A Writer's Journal
5 May 2024
At the dentist’s, taking historical liberties, and Bruce Lee…
Monday 29 April
I did a bit more work on the suffragette interviews then went to the dentist’s for a check up and hygienist. It was a relief not to need any treatment but as usual the hygienist was uncomfortable, all that tapping and poking around, cold water, gritty polish. I drifted off in the chair thinking about eighteenth century dentistry, which made me feel very lucky. No, I would not like to have lived in the long eighteenth century and worn the teeth of someone who had died at Waterloo. On the other hand, I would like to live on the USS Enterprise, captained by Jean Luc Picard, in the future.
Tuesday 20 April
I got up early and worked on the novel before breakfast. Afterwards I worked on the Biography, then did a final check of the talk ‘The Bristol Suffragettes’ for Thursday.
Wednesday 1 May
I did some more work on the novel, trying to work out a journey I want my character to take, but unless I take a historical liberty there are no trains. Damn. So historical liberty it is then. Or perhaps not, I do have another idea. Though I haven’t in fact decided whether or not to fictionalise the setting, and not use a real place name. Either option has advantages: one you don’t have to make it up, the other that you can change details without someone screaming “but the Dosh & Stashit bank on the corner of the High Street didn’t open in July 1908 but in August 1908”. Or whatever the equivalent would be of those letters in the Sunday TV pages written by people who’ve spotted a bus passing by in the background of an episode of Foyle’s War which has been painted the wrong shade of green.
Thursday 2 May
I worked on the Biography then, as I’m working tonight (giving a talk), had a break. I watched The Big Boss, Bruce Lee, which put me in the right mood for facing a Women’s Institute audience. Wonderful, totally bonkers film in glorious you-can’t-miss-it colour, with the brightest red for blood I’ve ever seen, a weird Pink Floyd sound track, and amazing fight scenes with those crazy sound effects which sound like someone’s hitting two sticks together when a blow lands. But those cats were fast as lightning.
The talk went ok, not many questions though, though a few people did come up to me at the end so perhaps they didn’t want to ask in front of everyone. They seemed quite shocked by the violence done by and to the suffragettes. I find that so many people have a benign image of suffragette militancy, as if planting bombs, starting fires, and assaulting MPs don’t count as violence at all. At the same time, they often don’t realise how brutal the government repression was.
One woman told me she used to work for Tony Benn! Respect. It was Tony Benn who, without permission, put up a plaque to Emily Wilding Davison in the cupboard in the House of Commons where she hid on Census Night 2 April 1911, when many suffrage campaigners refused to fill in their census forms (‘no votes, no census’). The myth is that Davison wanted to be able to put “House of Commons” on her form. In fact, she hid in order to evade the census and did not fill in her form, but her landlady filled it in and included her details on it.
Emily Wilding Davison, suffragette
Friday 3 May
I worked on the suffragette interviews, putting together notes for the biographical details for the next chapter. Then I went to a Pilates reformer session, which is very good at finding out muscles you didn’t know you had.
Saturday 4 May 2024
I spent most of the day working on an article for the Dan Foster’s World section of my website, on travel in eighteenth-century Wales, as well as sorting out some notes on the Biography. Then I made pizzas, which took hours, but home made ones are always nicer than bought.
Picture Credits
‘A French Dentist Shewing a Specimen of His Artificial Teeth and False Palates’, Thomas Rowlandson, 1811, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Public Domain
Emily Wilding Davison, Women’s Library on Flickr, No Known Copyright Restrictions