Athelstone

Aconite and Forget-me-not.
(347 words)

To you who I’ve haunted, will you listen? I have whispered stories in your ear and did you hear them? They were both your stories and mine, your sins and yes, mine too, and when I paid for both of us, you thought yourself free. So I came, did I not, to remind you. I have been the footfalls behind you in t…[Read more]

Interesting point there, Raine, about reinforcing society’s assumptions because, obviously, Rubenhold was trying to do exactly the opposite. Bit of a misfire, that.

Agreed, John, that it’s an appalling attitude. The book sets out to do a job that was well worth doing. I just wish she’d done it in a less fanatical and dishonest way.

The same sort of appalling victim-blaming appears to have been prevalent in the much more recent Yorkshire Ripper enquiry. According to a recent documentary, the police assumed the ripper, Sutcliffe, was punishing prostitutes when, in fact, he was preying on their vulnerability. At one point they failed to “credit” a victim to him because she…[Read more]

Could not agree with you more on that, @Raine. There is no shame in surviving. Doing what you have to do in a system stacked against you.

Interesting, Richard. I’d heard some of the reviews/hype/chat about the book, and liked the idea of presenting the women as three dimensional people – something other than just another dead whore. By the the sounds of it though, Rubenhold equates the women sleeping alone with them being absolved of any contributing blame for what happened to them,…[Read more]

This is so interesting, Richard. I don’t have any special knowledge about the Ripper case but it does sound like this is historical writing being bent to fit at agenda. I recently met with an Australian writer, Clare Wright, who won a major prize down here (the Stella Prize) for her book on women at the Eureka Stockade – an historical event that…[Read more]

I did see the programme, Squidge, and yes, it was very interesting. I had heard of this man, Aaron Kosminski, before – he is also the suspect named in the recent DNA testing controversy – and though many people are not convinced, I am at least convinced that the Ripper (whoever he was) was an ordinary, local man, a face in the crowd with int…[Read more]

Read this Richard as I’d watched the recent programme with the woman who is the lead in Silent Witness, an ex-prison governor with experience of serial killers and an ex-cold case copper, which looked at the Ripper story in light of modern techniques.

It was fascinating – a lot of the info I’d heard before, but what came clearly across is that…[Read more]

🙂 I think we’re all fairly cracked already, Philippa, to keep doing this writing thing to ourselves!

Thanks guys!

The wall or one’s head, @katemachon?!

Great story @philippaeast with a very strong voice. Love it!

A great reminder that if you keep on battering your head against that wall, sometimes it cracks! Congratulations Philippa. I’ll go and enjoy the read.

Oh wow, what a story @philippaeast. Suspense and pacing tight as a drum, cool and utterly unnerving. Brilliant!