around the Liberty of the Clink area of Southwark, which was well known to be a den of vice and crime. In Medieval London, ‘goose bumps’ was the term used to describe the first signs of venereal disease, most probably caught in the stews of Southwark around the notorious Clink prison.

Photo – Inspector Juve.

Denied proper burial thanks to their trade, the prostitutes of the area were instead buried without ceremony in the Cross Bones graveyard, where the bodies were piled on top of each other. Excavations have revealed that most of the skeletons in Cross Bones belong to either women or infants who had either been born dead or expired shortly after birth and were therefore also denied burial in consecrated ground. Later on in its history, the euphemistically named ‘Single Women’s Graveyard’ was used as a general pauper’s cemetery for the poor of the area. It was also a favourite hunting ground for bodysnatchers, seeking out specimens for the teaching hospitals of London.

In 1853, Cross Bones was closed due to being overcrowded and therefore a risk to health and would have been built over had not the local residents strongly resisted any attempts to develop the spot. Nowadays it is a strange place, loved by locals and fiercely protected by them against the occasional attempts to gain planning permission for office blocks and car parks on the site. The gates to the burial ground are festooned with tributes and flowers left by visitors, turning it into a makeshift shrine to the lost and forgotten women and children of early modern London.

Since 1998 it has become traditional for hundreds of people to gather at Cross Bones with candles, songs, gin and flowers on Halloween night to pay tribute to the ‘outcast dead’ of the graveyard. It’s my intention to join them this year with a bottle of gin to sprinkle in tribute. It’s interesting that when I first visited the grave of Mary Jane Kelly in St Patrick’s, Leytonstone (where it turns out members of my own family are interred, although I didn’t know it at the time), I instinctively took along a bottle of gin to leave on her grave. It now seems that this is the right and proper thing to do when honouring a dead lady of the night, which pleases me rather.

Photo – The Centre of the World.

‘For tonight in Hell

They are tolling the bell

For the Whore that lay at the Tabard,

And well we know

How the carrion crow

Doth feast in our Crossbones Graveyard.’ — John Crow’s Riddle, John Constable.

Thanks to Lucy Fur Leaps for alerting me to Cross Bones! I’ve been thinking about it ever since…