times gone by...

It is strange as you get older how your mind set changes. Stuff that never interested you now suddenly does become strangely interesting. No I have not become a train spotter or a 'twitcher' .. although I must spill the beans on Sunny that she has bought some binoculars for that very purpose.

My realisation that I am suddenly a middle aged grown up, is this love of History that has hit me. I must confess I hated History with a passion at school and dropped it at the first opportunity (took Geography instead as an O' level option).

I have been researching my family tree for years now and I am stuck around 1795 in Warrington on one side and circa 1800 on the other side. Pleased to say that I descend from an educated lot as there are very few 'X' marks the spot on certificates.

Through my research I have been fascinated by the Victorian era, my grand parents were all born in Victoria's reign and what a different world that was to now. I so wish I had an interest in history when they were still alive and I could have quizzed them what it was like before electricity, fast cars, fast food, washing machines, sanitation (I bought a book about Victorian sanitation reform from a Charity Shop the other week... eewwww it is a wonder that any of us are here today, shows just how resiliant the human race is) and mobile phones.

But this week my history head hasbeen turned further back.
My niece told me about series of books about a lawyer come detective in Henry VIII's England written by C.J. Sansom.

I am a fan of C.J after reading 'Winter in Madrid' set in the Spanish Civil War. A superb read but I thought C.J. was a one hit wonder, how wrong was I?

She had bought 3 of his latest books and due to her studying for her degree has given them to me to read first so she is not distracted.
The first one I have read is 'Dark Fire', I think I should have read 'Dissolution' first but it wasn't one of the 3 she had bought (will add this to the collection when I return the books).

Dark Fire beautifully depicts London in 1540 and the fall of Cromwell, with a feasable fictional element. The research C.J. did is excellent, the whole book brings to life the smells, the sounds and the times of Tudor England.

As Shardlake (the main character) is a lawyer there is tremendous insight into how criminals faced trials back then. If you were the accused and didn't plead in court you were to suffer piene forte et dure, basically you lay on your stomach with a board on your back and heavy weights were placed on it until you made a plea or died. Very brual indeed with the smallest of crimes often leading to a public hanging

Things hadn't changed some 300 years later. I came across this entry at the National Archives when looking to see if any of my ancestors were criminals .. this girl was called Mary Ann

Age: 21 Place of Birth: Lambeth Place/Court of conviction: Southwark Offence: Simple larceny: stealing a shawl Sentence: 2 calendar months hard labour
Date	1873 May 24