Chilling with a good book as it is too cold, wet and windy to do garden work and LOUISA’S LAMENT is just the job! Here’s an extract from Part I.
Late Evening, November 6th, 1892. Puddles of rain reflected the spill of dull yellow light from the gas lamps to relieve the gloom of a typical drizzly November night in the front quadrangle of London’s Guy’s Hospital. The fog, known as ‘a right peculiar’, had swirled up from the river a few days before and had persisted. It just hung in the air motionless as it held the drizzle and the soot from the local factories and tenements in a fine suspension, chilling the bones and making the skin clammy to the touch. It was as if death itself lurked in that fog looking for someone to cloak in its shroud.
The website with lots of information about the research that went into the book and its illustrations, and the online shop, is nearly ready – watch this space. For now, why not register your interest by sending a note to: annie@patoakleypublishing.london.
Christmas and the winter solstice have passed and the light is slowly coming back. Have a Happy New Year and Welcome to the Chinese Year of the Rabbit on 22nd January.
Old Lady by the Sea 