Alex said, ‘If life wasn’t laid out for me to be a doctor, I’d like to drive a train. That was my first ambition.’
Harriet disagreed. ‘Trains are too noisy, and there’s too much smoke.’
The pavement was crowded with people leaving the picture house. Harriet and Alex drew ahead of us. ‘What will you be then, Harriet, if you don’t want to drive a train?’
Harriet was quick to answer. ‘Well, I’d like a job in a picture house. And in my spare time I’ll be a detective, like my auntie.’
THE END
The Eclipse Cocktail
Harry Craddock, famous barman at the Savoy Hotel, created a special cocktail to serve at celebratory events surrounding the eclipse. Grenadine creates the background of burnished sky. Gin and lemon provide a corona of light surrounding the olive that stands in for the sun.
Here is the Kate Shackleton version.
Ingredients
Grenadine
2 measures of sloe gin
1 measure of dry gin
Olive
1 measure of lemon juice, finely strained
Finely grated orange peel
Method
Place the olive in the bottom of the cocktail glass
Cover the olive with grenadine
Pour sloe gin and dry gin into cocktail shaker and blend
Slowly and carefully, using the back of a spoon, add blended gin to the grenadine
Slowly and carefully, using the back of a spoon, add lemon juice
Lightly garnish with orange peel
Acknowledgments
The 1927 total eclipse of the sun caught the imagination of public and press and drew hundreds of thousands of people to viewing points across the line of totality. Sir Frank Dyson, Astronomer Royal, set up his observation point in the grounds of Giggleswick School Chapel. There were other observation points, but this was the lucky one. I am grateful to Barbara Gent, keeper of the archives at Giggleswick School, for being so generous with her time, for the guided tours and for letting me see the two scrapbooks created by Thomas Brayshaw. He collected cuttings, photographs, letters and memorabilia. Endearingly, he added a note saying that had he known how much interest there would be, he would have used better quality scrapbooks.
R. A. Marriott gives a detailed and fascinating account of the planning, importance and social background to the eclipse in 1927: A British Eclipse, Journal of the British Astronomical Association Vol. 109 No 3 pp 117–143, 06/1999. His article is available as a pamphlet from The British Astronomical Association.
The fabulous City Varieties Music Hall, Leeds, built in 1865, has survived changes of taste and fashion. I have enjoyed many shows there, and the backstage tour. Thanks to Catherine White for providing information about the building. As far as we know, ‘The Verts’ did not have a staffed stage door, but Leeds Grand Theatre did. As a Winstanley Babe in pantomime at the Grand, I knew that old stage door entrance well. For the purpose of this story, it is transplanted to the Varieties.
Tales of tunnels, and evidence of them, have long been part of the city’s story. To those who call mythical the tale of a tunnel between the City Varieties and the old Empire Palace Theatre, here’s a quote from The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance: ‘When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.’
As well as Peter Riley’s and Andrew Loudon’s histories of the Varieties, it was a pleasure to read John Major’s My Old Man, a personal history of music hall. In his Popular Music in England 1840–1914, Dave Russell gives a highly readable social history of music hall.
For his patience and assistance with several unfortunate deaths that befall characters in the Kate Shackleton novels, thanks to Barry Strickland-Hodge, Leeds University Visiting Professor of Prescribing Practice.
Thank you to Sandy Sechrest for her bid in the Bouchercon Charity Auction to have a character named after her.
Lynne Strutt found the reference to the Eclipse Cocktail on the website Cocktail 101. Cheers to Viv Cutbill, Sylvia Gill, Michelle Hughes and Patricia McNeil for their assistance in re-creating and sampling the Eclipse Cocktail, and for much else.
Once again, thanks to my agent Judith Murdoch and to Dominic Wakeford and the team at Piatkus.
Death in the Stars Page 33
