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  Image taken from website of Victorian Parliament of the current mace One aspect of writing my books that I particularly love is incorporating stories drawn from contemporary newspapers and magazines of the period. These vignettes give an insight into the life and people of the time and it is my challenge to bring them to life. In choosing 1892 as the time setting for THE HOMECOMING, I hit gold (no pun intended) when I realised the notorious tale of the ‘Missing Mace’ of the Victorian Legislative Assembly fitted perfectly into my timeline. If you are wondering what a mace is... It is a ceremonial object (based on a medieval weapon) used as a symbol of the authority of Parliament. It is sacrosanct... to interfere with the mace is to undermine the whole authority by which a parliament sits. Physically it is huge... about 1.5 metres long and traditionally made of precious metal and jewels. So very large, very awkward and very heavy! Bearing that in mind... On a dark and stormy night (I'm a writer...) in October 1891 the then mace of the Victorian Legislative Assembly was found to have vanished from its locked box in a locked room. The disappearance of the mace was first reported in this ilk (see also this longer account from THE AGE's archives: Click HERE ) : Australian Town and Country Journal Sat 17 October 1891 THE MACE STOLEN The mace belonging to the Victorian Legislative Assembly has disappeared. It appears to have been stolen from Parliament House by some daring thief in broad daylight. When the House adjourned on Friday Oct 9 the mace was carefully taken away and locked up in its case in the Speaker’s ante-room. It is looked after by the caretaker who acts at night as the custodian of the whole building. When the room was entered some time later it was found that the case had been broken open and that the mace was gone. Three detectives are engaged in the investigation. The mace is made entirely of Victorian gold, and is valued roughly at £250. It is difficult to understand how so cumbrous an article could have been carried away in daylight without attracting attention. Police were called in, the papers and gossip mongers went to town and the months passed but still the mace remained missing. Meanwhile the rumours abounded, the most persistent being that the mace had been removed by certain members of the Assembly itself and was last seen at a notorious brothel in Lonsdale Street (Madame Brussels) where it was employed in a lewd parody of parliamentary proceeding. The morally upright members of the community seized on this version of events as an opportunity to show up the moral depravity of the governing class. It took two years for a full parliamentary enquiry to be launched. It came no closer to solving the mystery. However it did flush out the Parliamentary Engineer, Thomas Jeffrey. Jeffrey, it was reported, hailed a tram on the night of the disappearance carrying a mysterious MACE SHAPED object wrapped in brown paper (see above description of said object). When questioned Jeffreys was evasive, claiming he was in the habit of taking wood home. He couldn’t prove it was wood he had taken home that day but neither could the police prove it was the mace. No conclusion could be reached or charges laid. A substantial reward was offered, blackmail attempts- made even years- later but to this day no sign of the missing mace has ever been found. Who is there to say my solution isn’t any more plausible than the most common answer: It lies at the bottom of the Maribyrnong River. For an amusing, and more in depth look at the Mystery of the Missing Mace… I recommend reading this article or the account on the Victorian Parliament's own website.  THE HOMECOMING is now available in all good bookstores or online... Concluding the Maiden’s Creek trilogy… It is now 1892 and twenty years have passed since the events of THE GOLDMINER’S SISTER. Daniel Hunt and Charlie O’Reilly are now adults and making their own way in the world, but the traumatic events of their respective childhoods have shaped their lives and there are questions to resolve. The pull to return to Maiden’s Creek is strong. Thrown together when the town is threatened, they must work together to save a friend but murder and lurking danger and the secrets that they hold threaten to keep them apart . Will love be enough to bring these two very different people together? Images:
Parliament House: Parliament House Melbourne, with cable tram in Spring Street at bottom right. PROV, VPRS 12800/P1 Photographic Collection: Railway Negatives: Alpha-numeric Systems, H 4910. Victorian Legislative Assembly Mace: Parliament of Victoria website  The day has finally arrived... THE HOMECOMING hits the shelves across Australia and New Zealand (and virtual bookshelves elsewhere!). With my last three books coming out during lockdowns it is beyond thrilling to be able to visit bookshops and libraries and see this book on the shelves in Big W and K Mart. Of all the books I have written in the last few years, this is the one which fought me the most. I started it in the middle of 2021 and for those who can remember, those were dark days for us Melbournians as we lurched from lockdown to lockdown. I couldn't escape my 5km restriction to visit my beloved Walhalla and breathe in the scent of the eucalypts and feel the cold mountain air on my cheek. But Charlie and Danny were keen for their story to be told and my editor was patient and gave me the time and space the book needed and it came together. This is a story with something for everyone... there is a murder mystery to solve, a romance between two unlikely protagonists, an actual unsolved historical mystery, a cataclysmic event... and, if you have read the earlier books, old friends and old hurts to be resolved. Early reviews have been encouraging and after all the dark misery of recent years, it is time to celebrate with some book launch events...
With January being our long summer holidays, the actual book launch and other activities will occur in February. The first of these is a launch at the Newport Library (Melbourne) on 1 February. The full list of all 'book tour' events is below and more detail will be forthcoming via my website and Facebook page or email me for details!   Of all the heinous offences laid at the feet of the puritans during the time of the Interregnum (1649-1660), the banning of Christmas raises the most interest. Oliver Cromwell is generally credited with this decision but the fact is that the abolition of Christmas (or “Christ’s Mass”) as a feast day and holiday predated Cromwell’s rise to power and was the outcome of the puritan domination of Parliament in the 1640s. Christmas had always been celebrated in England with traditions predating Christianity itself eg the “holly and the ivy” goes well back into pagan times. The traditions of wassailing, carols, feasting, mummers, plays and the resultant general drunkenness, frivolity and idleness were not looked on favourably by the puritans who believed that not only was it pagan but also resounded with Roman Catholic undertones. The puritans believed in a pure (hence the name) form of worship and devotion, based on the scriptures and felt that even the reformation had not gone far enough. In 1645, a “Directory of Public Worship” was produced in Westminster to replace the prayer book and in 1647 the parliament passed an ordinance abolishing the feasts of Christmas, Whitsun and Easter. In the 1650s this was taken further with a specific ordinance ordering shops and businesses to remain open on 25th December. Despite the ordinances and the threat of penalties (that included fines and being placed in the stocks) many people continued to covertly celebrate Christmas behind closed doors. For an account of one family’s perilous decision to continue the practice of Christmas, see the diaries of William Winstanley. Winstanley was an Essex farmer who “believed it was the duty of all Christians to celebrate the birth of their Saviour, with joyous festivity and open-handed generosity towards friends, relations and more especially the poor." (Alison Barnes, author of William Winstanley: The Man Who Saved Christmas ). In 1660 the monarchy was restored and the Christmas ban was lifted, although, not surprisingly, after 18 years it took some time for it to return to the familiar carousing and good cheer. As we contemplate the “stress” of Christmas, is there, perhaps a pause for consideration that perhaps the puritans were not all that wrong and that a purer form of worship and remembrance of Christ’s nativity should have a place in modern society? I would love to hear your thoughts… In the meantime I wish you and your family and loved ones a very safe and happy Christmas and holiday period and I join you in wishing peace in 2023! Alison Stuart   I think, without doubt, that my favourite part of the book publishing process is that moment when you see the cover for the first time. I have been blessed with some wonderful covers and I am particularly thrilled with the cover for the third Maiden's Creek book, THE HOMECOMING. The cover designer has captured Charlie 100% For those who are familiar with books 1 and 2 (The Postmistress and The Goldminer's Sister) you may remember Charlotte (Charlie) O'Reilly and Danny Greaves as children. Children grow up and we are now in 1892... Charlie is a nurse and midwife and Danny, a lawyer and frustrated writer (nothing autobiographical here!). The events of the earlier books have shaped their lives and left them both with questions that must be answered... so it is time for both to go home to Maiden's Creek. There will be old friends from the previous two books to meet again, adventures and a murder mystery to solve... and maybe, I hope, a satisfactory ending to our time together in Maiden's Creek. THE HOMECOMING WILL BE RELEASED ON 4 JANUARY 2023 |
Alison StuartAlison writes historical romances and short stories set in England and Australia and across different periods of history. Archives
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