PANDORA’S BOX – A MEDICAL MEMOIR

PANDORA'S BOX - A  MEDICAL MEMOIR

‘You’re playing with Pandora’s box. Sometimes it’s better not to open it. Sometimes, it’s better not to know’. Tatiana de Rosnay. In September 2011 I was completing my research for a narrative non-fiction book in Great Malvern,  a beautiful town in the English  county of Worcestershire. It

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The Water Doctor’s Daughters Literary Walk; St Leonards.

THE MARSDEN SISTERS MOVE SOUTH This is an extension of The Water Doctor’s Daughters’ original literary walk  around the town of  Great Malvern, Worcestershire. In 1876 Dr James Marsden separated from his second wife Mary to pursue an affair with  Sabina  Welch, a servant girl from Malvern.   Emily, the

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DEATH AT CHRISTMAS; THE POISONING OF ROSA MARSDEN

DEATH AT CHRISTMAS; THE POISONING  OF ROSA MARSDEN

  CHRISTMAS 1877.  At  St-Leonards-on-Sea,  in the English county of Sussex, a Christmas market was being held in the ‘old town’.  The shops and churches were decorated with laurel, holly and ivy. Nevertheless, perhaps due to the unseasonable mild  weather, the jollity of the Hastings & St

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A FAILED APPEAL TO CHARLES DICKENS…..

A FAILED APPEAL TO CHARLES DICKENS.....

 SCHOOLGIRLS IN EXILE My  book, The Water Doctor’s Daughters,  is the  biography of a dysfunctional family,  but  it is also Victorian  era true crime.  It centres on the case of French born  governess  Mlle Celestine Doudet.  In 1855 the governess was tried over the deaths of  her

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Dr Marsden on Malta – Prelude to the Paris Trials

  An author’s fascination for a subject does not end once the book in question has been published.  My great  hope was that the release of  The Water Doctor’s Daughters would  produce new information.  There were undocumented periods in the lives of the chief protagonists that  I

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Sydney Launch of The Water Doctor’s Daughters

  THE GENESIS OF THE LAUNCH I hadn’t  considered  a separate launch for The Water  Doctor’s Daughters in Australia, but a few  months ago a generous  offer came from  Sydney’s  Ashfield  Library to do a book signing.  It was to be part of their very popular  ‘Authors

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The Water Doctor’s Daughters – Book Launch March 23

Have just spent a wonderful  but busy few days in Great  Malvern and Worcester finalizing arrangements for the launch of the Water Doctor’s Daughters on March 23rd. It’s to be held at 2.00pm  in the spacious  Morgan Bar at Malvern’s  historic Foley Arms Hotel.  I will be

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A QUANDRY FOR QUEEN VICTORIA

A QUANDRY FOR  QUEEN VICTORIA

In my non-fiction  book, The Water Doctor’s Daughters,  Queen Victoria is an important figure. BY ROYAL APPOINTMENT- QUEEN VICTORIA AND HER FRENCH DRESSER Early in  1842,  Victoria employed a well educated young Frenchwoman as one of her wardrobe mistresses.  Célestine Doudet  was  born in Rouen  on June 

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Dr Tardieu – advocate for abused children

Dr Tardieu - advocate for abused children

This brief article  is a tribute to a very special  Frenchman;  Dr Auguste Ambroise Tardieu,  who was born in Paris in 1818.     Dr Tardieu headed the team of  French doctors who performed a post-mortem on the disinterred body of English schoolgirl Marian Marsden in 1854. 

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The Malvern water-cure springs

The Malvern water-cure springs

My friends, authors and historians  Cora Weaver and Bruce  Osborne ,  recently published a  well researched, richly illustrated  book called Celebrated Springs of the Malvern Hills. Here is small extract; These pure springs  inspired the water-cure clinics at Malvern, lining the pockets of physicians such as  Dr

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