Yorkshire Writers' Lunch

  ‘Are you sure this will work? ‘ he asked, giving Lucy a large, iron key. Lucy nodded. ‘I’m sure. It’s just a sleeping draught, but a strong one. If you pretend you’re dying, they’ll be ready to believe it, to believe it’s something infectious – the plague has been found in London, came in with the ships. They’ll accept it, Henry. I’m sure. I will be there tomorrow night to set you, to set both of us free.' He took the phial and stared at the dark liquid inside. ‘Just as it is?’ Lucy agreed, ‘Don’t mix it with anything else.' **** That evening, the manor house was filled with lamentations. ‘The young master’s gone,’ the cook cried and all the staff fell silent. ‘Never seen it hit so quick, sir,’ the doctor was astounded. ‘Right as rain one minute and now … gone.’ He looked up at the young man’s father. ‘It could be…the plague, sir.’ ‘And it’s high summer,’ Lord John, Henry’s father said. ‘We must arrange the burial immediately. And bu...

Thursday 28 December 1854 Near Scarr Wood, Slaithwaite It was a sombre Christmas at Marsden. Each day, Samuel Whitehead faced the sympathetic, enquiring gaze of villagers, looking to him for news of Sarah Lumb. His reply was always a slow, silent shake of his weary head. For Hannah Haigh, days and nights were filled with sorrow and self-blame. She should not have allowed her friend to walk part way with her that night. Why was it Sarah who had disappeared – why not her? Grief and guilt filled her head and her heart. Silent tears wracked her thin frame.   The dress skirt was found in the river below an aqueduct on the Thursday after Christmas, held fast by brambles that trailed their long, spiny fingers into the gushing waters of the Colne. Nearby, the bare, twisted branches of the trees in Scarr Wood seemed to shrug their black limbs in despair at the sight of the dwindling number of men searching the river, their steps heavy and slow as the distance from home increased each ...

Friday 8 December 1854 The Gymnasium Hall, Ramsden Street, Huddersfield Some thought it the most wicked sorcery they had ever witnessed. They were pleased to scurry home through the wet streets to bolt their doors, say their prayers and try to dispel the images of the piercing, demonic gaze of the man billed as a Lecturer in Mesmerism, Phrenology, Clairvoyance and Animal Magnetism. But these stubborn sceptics were in the minority. Most left the Hall that night believing they had seen acts of wonder and supernatural powers. They had watched volunteers being placed in a mesmeric sleep and then told to get into an imaginary rowing boat before being cast adrift on a stormy sea. As these entranced sailors held on to the sides of a boat only they could see, their bodies were flung from side to side on waves which washed only through their own imaginations. Under the influence of the celebrated Captain Hudson, others were persuaded to assume the identity of a steam train, their shushing...

   Let’s see what’s on the television tonight.   Oh, this drama looks good.   Wait a minute, here comes a warning.    This programme contains violence and scenes of a sexual nature.   That’s put me off a bit.   I don’t think I want to watch anything like that.   I suppose I could start watching it and see how I feel.   No, I’ll look for something else.    Now, what about this one.   I love hospital programmes.   It sounds quite interesting.   24 hours in A and E.   Here we go again, another warning. This programme contains scenes of graphic medical procedures which some people may find upsetting.   Oh dear, how graphic?   That’s the question.   I’ll give it a miss.    There’s a cowboy film on some remote channel.   I’ve seen it before and I remember it was really good.   It’s quite old and pretty tame, so it should be clear from censorship.     ...