The previous two titles in this series were each based on actual events but this one is all fiction. However, as before, I have threaded real London locations through the narrative. The taverns, inns and – yes – Nando’s all existed, as did Lintot’s Bookshop.
Jonathan Wild, Jack Sheppard, Blueskin Blake, Edgeworth Bess were living, breathing individuals in 1716 but the versions presented here are my invention.
Sir Isaac Newton, obviously, also was a real-life historical figure but again the character here is my personal take, as is John Duck, who did at one time have a fencing school in Little White’s Alley. His sister, as far as I am aware, is my invention. As a side note, he had a daughter, Ann, who ran with a criminal gang and was later executed for robbery and murder at Tyburn. From the condemned cell at Newgate she wrote:
I acknowledge I have been in almost all the gaols in London, viz. Wood-street and the Poultry Compters; New-Prison, Clerkenwell Bridewell, three times in the London Work-House, once in Bridewell Hospital, and several times in Newgate. I hope none will reflect on my poor mother, for if I had taken her advice, I had not brought myself to such an unhappy end. I hope my sister will take warning by me, and take care what company she keeps, for ill company has been the ruin of me. So the Lord have Mercy on my poor soul.
Gallowmire, its river and lord of the manor, are a complete invention, so please don’t go looking for it on any map, old or new.