I love bringing to life forgotten pockets of history—in particular, women’s voices that have long been overlooked or dismissed. For me, a novel begins in the gaps of history. I build my world on the bits we don’t know. This gives me the opportunity to explore the dark, difficult, and joyful parts of human nature.
In the 1600s, Cheapside was the hub for gold, silver, and precious gems that had threaded their way around the world to London. However, this century was also filled with fire, plague, revolution, and an expanding empire . . . Seventeenth-century London was a city equal parts thriving and in turmoil. There were a million reasons why someone might not return for their precious jewels.
London was in turmoil again in 1912: on the brink of war, and with women marching in the street demanding the vote. Both these eras seemed ripe for fictionalizing, placing strong, interesting women at the forefront of each story.
As for Kate, my main contemporary character—I’m in awe of historians, curators, and conservators around the world. They tenderly dive into our past to give us stories for our future. To teach us lessons, to give comfort and warning where needed. This is my love letter to your important work in libraries, museums, and galleries around the world.
People can dismiss jewels—diamond rings, necklaces, gold buttons—as frivolous and superficial. But the story of a jewel tells a bigger story of trade and globalization, design trends, economics, and politics. Also, a story about care and craftsmanship.
Lastly, the story of a jewel is always about power, love, and loyalty. The perfect starting point for a novel, right?
A special mention to all the artisan jewelers creating beautiful work. When you buy a bespoke piece of jewelry, it really has been made with the utmost consideration and care. My friend Emma Goodsir, jeweler and owner of Melbourne gallery e.g.etal, was very patient as she explained just what character traits it took to be someone who crafts jewels for a living. She even let me tag along with her to the Cartier exhibition in Canberra and took time to step me through the tools and processes of gem cutting, stone setting, design, and the role of the goldsmith and enameler.
All my characters are fictional depictions, but I explore the mystery surrounding two real people in The Lost Jewels. Antiquarian and local character George Fabian Lawrence, “Stony Jack,” allegedly set about acquiring the Cheapside collection from navvies on street corners and pubs. In the course of my research, this pawnbroker/antiquarian seemed generous in spirit and an enthusiastic amateur historian, so I couldn’t resist fictionalizing a little snippet of him in The Lost Jewels. For a firsthand account of the man, see journalist H. V. Morton’s classic memoir In Search of London.
The second character, Gerhard Polman, the Dutch merchant, is also my imagined version. For more thorough depictions see Kris Lane’s Color of Paradise: The Emerald in the Age of Gunpowder Empires; and, reproduced on pp. 169 and 170, original transcripts recorded and translated in A Calendar of Court Minutes, etc. of the East India Company 1635–1639, Ethel Bruce Sainsbury (ed.) (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1907, pp. 261–62).
The account of diamond mines, markets, and life is inspired by Travels in India by Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, written in 1676. Special thanks to the librarians at The Goldsmiths’ Company, London, for allowing me to visit their incredible building and access a wealth of archival material about the Cheapside Hoard, and various other historical documents and images documenting the work of goldsmiths.
In all cases, any mistakes are my very own.
In the Further Reading section, I’ve included a list of these books as well as sources for those interested in learning about the history and facts of the Cheapside Hoard. Also, there is a list of links where you can see information about the real jewels. Please don’t ask to see the jewels in a secure basement should you happen to visit the Museum of London. According to their website, the Cheapside Hoard is not currently on display.
You may be able to see a handful of items allegedly from the Cheapside Hoard at the British Museum and at the Victoria & Albert Museum as part of their breathtaking permanent jewelry collections.
My eldest son, Henry, accompanied me to London to research The Lost Jewels. He proved to be a thoughtful, wise, and funny traveling companion who soaked up the history. There wasn’t a historical walking tour, museum, or gallery he wasn’t up for—as long as the food kept coming! I look forward to many more adventures together.
Jane and Maurice Cronly kindly gave us an entire floor in their magnificent London home, directed us to significant places, explained the bus network, recommended restaurants and history contacts. It was lovely to sit in your sunny conservatory overlooking the garden with a glass of wine at the end of each day, and mull over where this story might lead. I hope you enjoy The Lost Jewels.
Thanks to the team at the British Museum who opened up a special room just for me (and Henry!) to spend time with some of the pieces allegedly from the Cheapside Hoard. To sit quietly and imagine where those gems started their life, to wonder whose hands have passed over the roughs across trade routes and oceans before they were fashioned into necklaces and buttons, blew my mind.
Thanks to my Bellota ladies—a group of talented Melbourne writers who fill my soul. Special mention to Sally Hepworth, Lisa Ireland, and Jane Cockram for making this writing gig a whole lot funnier than it has any right to be.
Hurrah to my intrepid team of early readers: Sara James Butcher, Kate Daniel, Kate O’Donnell, and Sue Peacock. Seriously, you guys have the knack of filling me with hope while dishing out some hard truths! To my team of editors and publishers: Christa Munns and Annette Barlow at Allen & Unwin, Australia, and Tessa Woodward at William Morrow in the US—what would I do without your considered feedback and kind words? You are the real diamonds.
I’ll be forever indebted to my agent Clare Forster of Curtis Brown, along with the UK Curtis Brown crew and Stacy Testa at Writers House New York for giving my writing wings.
Finally, love and gratitude to my family: Alex, Henry, Jemima, and Charlie—I’d cross every ocean for you.
* * *
This is a work of fiction, and I am very respectful of all those people whose lives have been touched by the periods, politics, loss, and circumstances I write about. My thoughts are always with those people and their families.
If you need to reach out and talk to someone after reading this novel, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.
Reading Group Guide
Before reading The Lost Jewels, were you aware of the real Cheapside Hoard? What intrigued you most about this story?
The story of a jewel tells a bigger tale of trade and globalization, design trends, economics, and politics. It is also a story about care and craftsmanship. And lastly, it is a story about power, love, and loyalty. Do you have a special piece of jewelry? Was it a gift from a loved one, or was it an inherited piece? What does it mean to you?
In chapter 10, Kate observes, “Sometimes tracing the line of a jewel, the light bouncing off a diamond, [shows you] that, just like jewels, people can be reset and have a different kind of life.” Do you believe people can reset and change their future?
There is much written about the leaders of the suffragette movement and the fancy times in Edwardian London, but very little written about the poorer classes. One of the joys of being a novelist is bringing those overlooked female voices to the page. Do you enjoy reading fiction with strong female characters and voices? Does it make you rethink history, or give you a different perspective?
The mystery of Kate’s great-grandmother Essie provides the story’s driving search. Did the answer surprise you? How did Kate learn and change during this search?
Woven in between the dual timelines of Essie’s and Kate’s vivid lives is another story: the four-hundred-year narrative journey of a champlevé ring with diamonds from a mysterious Indian mine to the Museum of London. Did you enjoy tracing the journey of the imagined origin story of this champlevé ring?
The
mes of loyalty and devotion to family run deep in The Lost Jewels. Is the bond between sisters (and cousins) as important as that between lovers?
Essie is forced to leave London quickly, with very little money. What would you take with you if you had to move to a new country quickly?
Essie left London to save her sister Gertrude and guarantee a strong future for her sister by allowing her to get an education. But leaving London came with considerable sacrifice. Would you make the same decision?
In chapter 3 we get a hint of Essie’s story: “The jewels were discovered the same day Essie Murphy fell in love. She had her brother to thank for both, of course—though in the years to come she’d often wonder which one came first. A buried bucket of jewels. A man with emerald eyes. The tale would become as much a part of her Irish folklore as Midir and Étaín. Cut and polished over the years with the roughs tossed out with the sorrow, betrayal, and loss. No one would know it was equal parts tragedy and romance.” It’s common to cut and polish parts of our own stories when we retell our past to family and friends. Is there a story you’ve embellished—or diminished—as you’ve retold it to cast your past in a different light? Or has someone close to you done this?
Read On
Further Reading
The complete list of sources consulted in the writing of The Lost Jewels is too long to detail here. Below is a list of essential resources.
WALKING TOURS
Westminster
Great Fire of London and Plague Tour
Dickensian London
Southwark
Edwardian London
Borough Markets
Suffragettes Tour with historian and author Ian Porter
MUSEUMS
The Museum of London (Suffragette: Votes For Women exhibition, 2018)
The British Museum, London
The Victoria & Albert Museum, London
The Natural History Museum, London
The Goldsmiths’ Company (Library), London
Royal Observatory, Greenwich
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra (Cartier exhibition, 2018)
BOOKS
JEWELS
The Cheapside Hoard: London’s Lost Jewels, Hazel Forsyth (London, Philip Wilson Publishers, 2013); Silversmiths in Elizabethan and Stuart London: Their Lives and Their Marks, David M. Mitchell (Woodbridge, The Boydell Press, 2017); Jewels and Jewelry, Clare Phillips (London, V&A Publishing, 2008); Treasures and Trinkets: Jewelry in London from Pre-Roman Times to the 1930s, Tessa Murdoch (London, The Museum of London, 1991); Rings: Jewelry of Power, Love and Loyalty, Diana Scarisbrick (London, Thames and Hudson, 2017); The Crown Jewels: The Official Illustrated History, Anna Keay (London, Thames and Hudson, 2017); The Color of Paradise: The Emerald in the Age of Gunpowder Empires, Kris Lane (London, Yale University Press, 2010); Diamonds and Precious Stones, Partick Voillot (London, Thames and Hudson, 2010); Cartier: The Exhibition, Margaret Young-Sánchez (Canberra, National Gallery of Australia, 2018); Jewel: A Celebration of Earth’s Treasures, Judith Miller (London, Dorling Kindersley, 2016).
LIFE IN LONDON
Lost Voices of the Edwardians, Max Arthur (London, HarperCollins Publishers, 2006); The Edwardian Guide to Life, Cornelia Dobbs (West Sussex, Summersdale Publishers, 2011); Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker: Surviving the Great Fire of London, Hazel Forsyth (London, I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd, 2016); 1666: Plague, War and Hellfire, Rebecca Rideal (London, John Murray, 2016); Victorian and Edwardian London from Old Photographs, John Betjeman (London, B.T. Batsford Ltd, 1969); Dynamite, Treason and Plot: Terrorism in Victorian and Edwardian London, Simon Webb (Gloustershire, The History Press, 2012); Pepys London: Everyday Life in London 1650–1703, Stephen Porter (Gloustershire, Amberley Publishing, 2012); Diamond Street: The Hidden World of Hatton Garden, Rachel Lichtenstein (London, Penguin Books, 2012); Samuel Pepys: Fire, Plague and Revolution, Margarette Lincoln (ed.) (London, Thames and Hudson, 2015); The A–Z of Edwardian London, Anne Saunders (ed.) (London, London Topographical Society, 2007); Women in England 1500–1760: A Social History, Anne Laurence (London, Phoenix Press, 2002); Suffragette: Autumn Women’s Spring, Ian Porter (Leicestershire, Matador, 2014); In Search of London, H. V. Morton (London, Methuen, 1951); London’s Triumph: Merchant Adventurers and the Tudor City, Stephen Alford (London, Penguin Books, 2017); Edwardians: London Life and Letters 1901–1914, John Patterson (Chicago, Ivan R. Dee, 1996); Booth’s Maps of London Poverty: East and West 1889, Charles Booth (London, Oldhouse Books, 2013); Edwardian England: A Guide to Everyday Life, 1900–1914, Evangeline Holland (London, Plum Bun Publishing, 2014).
For video footage and documentaries featuring the Cheapside Hoard, see:
www.gia.edu/gems-gemology/fa13-cheapside-hoard-weldon
www.thejewelleryeditor.com/jewellery/article/discover-more-about-the-cheapside-hoard-in-our-exclusive-video/
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03d6b1j
FOOD
The Land That Thyme Forgot, William Black (London, Bantam Press, 2005); The Modern Herbal Dispensary: A Medicine Making Guide, Thomas Easley and Steven Horne (Berkeley CA, North Atlantic Books, 2016); Culpeper’s Complete Herbal: Over 400 Herbs and Their Uses, Nicholas Culpeper (London, Arcturus Publishing Limited, 2018); A Modern Herbal: The Medicinal, Culinary, Cosmetic and Economic Properties, Cultivation and Folk-Lore of Herbs, Grasses, Fungi, Shrubs & Trees with Their Modern Scientific Uses, Mrs. M. Grieve (USA, Stone Basin Books, 1931); The National Trust Farmhouse Cookbook, Laura Mason (London, National Trust Books, 2009); London Eats Out: 500 Years of Capital Dining, Grossman, Ehrman et al. (London, Philip Wilson Publishers, 1999).
Also by Kirsty Manning
The Song of the Jade Lily
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
P.S.™ is a trademark of HarperCollins Publishers.
THE LOST JEWELS. Copyright © 2020 by Osetra Pty Ltd. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST U.S. EDITION
Cover design by Julianna Lee
Cover photograph © National Portrait Gallery, London
Originally published as The Lost Jewels in Australia in 2020 by Allen & Unwin.
Digital Edition AUGUST 2020 ISBN: 978-0-06-288203-5
Version 06172020
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-288202-8
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