A Very British Murder

The author of The Finish is pleased to have found A Very British Murder on the BBC by the inimitable Lucy Worsley, but so sad that it is no longer available to view. Although I missed it, both the first time round, and as a repeat in March, thankfully dear Lucy has written a book on the same subject, which I will have to go straight out and buy.

The Blackwall Yard

In The Surety, book two in the Venus Squared series, Kitty is called to attend the Blackwall Yard.
Here's the location - just to the East of the Isle of Dogs. The second map gives the yard in close up.

The Blackwall Yard was where the East India Company's ship went for refitting. The river would have been full of these ships.

St. Paul's Covent Garden - the real entrance

In an earlier blog post I showed the before and after of the 'front' of the Church, which is actually the back - although it 'front's the square of Covent Garden.

This picture shows the real front, accessed through a gate, between two rows of period houses and into the Churchyard.

This is a side entrance into the Churchyard, which is totally enclosed by high buildings. 

Shall I unwed to bed?

 What was it like to be a prostitute in London's Covent Garden? Read more here.

http://englishhistoryauthors.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/shall-i-unpaid-to-bed.html

The Great Piazza - before and after

In the first picture we are under the Great Piazza arches. Kitty's house in The Finish is the one in the background on the corner. In real life this was occupied by John Bradley's gin shop (which features in The Finish) and above it by Mother Gould's brothel, which is the model for Mother's Shadbolt's brothel. In the second book in the series, The Surety, Kitty moves to a house in the Great Piazza, whose door would have been roughly where we are standing in this picture.

Here is that building in the background of the first picture, today. It's been rebuilt because in March of 1769 it burned to the ground (and we see that happening in The Finish). That said, they rebuilt it in the same style as the original. The buildings to the left of it in this picture are the original 18th century buildings.

The third picture shows the Great Piazza, Covent Garden as it is today - this too has been rebuilt.

Covent Garden before and after

At the end of the summer I took a walk around Covent Garden to take some photographs for the 'before and after' posts I'm going to make.

Here's the first - St. Paul's Covent Garden. The face that you see in the square is actually the back of the Church. There is no door here, although it looks as if there should be. The entrance is on the other side, in the Churchyard. Built by Inigo Jones for the 4th Earl of Bedford in 1631, it is also known as the 'Actors' Church'. Here's the 'before' by Hogarth.

And here's the after. 

Venus Squared - The Finish, re-envisioned

So there I was busy posting The Finish and it's sequel The Surety on the Harper Collins website Authonomy and I suddenly had a brainwave: there will be a quartet of books, each being part of the Venus Squared series.

Here are the titles and their subtitles:
The Finish - The Progress of a Murder, Uncovered
The Surety - A Candid Account of Crimes Committed
The Debt - The Circumstances of Depravity, Bemoaned
The Trade - The Atrocious Life of a Whore, Described

If you've a mind to read a little of both The Finish and The Surety, then get on down to Authonomy where you can join up and read for free. Here's the link to my page: Angela Elliott on Authonomy

If you read and review, then the best books are also read by editors at Harper Collins on a regular basis. It's an opportunity to get my work in front of a major publisher.