As a side note, I visited the house where the murders occurred. It is still standing alongside the Thames in Barnes Terrace and is now called D’Antraigues. The White Hart pub where the bodies were taken is also still there. In the absence of any centralised city mortuary, pubs were used for coroner’s inquests because they had cool rooms in which to store the bodies of the dead. (I’ll have a beer with that corpse, please!)
Other real-life figures who are mentioned include: the Prince Regent; Queen Charlotte; Lord Sidmouth, the Home Secretary; Mr Ryder, the Home Secretary prior to Lord Sidmouth; Mr Wedgewood; and Comte Julien, the d’Antraigues’ son (also known as Jules). The wonderfully named Committee for Secrecy was also real, and included Mr Canning and Mr Wilberforce, the famous abolitionist.
For me, the town of Brighton in 1812 is like another historical figure. Most of the places that are mentioned or that Helen visits were real, such as Donaldson’s Circulating Library, Raggett’s Club, the Castle Tavern, The Steine, Awsiter’s Baths, The Lanes including Union Street and of course the Marine Pavilion, the Prince Regent’s favourite palace. In 1812 it was not yet the Royal Pavilion, the magnificent Chinese/Indian frivolity that still stands today in Brighton. Those extensive renovations did not begin until 1815, and so the palace that Helen sees is still the classically designed Marine Pavilion. For my descriptions of Brighton, I used a Guide to All the Watering and Sea Bathing Places for 1813 by John Feltham, and Sickelmore’s An Epitome of Brighton (which includes a map of Brighton from the time), and I made a number of visits to modern Brighton. For those who may be interested, German Place where Helen and her comrades live is now Madeira Place, renamed for patriotic reasons during the First World War.
I have taken a little liberty with the addition of the molly rooms to Kate Holt’s bawdy-house. From my research, it is not outside the realms of possibility that molly rooms were also incorporated within a more traditional bawdy-house. However, in most cases separate molly houses existed and, because of the deadly laws against homosexuality, these houses were kept secret and could be disbanded very quickly if the house was under surveillance or a Watch spy tried to enter. Brighton’s proximity to the army barracks and its status as a resort resulted in numerous bawdy-houses, and my research reinforced the troubling fact that it would not have been unusual for a girl of Sprat’s age to be found working in them.
On a less serious note, the cant language used by Mr Hammond, Sprat, Binny, Kate Holt, Lowry and, on occasion, Helen comes mostly from Grose’s Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue written by Francis Grose and updated by Pierce Egan. It was published in 1785, and revised in 1811 and 1823, and is now available free online. The dictionary is a fascinating journey back to the Regency era and I wish I could have used more of the hilarious words and phrases, although a good number of them are quite obscene. Here are a few of the more respectable examples that didn’t suit the book but that I just have to share with you:
Chatter-broth: tea
Squeeze-crab: a sour-looking shrivelled fellow
Snilch: to look at something attentively
Out of print: slang used by booksellers to describe someone who is dead
This last one cracks me up every time!
As with Book 1 in the series, if you would like to learn a bit more about my research, you can do so on my website at www.darkdaysclub.com and on my Pinterest page at pinterest.com/alisongoodman
Alison Goodman, October 2016
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank the big cornerstone four: Ron, my wonderful husband, my best friend Karen McKenzie, and my parents, Douglas and Charmaine Goodman.
Huge thanks, always, to Jill Grinberg, my fabulous agent, and her exceptional team: Cheryl, Katelyn, Denise and Kirsten. The best in the business!
I am privileged to work with a fantastic team at HarperCollins Australia headed by my lovely publisher, Lisa Berryman, who adores the Regency as much as I do and understands that a book needs air. I am lucky to be edited by the brilliant and insightful Nicola O’Shea, and scheduled by the charming Kate Burnitt, who calmly smooths the road to publication. Thanks also to the wonderful Holly Frendo and Jacqui Barton, and the very talented Darren Holt, who designed the beautiful cover.
I am a big believer in the value of writing groups and the support they provide. Big thanks to my two gangs: The Y. & J. Writers, and Clan Destine.
A number of people have helped with my research along the way. Thank you to Duncan Nash, John Garden-Gardiner, Alan Baxter, and the staff at the Royal Pavilion and the Brighton Museum and Art Gallery.
My sincere thanks also to the two back specialists who are keeping me upright while I write Lady Helen’s adventures: my chiropractor Dr Warren Sipser, and my physiotherapist Natalie Szmerling.
Finally, I must acknowledge the sweet hound from Hell, Xander, my dear old-man dog whose main contributions are loud snoring, louder barking and an insistent paw that taps my leg at four o’clock every afternoon to remind me that a daily walk is most beneficial for the constitution.
About the Author
ALISON GOODMAN is the author of the international bestselling and award-winning Eon/Eona duology, as well as the acclaimed Singing the Dogstar Blues and the adult thriller A New Kind of Death (originally titled Killing the Rabbit).
Alison lives in Melbourne, Australia, with her husband, Ron, and their Machiavellian Jack Russell Terrier, Xander. She is working on Lady Helen’s next adventure.
Visit her website at www.darkdaysclub.com
Also by Alison Goodman
Singing the Dogstar Blues
A New Kind of Death (originally published as Killing the Rabbit)
Eon
Eona
Lady Helen and the Dark Days Club
Copyright
Angus&Robertson
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, Australia
First published in Australia in 2017
by HarperCollinsPublishers Australia Pty Limited
ABN 36 009 913 517
harpercollins.com.au
Copyright © Alison Goodman 2017
The right of Alison Goodman to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her under the Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000.
This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced, copied, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, recorded, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
HarperCollinsPublishers
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National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data:
Goodman, Alison, 1966– author.
Lady Helen and the dark days pact / Alison Goodman.
ISBN: 978 0 7322 9610 0 (paperback)
ISBN: 978 1 7430 9795 3 (ebook)
Goodman, Alison, 1966– Lady Helen ; 2.
For ages 14+
Historical fiction.
Paranormal fiction.
Regency—England—London—Juvenile fiction.
Social classes—England—19th century—Juvenile fiction.
Great Britain—History—1800–1837—Juvenile fiction.
A823.3
Cover design by Darren Holt, HarperCollins Design Studio
Cover image by Richard Jenkins; background images by shutterstock.com
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