Hi guys: Lucy and Mark’s 
next adventure is out next week. If you have any questions about their previous adventure – The End of the Pier Affair – or their latest travels in the 1949 Affair: post them below and I’ll do my best to answer them…
If you don’t fancy posting here and are a member of goodreads, you can post your question there 🙂
Look forward to hearing from you
Mordy (as he is known to his friends) runs a jewelers -come- pawnbrokers. He is a hard nosed businessman, with an eye for a bargain.
But I didn’t want him to be the stereotypical Jew of literature. When Walter Scott created Isaac of York he made him an extreme – the complete antithesis of his beautiful daughter Rebecca; while both George Du Maurier and Dickens created wholly evil criminal masterminds – who looked and acted in an immediately identifiable caricature.
There’s far more to Mordy than that. Tall, white haired – grandfatherly – this is a man who will admit to being 50 but not a day older. Having escaped the pogroms of Eastern Europe, Mordy made his home in Whitechapel. Using his connections Mordy has built up a reputation as an honest criminal. He is the soul of discretion who (trusted by the highest born and the lowliest of beggars) will ensure the best deal is achieved for all (though obviously the house will always win). But you cross him at your peril. Fail to keep your word and retribution is swift.
A man who always has sweets in his pockets, Mordy is at the centre of his community: respected, loved and feared in equal measure
When he first encounters Emily, the lonely little girl who spends at least ten minutes of her walk home from school staring into his shop window, Mordy sees an outsider – just like himself: a mystery inside an enigma. After her father’s death, when her mother brings trinkets to pawn to pay for the funeral, Mordy finds himself being wrapped around the finger of a 7 year old girl who has wisdom beyond her years and an innate ability to identify rough diamonds. Intrigued and sensing there is more to Emily and her mother than meets the eye, Mordy makes her mother an offer that will ensure that as Emily grows up she becomes the Pawnbroker’s apprentice.
These are the photographs taken on our visit to the disused station at Aldwych. Of course, I wasn’t there for the history. I was there to check I’d got the description right.
From top to bottom they show:
1. The unfinished lift shafts 2. A very substantial door 3. Condensation and damp on the passenger tunnels 4. Platform one – which was used until its closure in 1994 (although notice only part of the station ceiling was tiled). 5. The never used second platform 6. Tiling patterns – tested at Aldwych before being rolled out elsewhere on the underground 7. The Grade One Listed tracks ( in a Grade Two Listed building) 8. The unused staircase from the unused platform to the lists. 9. The train tunnels 10. Concourse/passenger tunnels 11. Wartime posters courtesy of every film company ever to have filmed in Aldwych 🙂
Helen (the station ghost) refused to put in an appearance, as did Lucy, Mark and -thank heavens – the distortion.
If you get a chance to visit the station the next time it’s open, then do. It was a fabulous hour. And though I say so myself, I do think I got the description right 🙂
I have made a decision, my gentleman detective needs a dressing gown.
Well, you’d have thought I’d have asked the Pope to change religion!
You see, if I wanted an Arthur Dent style dressing gown, I’d have been fine. Not only could I have sourced one for Symington at the start of the 20th century, but I could get one for OH from Ebay…
But a man’s dressing gown? Very limited stock indeed from which to choose.
See what I mean?
Now Symington is a man of taste, suaveness and sophistication. I can’t see him in any of the above.
Well possibly the last one but in black and gold…
I read this book as part of my research for the third book of Lucy and Mark’s adventures.
London’s Shadows: The Dark Side of the Victorian City by Drew D. Gray
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Typical researcher that I am, I’m afraid I have been dipping in and out of this book to find out what it was like to be in the East End during the 1880s. But incomplete as my reading is, I have decided to review Drew D. Gray’s book. You see, this it well written an well researched – in a word it is a joy.
Most books that deal with this period of London’s history are sensationalist, focussing on the Ripper and his activities rather than looking at the context of the murder, the state of the East End; the ethnic mix, the geographical complexity of the situation. And for me, this is why this book scores highly.
Yes, the Whitechapel murders are the focal point of this book. It was the biggest “thing” to happen in the East End after all. And yet, through this book, I have learned about: the increasing professionalism of the police and the work of the courts; as well as what drove the women of whitechapel to prostitution and the desperate poverty and disease that was endemic in the area.
To be honest, this is one of the best books I have read about Victorian London in a a long time. If you want to know about the London underbelly you cannot go far wrong by reading this book.
In Book Three, Lucy suffers from Amnesia.
Obviously, I can’t tell you how it happens – well, spoilers sweetie! But it’s violent and traumatic and not (directly) the result of travelling through the distortion.
I’ll be honest, I didn’t expect to find it as fascinating as I have, and I’ve had to be very disciplined not to dive in too deeply, because I’m not writing a book about trauma I’m writing fiction. So: for the purposes of my research, I’m ignoring amnesia caused by psychological trauma and concentrating on what happens as a a result of physical injury.
In this case there are two types of memory loss: retrograde amnesia, forgetting things that happened before the accident which has caused the amnesia, and anterograde amnesia (where the past is crystal clear but things happening now cannot be remembered).
Anterograde amnesia was not what I was looking for. Lucy is is danger because for once her encyclopedic knowledge of history cannot help her. Therefore, she has a kind of retrograde amnesia known as post trumatic amnesia. You see Lucy’s memory loss is only temporary, unlike those who have retrograde amnesia who may have partial recall or gradual recall but rarely is the full loss restored.
Obviously, Lucy can’t lose her memory for ever, so what triggers its return?
Hollywood would have us believe a second blow to the head will bring the memories back; sometimes repeating a similar action – restores the memory of the prior event – a bit like deja vu, only in reverse. Like putting the final set of pieces back in the jigsaw that is the brain.
At the moment, I don’t know if I want Lucy’s memory to return over time, or suddenly, which is holding up writing book three.
All I do know is that it has to return before she is murdered.
Emperor Valentinian is known as the last of the Warrior Emperors. He was born in AD 321 in Cibalis (Vinkovci). His father, Gratian, rose through the ranks of the army ending up as Comes Britanniae (Companion of Britain), before coming under a cloud and being stripped of his power and estates for his support of Magnentius.
Valentinian followed his father into the army, but he too was stripped of power by the Emperor Constantius, before returning to active service under the Emperor Jovian. When Jovian died on the 17th February 364 AD, Valentinian’s name was put forward as a potential replacement – although not as the first choice. He won the support of the army (who had marched to Nicaea) as the original candidates Aequitius and Januarius were dismissed as either too brutal (Aequitius) or too far away (Januarius).
Valentinian arrived in Nicaea on 24 February 364, the bisextile day (the Roman equivalent of a leap year), and – as it was considered unlucky to consider new business on this twice counted day – Valentinian held off until the 25th of February before accepting the Emperorship. He made his acceptance speech on the 26th, in which he calmed the army’s fear as to where his loyalties lie.
In a stunningly clever move, and in order to prevent a repeat of the chaos which followed the deaths of Julian (the last Neo-Flavian) and Jovian , Valentinian named a co-augustus (his brother Valens) on the 24th March, giving him day to day control over the eastern empire.
In 365 the Alamanni invaded Gaul and Procopius began his revolt against Valens. However, instead of going to his brother’s aid, Valentinian remained in Gaul; a move which cemented his support in the region.
It also set his reputation as a warrior; an emperor not afraid of conflict. It had to. There were conflicts in Britain, Africa and amongst the Quadi in Germany – all of which were dealt with successfully. Not surprisingly during this time, the senate lost power to the army and the Imperial Court became more of a military tribunal and vehicle for social mobility, than at any previous point in its history.
The jury is out on the reputation of Emperor Valentinian. On the plus side the fragmentation of the empire halted but on the down side, under his rule the empire fractured; society polarised and regionalism intensified. However, Valentinian is generally regarded as an exceptionally able emperor, who assumed the mantle of imperial rule with boldness. Certainly, he was an emperor determined not only to be in charge but be seen to be in charge.
Married twice: his first wife, Severa died in childbirth in 359 (his son Gratian survived), Valentinian, who died from a strokein 375AD, was survived by his second wife, Justina, mother of his other three children – Valentinian II and two daughters Galla and Justa.
Part of me can’t quite believe that Valentinian died after losing his temper. It’s too mundane for this lesser known, warrior emperor.
As for why is his post here and not on the other blog? Oh that would be telling 🙂
see what London was like in 1927 – rare colour film, uncovered by the BFI
Uncovered recently by the BFI, this footage was taken in 1927. 18 years earlier the dresses were longer; and probably less cars. But this was the London, Lucy Pevensea and Mark Birch (two 21st kids) found themselves in. Different isn’t it? Find out more of a world of danger, intrigue and timetravelling teenagers…..
Thoughts please guys:
From my other blog:
I first found out about David Lloyd George from my nana; she was a font of political songs – and “Lloyd George knew my Father” was one of them.
At school, we learned he was a working class boy – who was brought up by his Uncle Lloyd in Llanystumdwy, He was articled to a law firm in Porthmadog at the age of 15; became an MP at 27 and was responsible for some of the most radical and socially aware legislation of all time. As Chancellor of the Exchequer he introduced Old Age Pensions and National Insurance; took on the House of Lords to get the People’s Budget of 1909 passed; and, of course, became the Prime Minister who won the First World War for Britain.
Learning about his private life – was not done at school; that came from the Life and Times of David Lloyd George a…
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The Secret of Aldwych Strand 