tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54156721332952823642024-02-19T23:38:18.934+00:00Isabella and the string of beadsKatrinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04331424028688756504noreply@blogger.comBlogger48125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5415672133295282364.post-77109512639885373732017-07-05T06:33:00.001+01:002017-07-05T06:33:46.828+01:00Dr Isabella Stenhouse: 130 years young<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SuDMyYF9K10/WVx2qWa2H5I/AAAAAAAAAy8/pnZ4GKiG5-wSqFC0b1wrZ7NdKB5HVjmjgCLcBGAs/s1600/011%2BIsabella%2Bon%2BKaiser.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="764" data-original-width="1129" height="270" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SuDMyYF9K10/WVx2qWa2H5I/AAAAAAAAAy8/pnZ4GKiG5-wSqFC0b1wrZ7NdKB5HVjmjgCLcBGAs/s400/011%2BIsabella%2Bon%2BKaiser.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Twenty-nine year old Dr Isabella Stenhouse may have been one of the first women doctors ever to have been employed by the British Army but, in the last few years, she's had a new career.<br />
<br />
It began when she was selected for <a href="http://www.radiotimes.com/tv-programme/e/ct49tv/antiques-roadshow--world-war-one-special/" target="_blank">BBC Antiques Roadshow's WW1 Special</a>. Her appearance on 6th April 2014 was followed by articles in the <a href="http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/world-war-one-doctors-story-6915199" target="_blank">local</a> and <a href="http://www.express.co.uk/news/world-war-1/469041/Revealed-the-secret-heroics-of-a-woman-on-the-battlefield-during-WWI" target="_blank">national press</a> and on August 4th 2014, the centenary of the start of the First World War, she was featured in the <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/world-war-one/10995837/Katrina-Kirkwood-on-her-grandmother-Isabella-Stenhouse-a-pioneering-doctor.html" target="_blank">Daily Telegraph</a>.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bHaCQM_XNY4/WVx27AbqxzI/AAAAAAAAAzA/e5FGK8bg8ZYuZ_rU29k_Or1nnFM0q6qRgCLcBGAs/s1600/008%2BSt%2BIgnatius%2Bstaff.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1203" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bHaCQM_XNY4/WVx27AbqxzI/AAAAAAAAAzA/e5FGK8bg8ZYuZ_rU29k_Or1nnFM0q6qRgCLcBGAs/s400/008%2BSt%2BIgnatius%2Bstaff.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Modern medical women commissioned <a href="http://issuu.com/magazineproduction/docs/mw_v32_issue_4_0914_ezine?e=1127854/9353767" target="_blank">an article</a> about her; <a href="http://beyondthetrenches.co.uk/dr-isabella-stenhouse-a-woman-doctor-in-ww1/" target="_blank">Beyond the Trenches</a> wanted to know more; and on July 1st 1916, the centenary of the start of the Battle of the Somme, Oxford University's <a href="http://ww1centenary.oucs.ox.ac.uk/body-and-mind/why-july-1916-was-an-important-month-for-professional-women/" target="_blank">Continuations and Beginnings</a> decided to publish <a href="http://ww1centenary.oucs.ox.ac.uk/body-and-mind/why-july-1916-was-an-important-month-for-professional-women/" target="_blank">an article</a> highlighting the significance for professional women of the army's decision to employ women doctors.<br />
<br />
As Isabella's granddaughter, it became my job to write up her story. <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mystery-Isabella-String-Beads-doctor/dp/0995489300" target="_blank">The Mystery of Isabella and the String of Beads</a> was published in July last year, on the centenary of the date when she signed up with the army.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IEAUWBsALVY/WVx3OzGSTfI/AAAAAAAAAzE/-nLL168cesso3MAzl9E9UITaMX_pCG2nACLcBGAs/s1600/Isabella_front_cover_final.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1050" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IEAUWBsALVY/WVx3OzGSTfI/AAAAAAAAAzE/-nLL168cesso3MAzl9E9UITaMX_pCG2nACLcBGAs/s400/Isabella_front_cover_final.jpg" width="262" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Family historians were intrigued and asked me about <a href="https://www.family-tree.co.uk/news-and-views/a-string-of-beads-and-a-family-mystery" target="_blank">the hows and whys of uncovering Isabella's story</a>.<br />
<br />
Reviews came from the <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30764901-the-mystery-of-isabella-and-the-string-of-beads?from_search=true" target="_blank">USA</a>, <a href="https://greatwar100reads.wordpress.com/2017/05/20/the-mystery-of-isabella-and-the-string-of-beads/" target="_blank">Canada</a>, <a href="http://www.marinamaxwellauthor.com/book-reviews/isabella-and-the-string-of-beads" target="_blank">Australia</a> and <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31311201-the-mystery-of-isabella-and-the-string-of-beads?from_search=true" target="_blank">more</a>.<br />
<br />
Belona Greenwood of Words and Women asked why I had written the book as <a href="http://wordsandwomennorwich.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/katrina-kirkwood-explains-why-she-chose.html" target="_blank">creative nonfiction</a> rather than a more formal biography. The Alliance of Independent Authors wanted to know about <a href="https://selfpublishingadvice.org/why-i-write-what-i-write-creative-non-fiction/" target="_blank">creative nonfiction</a> in general. Jane Davis interviewed me for her <a href="http://jane-davis.co.uk/2017/01/31/virtual-book-club-meet-katrina-kirkwood/" target="_blank">Virtual Bookclub</a>. So did <a href="https://greatwar100reads.wordpress.com/2017/05/30/an-interview-with-katrina-kirkwood-author-of-the-mystery-of-isabella-and-the-string-of-beads/" target="_blank">Great War 100 Reads</a>.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-etgSh1tC1SE/WVx3dBqTWsI/AAAAAAAAAzI/WNNAt05nSv4hPVE74jNp96LrFZWZjlEDACLcBGAs/s1600/007%2BIsabella%2BSt%2BIgnatius.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1107" data-original-width="1600" height="276" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-etgSh1tC1SE/WVx3dBqTWsI/AAAAAAAAAzI/WNNAt05nSv4hPVE74jNp96LrFZWZjlEDACLcBGAs/s400/007%2BIsabella%2BSt%2BIgnatius.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
My life has been altered by Isabella's new career - my grandmother is living again. </div>
<br />
<h4 style="text-align: center;">
So here's to Dr Isabella Stenhouse, Granny,</h4>
<h4 style="text-align: center;">
Happy 130 years young,</h4>
<h4 style="text-align: center;">
Happy birthday this month.</h4>
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">The Mystery of Isabella and the String of Beads is available on <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mystery-Isabella-String-Beads-doctor/dp/0995489300" target="_blank">Amazon</a> and from all good bookshops.</span></div>
</div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5415672133295282364.post-65088432193336809072017-01-30T15:42:00.004+00:002017-01-30T15:49:05.591+00:00Maltese Military Funeral for Isabella’s colleague, Dr Isobel Tate<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uKrJ__jFeKY/WI9dEM0ButI/AAAAAAAAAwQ/uVgBe-YtNFArhOu2C25t582R4TCO4sGPwCEw/s1600/9459%2BPieta%2BMilitary%2Bcemetery.tif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uKrJ__jFeKY/WI9dEM0ButI/AAAAAAAAAwQ/uVgBe-YtNFArhOu2C25t582R4TCO4sGPwCEw/s320/9459%2BPieta%2BMilitary%2Bcemetery.tif" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
On 28th January 1917 Isobel Tate died. She was one of the small group of women doctors who, like Isabella Stenhouse, had signed up to work with the Royal Army Medical Corps in the summer of 1916. On January 30th, she was buried in Pieta Cemetery, alongside men who had died from wounds sustained in Gallipoli or infections caught in Salonika. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
This extract from <i><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mystery-Isabella-String-Beads-doctor/dp/0995489300" target="_blank">The Mystery of Isabella and the String of Beads</a></i> tells of my visit to the cemetery:</div>
<br /><br />It is a burning hot Maltese day as I turn away from the vehicles hurtling along the dual-carriageway outside Valletta into a peaceful Pieta side street and go through an iron gateway. The thick stone walls instantly dull the roar of the traffic. I can hear insects, and even in the midday glare I can see that this war cemetery is unlike any I saw in France. Cypresses stand sentinel over a field of flat tombstones that lie between hard baked paths: their dates 1915, 1916, 1917, 1918. This is where the soldiers who the hospitals fail to mend lie buried. Many of the stones bear three names. The Maltese ground is so hard that the army has had no choice but to let the flood of dead share one another’s graves. They have had no choice but to lay many of the tombstones flat, as if to greet the sun. If I took the time to count, I would find 1,303 victims. That is almost one every day from the start of the campaign in Gallipoli in 1915 until the signing of the Armistice in 1918. But I do not count them. Instead, I turn back towards the gate, letting time and the weather slip to the winter cloudiness of Tuesday 30th January 1917 and an article in the <i>Daily Malta Chronicle</i>.<div>
<br /><br />As I wait, I thread together the information I have gleaned about this last month, January 1917. Many of the churches started this third New Year of the war with a week of special prayers, but the German U-boats did not stop. Instead, they sank four merchant ships passing near Malta before the month was even nine days old. Not that there were many casualties, but tons of sugar, barley and other grains were lost. From home, tales of women and children queueing for hours in the winter cold and wet for basic supplies of bread and meat have been coming in from every quarter. The letter-writers try to put on a brave face, but the envelopes spill stories of supplies running out and shopkeepers having to come to the door to dismiss the queue. They tell of the weary families, frozen to the marrow, trudging home empty-handed, wondering how they will survive. Rumours abound too of discontented murmurings among the soldiers on leave, furious that while they have been risking everything for the sake of their nation, their nation has not looked after the women and children they have entrusted to its care. And the British in Malta have agreed that although they may be bored of canned meat, canned fish and the everlasting condensed milk, for now they are having the best of things. <br /><br /><br />My thoughts are interrupted by music. It is a quarter to four. Other people have joined me – a few nurses, some orderlies and a little crowd of men in hospital blue. Quiet, we crane to see. In front of the band marches a cluster of uniformed men who I know from the Chronicle are members of the Royal Garrison Artillery. They pass so slowly that I can count them, forty in all, pacing solemnly to music so sad that it alone makes my eyes moisten. As the last row of the artillery passes, the band itself comes into view. Eyes front, the Band of the Royal Malta Artillery is setting the rhythm for the whole procession, the dignified tones of the Dead March from Handel’s Saul resounding from their instruments; swinging from their drums, black crepe. Solemn minutes tick by before the coffin comes into view, and every hat around me is doffed, every head bowed. Lying on a gun-carriage pulled by six mules, the coffin is escorted by privates, lieutenants, captains and colonels, each bearing an elaborate wreath. Just beside me at the gate, the cortège halts, and the band falls silent. The Union Flag draped over the coffin moves eerily in the January breeze.<br /><br />Hundreds of funeral processions may have come along this road in the last two years, but this one is different. It is no soldier who lies inside that coffin. It is one of the lady doctors, Dr Isobel Addy Tate. Respectfully, her coffin is lifted gently from its carriage and placed on the pall-bearers’ shoulders. Even their names make the Chronicle, so detailed is its account. The priest is leading them into the cemetery, but I wait, watching the crowds who have followed Dr Tate. There are numerous Medical Officers with their RAMC badges. A cluster of civil surgeons, and a throng of Matrons, Sisters and Staff nurses pass before, at last, the group I have been waiting for comes into sight. Instantly recognisable by their motley garb, I slide in with the lady doctors. Slowly, we process towards the grave. The place is packed. Every path is full, and the grave is awkwardly near a wall, but the men are moving back to allow these women, Isobel Tate’s closest friends and colleagues, to be the nearest to her burial. <br /><br /><br /><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AnQFXJuuwBw/WI9eET789dI/AAAAAAAAAwc/xz94CNqvoo8bp8wezn8UBMdhQ9vXxPKSwCLcB/s1600/2010-064-1-29-2%2Bservice%2Bat%2Bpieta.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AnQFXJuuwBw/WI9eET789dI/AAAAAAAAAwc/xz94CNqvoo8bp8wezn8UBMdhQ9vXxPKSwCLcB/s1600/2010-064-1-29-2%2Bservice%2Bat%2Bpieta.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><br />As the priest conducts the service, the two neighbouring tombstones catch my eye. These are not shared tombs, each grave holds the remains of a nurse. Only one space remains in the row, and I shudder. At the rate this war is going, it too will probably soon be filled. Somebody who is now living and working, maybe even one of these women standing near me now, will be lying in a coffin for an interment as ceremonial and certain as Dr Tate’s today. <br /><br />The priest finishes the ritual and the artillery men raise their guns. Three sharp volleys snap the silence and the tear-jerking strains of the Last Post echo from a single trumpet. I bow my head and wait while the lady doctors file past the still open grave. Then solemnly and quietly, they leave the cemetery. Does their conversation slowly come back as they walk towards Porte des Bombes? <br /><br />“So sad.”<br /><br />“So far away from home.”<br /><br />“How did she die?”<br /><br />“Congestion of the brain associated with typhoid, they suspect.”<br /><br />“She had taken over the bacteriology in Valletta Hospital, hadn’t she?”<br /><br />“Yes, and she was ill in Belgrade when she was out there last year, I believe.”<br /><br />“She deserves recognition from the authorities.”<br /><br />“Yes, she has given her life for her country just as surely as any wounded soldier or victim of malaria.”<br /><br /><br /><br />(Excerpt from <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mystery-Isabella-String-Beads-doctor/dp/0995489300" target="_blank">The Mystery of Isabella and the String of Beads</a>,<div>
Copyright Katrina Kirkwood 2016.)</div>
</div>
</div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5415672133295282364.post-79275285030564839962016-10-06T09:22:00.002+01:002016-10-06T09:40:36.552+01:00For National Poetry Day<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator tr_bq" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
A poem from Dr Isabella Stenhouse's archive, saved from her time in Malta as one of the first women to serve as a doctor with the British Army:</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-625FtQDXcR4/V_YJLPAN_kI/AAAAAAAAAt0/ek4rvVrrGu437LJyQ4dGEIuEdb4jGaDYACLcB/s1600/Salvati%2Bconcert%2BMalta.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-625FtQDXcR4/V_YJLPAN_kI/AAAAAAAAAt0/ek4rvVrrGu437LJyQ4dGEIuEdb4jGaDYACLcB/s400/Salvati%2Bconcert%2BMalta.jpg" width="150" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">
A HOSPITAL CONCERT, MAY 8, 1917</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
DEDICATED TO A VOICE</div>
</h4>
<div style="font-family: 'Minion Pro'; font-size: 10px; min-height: 12px; text-align: justify;">
<i></i></div>
<blockquote>
<br />She will wish her pure strings to be mute—<br />Heal us, alone, by thy voice!<br />We are weak—with an arm, or a foot,<br />‘Tented,’ or bound, to no choice;<br />Ours are the bandaged eyes,<br />A-search for the Singer’s face—<br />Denials, through darkness, arise,<br />Pierce it with sound, for a space:<br /> O Singer of Life—so, of pain!<br /> Sing ‘Vita’––thy ‘Vita’––again and again<br /><br /><br />Ah! those were old words, that we’ve read—<br />‘O Sempre Amore’—that stirred;<br />And Love’s for us lads, sick in bed,<br />And Love is the wounded’s last word;<br />And a warmth drew in from the street,<br />And we slipped to an English June,<br />And England and Italy meet,<br />And touch the same chord of Love’s tune:<br /> O Singer of Love—lift from pain!<br /> Sing thy ‘Sempre Amore’—again and again!<br /><br /><br />Then he sank to an under key—<br />‘O Pena’!—O Pain! is it not?<br />And we fell to a blind reverie—<br />For we’ve had our pain, God wot!<br />We were back in the fever and ache,<br />Or peered in a pal’s dead face,<br />Or were feeling the lift and the shake,<br />And the moan in us down to the Base;<br /> O Singer—though sweetest—of pain!<br /> Sing ‘Pena’—thy ‘Pena’—again and again<br /><br /><br />Then he wrought us—passionate—loud—<br />‘Guerra, ah Guerra’!—is it War?<br />For our slack frames stiffened them proud,<br />And the men, we were once, we saw—<br />Over and on to a Leader’s sign,<br />Tightening their teeth on wild breath,<br />Spilling their blood like the reddest wine,<br />While they staked for winning or death!—<br /> O Singer of madness and pain!<br /> Sing ‘Guerra’—’thy Guerra’—again and again!<br /><br /><br />The ward empties to shuffle and drill—<br />All but two bedridden rows;<br />But he’s made eyes,—the dryest—to fill,<br />He’s breathed all our souls to new glows;<br />And a pale face, still in a trance—<br />Is away to the glory of things;<br />And the crutches tap tap to a prance;<br />While a voice to the hollowness clings—<br /> O Vita dolce, si sovente amara!<br /> O Sempre Amore—Pena e Guerra!—<br /><br /><br />Valletta, May 10th, 1917 </blockquote>
<blockquote>
F.D.B.</blockquote>
<br /></div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5415672133295282364.post-50795027999773092442016-10-04T08:48:00.000+01:002016-10-04T08:48:48.681+01:00Family Tree Magazine's review of The Mystery of Isabella and the String of Beads<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Thanks to Karen Clare of <a href="https://www.family-tree.co.uk/news-and-views/a-string-of-beads-and-a-family-mystery" target="_blank">Family Tree Magazine</a> for this new review, printed in the magazine last month:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="text-align: start;"><br /></span><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LIZ84yMVYPU/V6woIEJu4yI/AAAAAAAAAqA/MsoZVx9N42MPbWJoWqdN1THOvql4h7d1wCPcB/s1600/Isabella_front_cover_final.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LIZ84yMVYPU/V6woIEJu4yI/AAAAAAAAAqA/MsoZVx9N42MPbWJoWqdN1THOvql4h7d1wCPcB/s320/Isabella_front_cover_final.jpg" width="210" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>This delightful memoir-cum-family history mystery was borne out of a collection of memorabilia inherited from the author's adored Scottish grandmother who was – unusually for a woman in WW1 – a doctor.</i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>As well as photos and surgical instruments there is a string of glass beads, which apparently came from a grateful German PoW. And so the author embarks on an ancestral road trip to piece together Isabella's story and discover the origin of the beads. Her investigation takes her from Isabella's grand Leith home to France, Malta and Alexandria in Egypt, via an appearance on the BBC's Antiques Roadshow. The narrative is exciting, while the brief fleets of imagination will spark recognition in many family historians, as the author not only retraces Isabella's steps but breathes new life into her remarkable story. </i></blockquote>
<a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mystery-Isabella-String-Beads-doctor/dp/0995489300" target="_blank">Buy the book.</a></div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5415672133295282364.post-35280682453456012062016-09-26T09:16:00.000+01:002016-09-26T09:16:16.521+01:00Solving mysteries: raising questions<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div>
<span style="text-align: center;">Last month, </span><a href="https://www.family-tree.co.uk/news-and-views/a-string-of-beads-and-a-family-mystery" style="text-align: center;" target="_blank">Family Tree magazine</a><span style="text-align: center;"> invited me to write a post for their blog. </span>I didn't want to write a spoiler, so I pondered again the whole process of research and writing.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Was it morally acceptable to dig up a story somebody had chosen not to tell?</div>
<div>
How black was the line between fact and fancy?</div>
<div>
Where did Isabella's story fit in the massive global commemoration of WW1?</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
This is how I began:</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KdXjlNEVBkQ/V9EoOboJKdI/AAAAAAAAAsc/D6VhUaNdqdYEIllxU_OT_nezj_IXooX0wCPcB/s1600/007%2BIsabella%2BSt%2BIgnatius.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="221" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KdXjlNEVBkQ/V9EoOboJKdI/AAAAAAAAAsc/D6VhUaNdqdYEIllxU_OT_nezj_IXooX0wCPcB/s320/007%2BIsabella%2BSt%2BIgnatius.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Family tradition held that my grandmother, Isabella Lane (née Stenhouse), had served as a doctor during WW1 - but she never talked about it. Even on her eightieth birthday, when she was presented with a huge tape-recorder and urged to record her memories, she still refused. The machine was untouched when she died sixteen years later, leaving me her medical instruments and a mysterious string of beads - the gift, it was rumoured, of a grateful German prisoner of war. Sometimes I would look at the collection, wondering what story it could have told, but it was forty years before I began to investigate.</i></blockquote>
</div>
<div>
<div>
You can read the rest of the article here: <a href="https://www.family-tree.co.uk/news-and-views/a-string-of-beads-and-a-family-mystery" target="_blank">A String of Beads and a Family Mystery</a><div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5415672133295282364.post-1534832984947816632016-08-12T11:19:00.003+01:002016-09-08T09:39:12.475+01:00#OTD 100 years ago: Which women doctors did the army take on?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Thanks to <a href="http://www.maltaramc.com/ramcoff/1910_1919/ramcoff1916.html" target="_blank">Col. Walter Bonnici’s hard work</a>, I know that on 12th August 1916, Dr Isabella Stenhouse left Southampton on board the HMHS Gloucester Castle. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-M5K4PcqXjzw/V62ab1zKxkI/AAAAAAAAAqM/-cRHzoGnI5Yxb0k5MGgFdJs9mnKrclhzwCLcB/s1600/Gloucester%2BCastle-05.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="357" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-M5K4PcqXjzw/V62ab1zKxkI/AAAAAAAAAqM/-cRHzoGnI5Yxb0k5MGgFdJs9mnKrclhzwCLcB/s400/Gloucester%2BCastle-05.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gloucester Castle before decoration in its hospital ship regalia.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div>
She and fifteen other women doctors were joining 22 of their colleagues. Together, they formed the first cohort of women doctors that the British Army had ever dared to recruit. Not that the army was taking the risk of sending them to help with the flood of wounded from the battle raging in the Somme. Oh, no. Rather than let these ‘ladies’ anywhere near the fighting, the army was shipping them to Malta, far away in the Mediterranean.<br />
<br />
It was not that these women were inexperienced. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Isabella had spent 1915 working in France - <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mystery-Isabella-String-Beads-doctor/dp/0995489300" target="_blank">that story is told in the book</a>.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://maltaramc.com/ladydoc/d/davidsonge.html" target="_blank">Georgina Davidson</a>, too, had served with the French Red Cross but, when that job had finished, she had travelled to Serbia to join Elsie Inglis and the Scottish Women’s Hospitals. <br />
<br />
<a href="http://maltaramc.com/ladydoc/b/bignoldmh.html" target="_blank">Florence Bignold</a> had also worked in Serbia.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Recently qualified <a href="http://maltaramc.com/ladydoc/s/stewartmjm.html" target="_blank">Martha Stewart</a> had been forced to retreat from advancing enemy troops while running a surgery for Mrs St Clair Stobart’s Serbian Relief Fund. By way of thanks, the King of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes had awarded her the Order of St Sava. </div>
<div>
<br />
And, as if to cap them all, New Zealander <a href="http://maltaramc.com/ladydoc/m/mclarena.html" target="_blank">Ada McLaren</a> had spent three full months as a prisoner of the Austrians after being captured while working with the Berry Mission, again in Serbia.<br />
<br />
Yet these experiences had deterred none of them from boarding the Gloucester Castle. On this day 100 years ago, they set off for war again. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Their companions were no less bold: <a href="http://maltaramc.com/ladydoc/h/hectorm.html" target="_blank">Mabel Hector</a> had worked in India; <a href="http://www.maltaramc.com/ladydoc/m/moffettej.html#1916" target="_blank">Elizabeth Moffett</a> was an active suffragist who, on occasion, had refused to pay her taxes, while <a href="http://maltaramc.com/ladydoc/w/waringka.html" target="_blank">Katherine Waring</a> was so confident of her abilities that she had signed up only 6 months after qualifying. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
As the ship slipped out of port and headed towards the Bay of Biscay, what was going to happen next?</div>
</div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5415672133295282364.post-75196539876130921352016-08-02T06:11:00.000+01:002016-09-08T09:39:40.594+01:00A Rewarding Read - A Nontraditional Account of WW1<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="tr_bq">
<br /></div>
<div class="tr_bq">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Pgrh8hkGu-A/V6Apk6VJlVI/AAAAAAAAApo/hdspHF2uZyoOIu7mo34BkRqCW5QhSdNXACEw/s1600/Isabella%2527s%2Bmysterious%2Bbeads.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Pgrh8hkGu-A/V6Apk6VJlVI/AAAAAAAAApo/hdspHF2uZyoOIu7mo34BkRqCW5QhSdNXACEw/s400/Isabella%2527s%2Bmysterious%2Bbeads.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="tr_bq">
<br /></div>
<div class="tr_bq">
<br /></div>
<div class="tr_bq">
At last! Somebody has explained <i><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mystery-Isabella-String-Beads-doctor/dp/0995489300" target="_blank">The Mystery of Isabella and the String of Beads</a></i>. </div>
<div class="tr_bq">
Here's <a href="http://behindtheirlines.blogspot.co.uk/" target="_blank">blogger Connie Ruzich's </a>5* review from <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1710538258?book_show_action=true&from_review_page=1" target="_blank">Goodreads</a>: </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<blockquote>
"This non-fiction book balances two stories, one a biography, the other a mystery. The first story relates the compelling experiences of Isabella Stenhouse, an intrepid Edwardian who was one of the small minority of women in Scotland to be awarded a medical degree at that time. Shortly after graduating from medical school in Edinburgh, Isabella volunteered as a physician and tended the wounded of the First World War in in France, Malta, and Egypt. Her life story is compelling and is augmented with historical insights that deserve a wider understanding and appreciation. From the medical facts of gas gangrene to the social contexts of spiritualism, author Katrina Kirkwood supplements her story with well-researched background information. The book should strongly appeal to anyone with an interest in nontraditional accounts of the First World War and those who wish to learn more about women’s history in the conflict.<br />
<br />
The second narrative, interwoven with Isabella Stenhouse’s story, is the journey of Isabella’s granddaughter and her quest to learn more about her grandmother’s unusual war experience. Using family photos and artifacts (including Isabella’s medical instruments and the string of beads referred to in the book’s title), the author sets out to research her grandmother’s life. This part of the story moves from archives in London to forgotten beaches in Alexandria. Using her imagination to speculate on Isabella’s motives and to fill in blank spaces in Isabella’s story, Kirkwood adroitly balances on the tightrope between fact and speculative opinion. Her account of the search for her grandmother’s history should appeal to others who have embarked on a similar quest and is instructive for those who would like to investigate their ancestors’ involvement in the Great War.<br />
<br />
An unusual book about an uncommon war experience, Kirkwoods’ fresh perspective on the First World War is a rewarding read."</blockquote>
<br />
Thank you, Connie!<br />
<br />
Paperback and eBook versions are both available from <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mystery-Isabella-String-Beads-doctor/dp/0995489300" target="_blank">Amazon</a> and can be ordered from all good bookshops.</div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5415672133295282364.post-32735464450409202332016-07-25T10:50:00.000+01:002016-09-09T06:35:34.802+01:00The full story available now … at last!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div>
First came the research. Then the fumbling attempts to write it up - the embarrassing first drafts and the constant editing. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Then there were the rejection slips and the decision that, even if the mainstream didn't want to tell the story of a professional woman navigating her way through WW1, her tale had to be told - it represented the tales of so many other women who were also in danger of being omitted from the centenary commemorations. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-I-Susy93LWc/V5XgRiOSubI/AAAAAAAAApU/_jaGWfWhngIz_BHoJAA60WBowrpmWzaogCLcB/s1600/012%2BIsabella%2Bon%2Bboard%2Bship%2BAlexandria.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="270" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-I-Susy93LWc/V5XgRiOSubI/AAAAAAAAApU/_jaGWfWhngIz_BHoJAA60WBowrpmWzaogCLcB/s400/012%2BIsabella%2Bon%2Bboard%2Bship%2BAlexandria.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
So today, 100 years after the most important centenary of her war, <i><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mystery-Isabella-String-Beads-doctor/dp/0995489300/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1469179632&sr=1-1&keywords=the+mystery+of+isabella+and+the+string+of+beads" target="_blank">The Mystery of Isabella and the String of Beads: A Woman Doctor in WW1</a></i> is available on <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mystery-Isabella-String-Beads-doctor/dp/0995489300/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1469179632&sr=1-1&keywords=the+mystery+of+isabella+and+the+string+of+beads" target="_blank">Amazon</a> or can be ordered through all good bookshops.<br />
<br /></div>
</div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en" style="text-align: center;">
A great read, highly recommended! <a href="https://t.co/ESyXgVK0xz">https://t.co/ESyXgVK0xz</a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
— Marina Maxwell (@OfArbeia) <a href="https://twitter.com/OfArbeia/status/756605960538423297">July 22, 2016</a></div>
</blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5415672133295282364.post-8732769760324363012016-07-18T13:59:00.000+01:002016-09-08T09:41:57.768+01:00Only a week to go ...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6QvW1kPAVyI/V5IS3-tjjMI/AAAAAAAAApE/eyajnXQXMVEs5QvmSBk9kfFO2me7J89DACLcB/s1600/onsale-002.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6QvW1kPAVyI/V5IS3-tjjMI/AAAAAAAAApE/eyajnXQXMVEs5QvmSBk9kfFO2me7J89DACLcB/s640/onsale-002.gif" width="412" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>The Mystery of Isabella and the String of Beads: A Woman Doctor in WW1</i></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Available as ebook or paperback from Amazon or any good bookshop from 25th July.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Here's the blurb.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">It was the inscription that made the antique scalpels so tantalising: ‘Isabella Stenhouse’<i>.</i> A woman doctor? A woman doctor who was rumoured to have served in the First World War? Could Isabella have treated wounded men with these very implements? And had a grateful German prisoner of war really given her the strange string of beads that tangled round her stethoscope? </span></span><br />
<div style="min-height: 14px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></span></div>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Coaxing clues from archives across Europe, Katrina Kirkwood traces Isabella's route from medical school to the Western Front, Malta and Egypt, discovering as she travels that Dr Stenhouse was not only one of the first women doctors who worked with the British Army - she was also a woman carrying a tragic secret, torn between ambition and loyalty to her family.</span></span><br />
<div style="min-height: 14px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></span></div>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Isabella’s story was selected for the <i>BBC Antiques Roadshow’</i>s WW1 centenary edition, and featured by national, international and local media<i>.</i></span></span><br />
<div style="min-height: 14px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></span></div>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">'The quiet heroics of a woman on a WW1 battlefield'<i> Daily Express</i></span></span></div>
</div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5415672133295282364.post-15292093393618111882016-07-13T13:47:00.002+01:002016-09-08T09:42:45.538+01:00The 100 Year Women's War<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/0b1c532280ae9745d311bdd0087dfd5fe1d6700e/0_128_5602_3362/master/5602.jpg?w=1225&q=55&auto=format&usm=12&fit=max&s=2c7c554a57d8960c4a1f3e5b35097673" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/0b1c532280ae9745d311bdd0087dfd5fe1d6700e/0_128_5602_3362/master/5602.jpg?w=1225&q=55&auto=format&usm=12&fit=max&s=2c7c554a57d8960c4a1f3e5b35097673" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-family: Times;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-36746917" target="_blank">'Concern had centred on whether women had the physical capability to withstand the demands on their body that some of the roles will require.'</a></span></i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><br /></i><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">When I read these words last Friday, I was engulfed by a feeling of <i>déjà vu</i>. I had </span>come<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> across this argument time and again during my research. It was, for example, one of the ways in which adults tried to dissuade Edwardian girls from training as doctors. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">But the incarnation I was reading did not come from the Times of 1905. It was live on the BBC website - and not as history, but as news. It related</span></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px;"> to the government's recent decision to allow women to serve in close combat roles in the British military. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px;">Now I am no military expert and couldn’t begin to make judgements about this particular case, but I found the parallels fascinating. When </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0px;">I read that: </span><span style="font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/11276970/Brave-choice-a-womans-right-to-fight-on-front-line.html" target="_blank">'Young men and women </a></span></span><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/11276970/Brave-choice-a-womans-right-to-fight-on-front-line.html" style="font-size: 16px;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">…</span></a><span style="font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/11276970/Brave-choice-a-womans-right-to-fight-on-front-line.html" target="_blank"> will inevitably form relationships and personal issues will disrupt the dynamics of units'</a>, </span></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0px;">I was back with Vera Brittain in her VAD uniform, watching the restrictions that the terrified authorities were placing on volunteer nurses to ‘ensure’ that romance had no chance.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<div style="color: #1022a3; font-size: 16px;">
<span style="color: black; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Trawling the internet, I read how: </span></span></div>
<div style="color: #1022a3; font-size: 16px;">
<span style="color: black; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="color: #1022a3; font-size: 16px;">
<span style="color: black; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/11276970/Brave-choice-a-womans-right-to-fight-on-front-line.html" target="_blank">'Critics of women in combat roles believe the public could react differently to the death and maiming of female troops. They argue society at large will be more sensitive to casualties among the country’s daughters, wives and mothers than among male soldiers.'</a></span></span></span></div>
<div style="color: #1022a3; font-size: 16px;">
<span style="color: black; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="font-size: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">It was a similar anxiety that made the authorities send Dr Isabella Stenhouse and her colleagues, the first women doctors they had ever employed, to Malta. They regarded it as much safer than letting them anywhere near the front line in France.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-size: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VmgAFy_iK7k/V4YUEU5T4KI/AAAAAAAAAoc/E4hvniFivZYargQHkXQX5fZHc1fK9-PSgCEw/s1600/009%2BIsabella%2Btea%2Bparty%2BSliema.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VmgAFy_iK7k/V4YUEU5T4KI/AAAAAAAAAoc/E4hvniFivZYargQHkXQX5fZHc1fK9-PSgCEw/s400/009%2BIsabella%2Btea%2Bparty%2BSliema.jpg" width="231" /></span></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-size: 16px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #333233; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I read on, and guess what? </span></span><span style="color: #333233; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">‘</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; letter-spacing: 0px;"><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/women-frontline-combat-roles-british-military-uk-david-cameron-nato-summit-warsaw-a7126806.html" target="_blank">The rule change comes amid reports of a recruitment crisis and undermanned army reserves.</a>’ </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Why, undermanning was exactly the problem that faced the army medical services in 1916 - the problem that led them to risk recruiting Dr Stenhouse and her colleagues. </span></span></div>
<div style="font-size: 16px;">
<span style="color: #281e1e; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; letter-spacing: 0px;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-size: 16px;">
<span style="color: #281e1e; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">One compensation is that, a century on: </span></div>
<div style="font-size: 16px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #281e1e; letter-spacing: 0px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="font-size: 16px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #281e1e; letter-spacing: 0px;"><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jul/08/uk-army-female-soldiers-close-combat-ground-role-ban-to-be-lifted" target="_blank">‘</a></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jul/08/uk-army-female-soldiers-close-combat-ground-role-ban-to-be-lifted" target="_blank">The government’s decision was taken after research looking into three areas of risk – muscular injury, psychological health and impaired reproductive health – that will now be published.</a>’</span></span></div>
<div style="font-size: 19px; min-height: 23px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b></b></span><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-size: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I just hope that these new combat-ready women will not suffer the indignities that were imposed on their pioneering military ancestors, the women doctors who signed up with the army </span></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">this month 100 years ago.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5415672133295282364.post-55575079048057817102016-07-05T09:17:00.001+01:002016-09-08T09:43:02.875+01:00Why July 1916 was an important month for women doctors<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Courtesy of <a href="https://twitter.com/SarahWilkin26" target="_blank">Sarah Wilkin</a> from <a href="http://ww1centenary.oucs.ox.ac.uk/" target="_blank">Oxford University's WW1 Centenary blog</a> you can discover why July 1916 was an important month for professional women here:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://ww1centenary.oucs.ox.ac.uk/body-and-mind/why-july-1916-was-an-important-month-for-professional-women/" target="_blank">WW1 Centenary: Continuations and Beginnings</a><br />
<br />
<a href="https://twitter.com/SarahWilkin26" target="_blank">Sarah</a> kindly invited me to submit a post related to my research on Dr Isabella Stenhouse. I was thrilled when she posted it last Friday, the centenary of the start of the Battle of the Somme.<br />
<br />
The Somme was, and is, such a huge event that it overshadows everything else that happened that July one hundred years ago. But for Isabella, July 1916 had another meaning - the 24th was the day she signed up with the Army.<br />
<br />
From the start of the war, the Army had refused to employ women doctors but, by that July, the desperate needs of the wounded had broken their resolve and they asked medical women to help them. Isabella was one of the first to sign up.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2iONZ1MtCao/V3tptHdLeeI/AAAAAAAAAoE/zUshHdY6np8h-OTQeHH5rvt1mIAVJFBYwCLcB/s1600/Isabella%2Bsign%2Bup%2Bpapers%2Blores.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2iONZ1MtCao/V3tptHdLeeI/AAAAAAAAAoE/zUshHdY6np8h-OTQeHH5rvt1mIAVJFBYwCLcB/s640/Isabella%2Bsign%2Bup%2Bpapers%2Blores.jpg" width="436" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<br /></div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5415672133295282364.post-11858015978373874372016-06-15T11:48:00.001+01:002016-09-08T09:43:21.349+01:00Blog silence broken - book imminent<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Today, I can break twenty months of blog silence. After travelling thousands of miles, visiting numerous libraries and archives, writing countless drafts and receiving a lot of help from kind and generous people, a book about Dr Isabella Stenhouse is imminent.<br />
<br />
Publication is set for 25th July, but as a taster, here is the cover, brilliantly designed by <a href="http://www.spikyshooz.com/" target="_blank">Shona Andrew</a>.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HFGTr8DSK5w/V2EvGL5Vc9I/AAAAAAAAAmw/VBu9_oVHPWYnFOqAv7cfVxftOJoMOWIvwCLcB/s1600/Isabella_front_cover_final.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HFGTr8DSK5w/V2EvGL5Vc9I/AAAAAAAAAmw/VBu9_oVHPWYnFOqAv7cfVxftOJoMOWIvwCLcB/s640/Isabella_front_cover_final.jpg" width="419" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Here is the blurb:</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
It was the inscription that made the antique scalpels so tantalising: 'Isabella Stenhouse'. A woman doctor? A woman doctor who was rumoured to have served in the First World War? Could Isabella have treated wounded men with these very implements? And had a grateful German prisoner of war really given her the strange string of beads that tangled round her stethoscope?</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Coaxing clues from archives across Europe, Katrina Kirkwood traces Isabella's route from medical school to the Western Front, Malta and Egypt, discovering as she travels that Dr Stenhouse was not only one of the first women doctors who worked with the British Army - she was also a woman carrying a tragic secret, torn between ambition and loyalty to her family. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Isabella's story was selected for the <i>BBC Antiques Roadshow</i>'s WW1 centenary edition, and featured by national, international and local media. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
'The quiet heroics of a woman on a WW1 battlefield' <i>Daily Express.</i></div>
</div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5415672133295282364.post-61145880882530443942014-11-05T10:32:00.000+00:002016-09-08T09:43:55.977+01:00Isabella guesting in Beyond the Trenches Blog<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The mystery of Dr Isabella Stenhouse and her beads is gradually being unravelled, and, slowly, the story is being penned - well, typed.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-X6V_RJuOwac/VFn7qMs4QGI/AAAAAAAAAXU/xz75GRbemLs/s1600/glass-beads-blog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-X6V_RJuOwac/VFn7qMs4QGI/AAAAAAAAAXU/xz75GRbemLs/s1600/glass-beads-blog.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
In the meantime, <a href="https://twitter.com/ahrcpress" target="_blank">Alex Pryce at the AHRC</a> kindly invited me to write a post for their blog, so for a taster, head to <a href="http://beyondthetrenches.co.uk/dr-isabella-stenhouse-a-woman-doctor-in-ww1/" target="_blank">Beyond the Trenches</a>.<br />
<br />
And if you want to find out more about WW1 and the people who nursed tens of thousands of sick and wounded men in WW1 Malta, head to<a href="http://www.maltaramc.com/ladydoc/s/stenhousei.html" target="_blank"> Walter Bonnici's incredibly useful website</a>. </div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5415672133295282364.post-55674745602719289302014-08-02T12:06:00.000+01:002016-09-08T09:48:25.739+01:00Isabella gets her mention this centenary weekend<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I'm really glad that this weekend the Telegraph has decided to feature Isabella on the <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/world-war-one/10995837/Katrina-Kirkwood-on-her-grandmother-Isabella-Stenhouse-a-pioneering-doctor.html" target="_blank">Flashback page of their Saturday magazine</a>.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XeukbQq07Kg/V9ElY3PE4ZI/AAAAAAAAAro/MNgq3siPN44FNS7eP5Ckemi5kou9ixj7QCEw/s1600/SUMM_1_-Kirkwood-3_2992854b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="248" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XeukbQq07Kg/V9ElY3PE4ZI/AAAAAAAAAro/MNgq3siPN44FNS7eP5Ckemi5kou9ixj7QCEw/s400/SUMM_1_-Kirkwood-3_2992854b.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<br />
It feels as if she has been given her small place in the battery of commemorations taking place this weekend, a century after WW1 began.<br />
<br />
She also features in <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Antiques-Roadshow-World-Family-Treasures/dp/1849907269/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1406977413&sr=1-1" target="_blank">Paul Atterbury's BBC Antiques Roadshow book,</a> World War One in 100 Family Treasures, that will be published on 7th August.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZgHs2qYRuvU/V9EluLYpUgI/AAAAAAAAArs/KvytMCWUZIgp6yed-i4bQJnNKWwq6PzOgCLcB/s1600/51AcenEvZAL.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZgHs2qYRuvU/V9EluLYpUgI/AAAAAAAAArs/KvytMCWUZIgp6yed-i4bQJnNKWwq6PzOgCLcB/s320/51AcenEvZAL.jpg" width="212" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
Of course, there's much more of the story to tell, so here's hoping for a way to get the full story out soon…….</div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5415672133295282364.post-47863100938207506672014-06-30T11:53:00.000+01:002016-09-08T09:49:08.127+01:00Isabella at the Blaenavon Front<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
On Saturday, courtesy of <a href="http://www.breakingbarriers.org.uk/digital-storytelling/" target="_blank">Breaking Barriers Community Arts</a>, Isabella was invited to give the people of Blaenavon a chance to contribute a strand of 'DNA' to the commemorative work that began at <a href="http://isabellaandthestringofbeads.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/isabella-visits-made-in-spring.html" target="_blank">Made in Spring</a> last year.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HwpKYIwzqO8/U7E63fpNwQI/AAAAAAAAARQ/bviBjQOwZZU/s1600/Blaenavon+4.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HwpKYIwzqO8/U7E63fpNwQI/AAAAAAAAARQ/bviBjQOwZZU/s1600/Blaenavon+4.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
She stood in the shelter of a fake WW1 dug-out at <a href="http://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/news/11308472.Hundreds_celebrate_Blaenavon_World_Heritage_Day/?ref=var_0" target="_blank">Blaenavon Heritage Day</a>, beads beside her and a table nearby where the townsfolk could decorate beads and add them to the growing strand of 'DNA'. </div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qSHA5wYdGuM/U7E7J3F2XMI/AAAAAAAAARU/Sc1iR5VGT3g/s1600/Beads+in+Blaenavon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qSHA5wYdGuM/U7E7J3F2XMI/AAAAAAAAARU/Sc1iR5VGT3g/s1600/Beads+in+Blaenavon.jpg" width="300" /></a></div>
<br />
All went well until the rain leaked through the awning……but, with the help of 44 bead decorators, the strand was completed.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Le8yZbJrwxM/U7F4cnBLwQI/AAAAAAAAARs/s32isfdssdo/s1600/blaenavon+strand+006.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Le8yZbJrwxM/U7F4cnBLwQI/AAAAAAAAARs/s32isfdssdo/s1600/blaenavon+strand+006.jpg" width="266" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-g6BaErOh7nc/U7F4adAw0hI/AAAAAAAAARo/9SVSTP7FJ5M/s1600/blaenavon+strand+003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-g6BaErOh7nc/U7F4adAw0hI/AAAAAAAAARo/9SVSTP7FJ5M/s1600/blaenavon+strand+003.jpg" width="266" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<br /></div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5415672133295282364.post-43081653745437353552014-04-10T15:57:00.000+01:002016-09-08T09:49:33.549+01:00Isabella in the news<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
It's been a busy week for Isabella. Her Antiques Roadshow appearance caught the imagination of some of the press.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/world-war-one-doctors-story-6915199" target="_blank">Wales on Sunday</a> published an article which had some truth in it - but only some!<br />
<br />
The <a href="http://www.express.co.uk/news/world-war-1/469041/Revealed-the-secret-heroics-of-a-woman-on-the-battlefield-during-WWI" target="_blank">Daily Express</a> managed to be more accurate, and <a href="http://www.itv.com/news/wales/topic/ww1/" target="_blank">ITV Wales</a> came to film her medical equipment and string of beads ready for their centenary commemorations in August.<br />
<br />
After that, this photograph of Isabella working with the British Army in Malta was favourited and retweeted on <a href="https://twitter.com/kkstories" target="_blank">Twitter</a>.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZAMAfps3xRQ/U0atrW3vE7I/AAAAAAAAAOw/wsQySlIPjO8/s1600/07n22doc-469041.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="236" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZAMAfps3xRQ/U0atrW3vE7I/AAAAAAAAAOw/wsQySlIPjO8/s1600/07n22doc-469041.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br /></div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5415672133295282364.post-64299665996044077672014-04-03T09:04:00.000+01:002016-09-08T09:53:49.648+01:00Isabella is in the Radio Times<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Imagine my shock. A quick browse of next week's Radio Times to see if there are any treats in store, and there is Isabella's name in the <a href="http://www.radiotimes.com/episode/ct49tv/antiques-roadshow--world-war-one-special" target="_blank">Choice Section</a>!<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tYp7exfrub4/V9EnCvpS2iI/AAAAAAAAAr8/FuPfjnM6nD8zkKVZrNntQ-Om1vG0MztSgCLcB/s1600/p029dfh4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tYp7exfrub4/V9EnCvpS2iI/AAAAAAAAAr8/FuPfjnM6nD8zkKVZrNntQ-Om1vG0MztSgCLcB/s400/p029dfh4.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
BBC 1, Antiques Roadshow, Sunday 6th April, 8pm.</div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5415672133295282364.post-52306236009864967252014-03-26T07:20:00.002+00:002016-09-08T09:54:24.455+01:00Isabella on Antiques Roadshow, 6th April<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I was annoyed, so I typed a quick email:<br />
<br />
'WW1 was not just about France and the trenches, and it was not just about men. I own the medical instruments of a woman who served as a doctor in France, Malta and Egypt during the war.'<br />
<br />
It was Spring 2013, and the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01f9rq8" target="_blank">Antiques Roadshow</a> had just asked for ideas for their WW1 centenary episodes, a letter from the trenches or a medal, they suggested.<br />
<br />
A phone call later, and I was being interviewed by the producer. They wanted photos. They put Isabella on the shortlist and, asked, "Nothing definite, but would you be free to take the instruments to France in late July?"<br />
<br />
Would I be free? Of course I would.<br />
<br />
So we went, and Isabella's instruments will be discussed in the 6th April episode of Antiques Roadshow.<br />
<div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJEKa4La1G6-JGBg9x163mYkWDDM21r9m3-nEBMkWJbSrFUctGMWi45zbXBIHsLNJ_mo8Z70vlVOKG0dRQMiFw3SuiO2_IWb3wMyVMa5aR63sjyeTqDct5Yd3NVGSQW8eBVwKJuJvIAPPZ/s1600/003.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJEKa4La1G6-JGBg9x163mYkWDDM21r9m3-nEBMkWJbSrFUctGMWi45zbXBIHsLNJ_mo8Z70vlVOKG0dRQMiFw3SuiO2_IWb3wMyVMa5aR63sjyeTqDct5Yd3NVGSQW8eBVwKJuJvIAPPZ/s1600/003.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<br /></div>
</div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5415672133295282364.post-1691361567327337252014-02-03T15:07:00.000+00:002016-09-08T09:58:51.182+01:00Update<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Lack of posts on the blog doesn't mean I've stopped working on Isabella - Oh No. I've been working on her story harder than ever since the Arts Council Funding ended in June.<br />
<br />
First of all I went travelling. I drank coffee on the site of the hospital in France where Isabella worked.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/02/d7/66/51/la-terrasse.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/02/d7/66/51/la-terrasse.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Over the last few years, I've spent days in the Imperial War Museum, painfully decoding the diary of the hospital. The dip-penned, candle-light scrawled words have been hard to untangle. In their antique Edwardian script, they haven't always made sense. I've kept wondering if I've understood them aright. Visiting the place cleared that all up, made sense of both the writing and Isabella's tale. <br />
<br />
I found old photos which showed me what the building used to look like, and I scoured the town for spots Isabella would have known.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cG-vWrkNDl8/V9EnyLFhtvI/AAAAAAAAAsE/cqIvh_ooeocECSImnRsjxFcG6gn9DZlkgCLcB/s1600/177_001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cG-vWrkNDl8/V9EnyLFhtvI/AAAAAAAAAsE/cqIvh_ooeocECSImnRsjxFcG6gn9DZlkgCLcB/s400/177_001.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
I flew to Malta and was overwhelmed by the friendly interest shown by people in Isabella's story, a part of their island's story they knew little about. I was able to walk in the rooms where she had tended patients, and to stand on the steps where she had paused from her work to gaze down at the sea. I wondered what she had been in her mind as she sat in the very same spot.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KdXjlNEVBkQ/V9EoOboJKdI/AAAAAAAAAsI/SZGuPRaOfhsCqiYoNN_gpI0NMkXJ3xqDwCLcB/s1600/007%2BIsabella%2BSt%2BIgnatius.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="221" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KdXjlNEVBkQ/V9EoOboJKdI/AAAAAAAAAsI/SZGuPRaOfhsCqiYoNN_gpI0NMkXJ3xqDwCLcB/s320/007%2BIsabella%2BSt%2BIgnatius.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
It's been a satisfying adventure, but I haven't visited Egypt yet. I'm a bit scared of Egypt. Any suggestions?<br />
<br />
On my return, I began to write up three years (on and off) of research. I'm halfway through. Halfway through my attempt to tell Isabella's tale in a way that's interesting and fun yet historically accurate.<br />
<br />
But I'm wondering when I should tell people what I am doing; I'm busy panicking that I've missed the centenary of WW1 because all the commemorations have begun so early, and I'm wondering if all my work will prove to have been in vain.<br />
<br />
But even if I am too late, I am still convinced that the story of a woman who served as a doctor during WW1 is worth telling. She was not a famous woman, she was just a junior doctor, but without juniors, how would people become seniors? Without people to test the waters of working in a male dominated environment, to begin to let men see what they could do, how could men begin to realise what women could do, and how could anyone else follow?<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><a href="http://aeon.co/magazine/oceanic-feeling/katherine-angel-pain-of-the-past/" target="_blank">"I do want to understand, and to tell a story even if that story is never closed, never complete, never conclusive."</a></i></div>
<br />
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; margin-left: 28.3px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
PS: Why have I paused working towards an installation? Because to get the funding to make an installation, I knew I would need to work out exactly what I wanted and what it would cost. But to do that, I had to collate everything I'd discovered about Isabella and her beads. And once I began doing that, I quickly found there was far too much to limit her story to an installation. An installation or something else can follow later. Let's hope!<br />
<br /></div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5415672133295282364.post-35445726326071000282013-05-29T13:05:00.001+01:002016-09-08T09:59:50.135+01:00Isabella, a detective story told in an installation for schools and galleries<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
As a result of the research grant from the Arts Council of Wales, I am looking for expressions of interest from galleries, museums, schools, libraries, communities, festivals or anywhere else, in hosting the installation 'Isabella and the String of Beads'.<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Here's the background: </span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-C7_RNA_sxYg/UaXfUv_k2_I/AAAAAAAAAKM/Tw4YkQ8huXg/s1600/four-sisters-formal-pettigrew.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-C7_RNA_sxYg/UaXfUv_k2_I/AAAAAAAAAKM/Tw4YkQ8huXg/s400/four-sisters-formal-pettigrew.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In the 1890s there were four sisters, who, like many other girls of their day, were brought up to sew fine seams and prepare for marriage to a suitable man.</span></span></i></div>
<div style="color: #999999; font-style: italic; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i><span style="color: #999999;">But the oldest, Isabella, grew restless and fought her way into studying medicine.</span></i></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i><span style="color: #999999;">She had just qualified as a doctor when war came in 1914.</span></i></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i><span style="color: #999999;">Leaving home, she travelled many miles and to mend wounded men instead of garments.</span></i></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Unravelling the tale of what happened as she travelled has been like a detective story. She left no personal papers or diaries. Only her medical instruments and a string of beads tell of her war experience, but the words of others give clues as to how she might have thought and reacted, words both from writings of the time and from interviews with living women whose lives parallel Isabella’s in unexpected ways. </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Isabella’s story will be told through a clue-filled installation that aims to give the viewer some of the delight of detection and discovery that the research has provided.</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sTx567PVBNU/UaXfenL_rcI/AAAAAAAAAKU/Eryt1JFG4LI/s1600/Isabella's-uniform.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sTx567PVBNU/UaXfenL_rcI/AAAAAAAAAKU/Eryt1JFG4LI/s400/Isabella's-uniform.jpg" width="266" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Alongside her original instruments, her story will be revealed through a life-sized replica of her uniform, a freshly-constructed sampler, a dissected 1910 anatomy text book, short films and lighting effects.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Isabella's story represents the story of many feisty women, so to make it accessible to a range of people, there will also be a portable version of the installation that can visit schools, libraries and community venues. Workshops will also be available to enhance engagement.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Please contact me via the contact form for further details and discussion.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TS346lWWVBU/UVFdhTZe-GI/AAAAAAAAAHg/I2udolAg9c4/s1600/ACW_logo_CMYK_portrait.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TS346lWWVBU/UVFdhTZe-GI/AAAAAAAAAHg/I2udolAg9c4/s320/ACW_logo_CMYK_portrait.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="font-family: 'Helvetica Light'; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Helvetica Light'; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Helvetica Light'; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div>
</div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5415672133295282364.post-8305237202220219692013-05-06T21:35:00.000+01:002016-09-08T10:00:12.500+01:00Isabella visits Made in Spring<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://madeinroath.com/2013/04/mis-2013-a-spring-festival/" target="_blank">Made in Spring</a> is a one day arts festival in Roath, Cardiff; a warm-up act for the big <a href="http://madeinroath.com/about/" target="_blank">Made in Roath</a> festival that has taken place each October for the last few years.<br />
<br />
Yesterday, Isabella and the String of Beads had a stall there:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FSajLR2I6JA/UYgPkzTCuzI/AAAAAAAAAJI/uST2d9SWkOc/s1600/IMG_7644.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FSajLR2I6JA/UYgPkzTCuzI/AAAAAAAAAJI/uST2d9SWkOc/s400/IMG_7644.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6gZsbX2LMJg/UYgP9AyEIVI/AAAAAAAAAJQ/LHZCrNuYG_k/s1600/IMG_7641.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6gZsbX2LMJg/UYgP9AyEIVI/AAAAAAAAAJQ/LHZCrNuYG_k/s400/IMG_7641.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Passers-by were invited to decorate one bead each. They then threaded their bead onto a communal strand of 'DNA'<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> to commemorate the legacy of women such as Isabella who went against the flow of their times to alter what is colloquially known as the DNA of our culture. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><br /></span></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UX4-SmbNhG4/UYgSYOsnd8I/AAAAAAAAAJ0/rW_p0ysJ3bc/s1600/IMG_7646.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UX4-SmbNhG4/UYgSYOsnd8I/AAAAAAAAAJ0/rW_p0ysJ3bc/s400/IMG_7646.JPG" width="266" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-A2EulYKadTk/UYgSPu9uW9I/AAAAAAAAAJk/L0EmHc6_hYs/s1600/IMG_7649.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-A2EulYKadTk/UYgSPu9uW9I/AAAAAAAAAJk/L0EmHc6_hYs/s400/IMG_7649.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
People drew, wrote, stitched and stuck until there were 44 beads on the strand and it was ready to be twisted into double helix of 'DNA'.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ms2DaAOIMQk/UYgSQbhAr9I/AAAAAAAAAJc/Ve_OsgyOYkE/s1600/IMG_7645.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ms2DaAOIMQk/UYgSQbhAr9I/AAAAAAAAAJc/Ve_OsgyOYkE/s400/IMG_7645.JPG" width="400" /></a><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8bkEdq-c5hk/UYgSWt1TBbI/AAAAAAAAAJs/I07dPhSSm4w/s1600/Made+in+Spring+DNA+beads.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8bkEdq-c5hk/UYgSWt1TBbI/AAAAAAAAAJs/I07dPhSSm4w/s640/Made+in+Spring+DNA+beads.jpg" width="107" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Helvetica Light'; font-size: 10px; min-height: 12px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div>
<br /></div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5415672133295282364.post-80593088154470489702013-04-26T08:44:00.001+01:002016-09-08T10:09:37.095+01:00London<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Courtesy of the Arts Council, I've been able to come up to London and see what I can find in the many archives, museums and galleries here. I've been looking for anything that will inspire presentation and help me to get into the spirit and aesthetic of the period.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TS346lWWVBU/UVFdhTZe-GI/AAAAAAAAAHg/I2udolAg9c4/s1600/ACW_logo_CMYK_portrait.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TS346lWWVBU/UVFdhTZe-GI/AAAAAAAAAHg/I2udolAg9c4/s320/ACW_logo_CMYK_portrait.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Here are some highlights:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-swdz1ZHV014/V9EpCEqLUwI/AAAAAAAAAsU/VERyCDctd5c0i9O_sn3ojr9MaXwHKXl-ACLcB/s1600/Biunial3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-swdz1ZHV014/V9EpCEqLUwI/AAAAAAAAAsU/VERyCDctd5c0i9O_sn3ojr9MaXwHKXl-ACLcB/s400/Biunial3.jpg" width="342" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
The <a href="http://www.museumofchildhood.org.uk/collections/optical-toys/magic-lantern" target="_blank">Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green</a> had magic lanterns, a popular entertainment when Isabella was a girl. There was no TV and films were only in embryonic form by the time she was a teenager. There were no laptops or computer games, and for a girl, no Facebook, only posting letters and wiring telegrams. No plastic, so toys and games would have been made of wood, card, paper or metal.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
In Tate Britain there was a 1900 portrait of a young Edwardian lady by Sir William Orpen.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.tate.org.uk/art/images/work/N/N02/N02940_9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/images/work/N/N02/N02940_9.jpg" width="313" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
It helps me, because it is hard to work out what colours clothes and rooms would have been from black and white photos.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
The contrast with his war painting of 1918 shows something of the change people would have had to cope with.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.tate.org.uk/art/images/work/T/T07/T07694_10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="330" src="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/images/work/T/T07/T07694_10.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
From 1914, Edward Reginald Frampton painted the anguish of a young French couple as the young man went off to war:</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.tate.org.uk/art/images/work/T/T03/T03414_10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="328" src="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/images/work/T/T03/T03414_10.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
A visit to the <a href="http://www.ams-museum.org.uk/museum/" target="_blank">Army Medical Services Museum</a> in Keogh Barracks gave me a lot of information about the way the army has cared for the wounded over the centuries. I hadn't realised such care had a very long history.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
The <a href="http://www.rcseng.ac.uk/museums/hunterian" target="_blank">Hunterian Museum</a> had some powerful images of war wounds, as well as Joseph Lister's dissecting kit, which was almost identical to Isabella's. The <a href="http://www.foundlingmuseum.org.uk/" target="_blank">Foundling Museum</a> told poignant stories of children whom their mothers had had to abandon.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
In the <a href="http://www.wellcomecollection.org/" target="_blank">Wellcome Collection</a> there was a magnificently gruesome installation about the potential use of insects as food.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
I was unexpectedly moved by the <a href="http://www.wellcomecollection.org/whats-on/exhibitions/souzou.aspx" target="_blank">Souzou exhibtion </a>of Japanese Outsider Art</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
<br /></div>
<div>
Satoshi Murita's embroidery on a blanket took my eye and reminded me of the sheer physicality of the sickness Isabella would have had to face. Blankets, sheets, bandages, smells, disinfectants, pus......</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
In their <a href="http://www.wellcomecollection.org/whats-on/exhibitions/medicine-now.aspx" target="_blank">Medicine Now</a> exhibition, a range of artists had created installations that explored different aspects of modern medicine. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #990000;">Cultural DNA</span></h3>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
The difference between these artistically directed pieces and the historical and precisely accurate displays in the previous museums I'd visited was palpable. Each have their place, and that is one of the choices I will need to make in relating Isabella's story.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
One artist had had a necklace created from the sequencing of his DNA. That linked in well with two of the concepts at the back of my mind in doing this project - legacy, and beads. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
What consequences did Isabella's actions have for future generations? The knowledge that geneticists call a particular electron-microscopic view of DNA 'beads on a string' still haunts me. In the broader sense, what legacy did the deeds of feisty women of Isabella's generation leave for us, how did they change our conceptual DNA and inculcate the thinking of our culture? Was it all beneficial?</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NI5J8h7E3Wg/V9Epu6lrh6I/AAAAAAAAAsY/dCUIvx8K2d8hcv-8c-fh8v1Hu5XMtJxvACLcB/s1600/bead2sol.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NI5J8h7E3Wg/V9Epu6lrh6I/AAAAAAAAAsY/dCUIvx8K2d8hcv-8c-fh8v1Hu5XMtJxvACLcB/s320/bead2sol.jpg" width="316" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<br /></div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5415672133295282364.post-36779067481544554452013-04-22T06:46:00.000+01:002016-09-08T10:09:12.104+01:00Edinburgh<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TS346lWWVBU/UVFdhTZe-GI/AAAAAAAAAHg/I2udolAg9c4/s1600/ACW_logo_CMYK_portrait.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TS346lWWVBU/UVFdhTZe-GI/AAAAAAAAAHg/I2udolAg9c4/s320/ACW_logo_CMYK_portrait.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Isabella came from Edinburgh, so I wanted to find Scots who'd be interested in the tale, and I needed to collect photos of the places where she had been. The Arts Council Grant enabled me visit the city.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://79.170.40.237/fionaherbert.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/fiona_head_shot-234x300.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://79.170.40.237/fionaherbert.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/fiona_head_shot-234x300.jpeg" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="http://www.fionaherbert.co.uk/" target="_blank">Fiona Herbert </a> is a Scottish Storyteller, experienced in telling stories of all sorts - traditional tales, historic stories and even fictions fresh off the keyboards of her creative writing classes. When she heard Isabella's story, she agreed to help me. I'm going to need Scottish voices.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fjOnh9u6Fqs/UXTDnY6MtZI/AAAAAAAAAIw/e9VpDkcBc50/s1600/100-year-old-hedge.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fjOnh9u6Fqs/UXTDnY6MtZI/AAAAAAAAAIw/e9VpDkcBc50/s320/100-year-old-hedge.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Isabella loved gardens, so she is likely to have seen this beech hedge in the Royal Botanic gardens, which is over a century old, but how big would it have been then? The archive of the RBG has boxes and boxes of old photos and gave some unexpected insights into what she would have seen.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.mairibrown.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/working2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://www.mairibrown.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/working2.jpg" width="216" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
I said in my last post that stitching is part of my plan of how to tell Isabella's story, and I met up with <a href="http://www.mairibrown.co.uk/" target="_blank">Mairi Brown</a>,who runs sewing classes as well as making the most amazing corsets and more. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.mairibrown.co.uk/wp-content/themes/canvas/functions/thumb.php?src=wp-content/uploads/2013/01/slider-corsets.jpg&w=960&h=440&zc=1&q=90" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="182" src="https://www.mairibrown.co.uk/wp-content/themes/canvas/functions/thumb.php?src=wp-content/uploads/2013/01/slider-corsets.jpg&w=960&h=440&zc=1&q=90" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Someone who can shape a garment and decorate it so skilfully as well as running stitching classes in Edinburgh would be a great help Thankfully, Mairi agreed to be that person.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.aandbscotland.org.uk/uploads/staff/Catriona-Reynolds.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://www.aandbscotland.org.uk/uploads/staff/Catriona-Reynolds.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Next, I met Catriona Reynolds and recorded the story of her Great-Aunt, Norah Neilson Gray, who painted this picture of the wounded at Royaumont, a hospital run by the Scottish Women's Hospital Movement.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/images/paintings/abc/624x544/nsc_abc_abcc_7_624x544.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="276" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/images/paintings/abc/624x544/nsc_abc_abcc_7_624x544.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Following Alyson Fielding's recommendation, I met Peggy Hughes and Claire Stewart from <a href="http://electricbookshop.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Electric Bookshop</a>.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.creative-edinburgh.com/imagegen.ashx?image=/media/upload/f9f04a0b-d182-455e-9954-1ba17c3f6ab1/peggy2.jpg&width=333&height=333&pad=true" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://www.creative-edinburgh.com/imagegen.ashx?image=/media/upload/f9f04a0b-d182-455e-9954-1ba17c3f6ab1/peggy2.jpg&width=333&height=333&pad=true" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://m.c.lnkd.licdn.com/mpr/mpr/shrink_200_200/p/4/000/13f/258/22a46aa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://m.c.lnkd.licdn.com/mpr/mpr/shrink_200_200/p/4/000/13f/258/22a46aa.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://electricbookshop.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/electric-logo_yellow.jpg?w=520&h=0&crop=1" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="304" src="https://electricbookshop.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/electric-logo_yellow.jpg?w=520&h=0&crop=1" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
They proved to have massive expertise in the world of books, literature, literacy and poetry as well as their concern with the potential digital future of stories and sparked a power house of ideas.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.sallybooth.co.uk/images/news2013/Shetland033-Box-of-haddock-pen-and-watercolour.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="138" src="https://www.sallybooth.co.uk/images/news2013/Shetland033-Box-of-haddock-pen-and-watercolour.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="http://www.sallybooth.co.uk/news.html" target="_blank">Sally Booth</a> used painting and poems to tell the stories of Shetland islanders to the Scottish Parliament building. A completely different mode of storytelling, and a real treat to see inside the building.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.lhsa.lib.ed.ac.uk/home/Dott_project.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="248" src="https://www.lhsa.lib.ed.ac.uk/home/Dott_project.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Lothian Health Services Archive provided useful images, the National Library of Scotland useful books, the Central Library useful printing facilities and other anonymous supporters made it a very productive week.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5415672133295282364.post-56886222232968132352013-04-09T07:18:00.002+01:002016-09-08T10:10:16.382+01:00Detective story<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zbv-RLZOa24/UWOyflGtE7I/AAAAAAAAAIg/COUFlo4rOK8/s1600/Isabella+young+lores.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zbv-RLZOa24/UWOyflGtE7I/AAAAAAAAAIg/COUFlo4rOK8/s400/Isabella+young+lores.jpg" width="258" /></a></div>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I have spent over 2 years uncovering the story of Isabella, a young Edinburgh woman who served as a doctor during the First World War. I have made many failed attempts to write it down in book format, but at last these few weeks of Arts Council of Wales sponsorship have inspired a way forward, and, despite my indecisive and prevaricating nature, I’ve come up with a way of telling Isabella’s story that I think will work, and I hope will be fun for people to explore.</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I set myself some parameters: </span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dwIxhJyg2yw/UWOxOzRU2OI/AAAAAAAAAIQ/vFoT-fZiCgc/s1600/Gate_shoe_path_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dwIxhJyg2yw/UWOxOzRU2OI/AAAAAAAAAIQ/vFoT-fZiCgc/s1600/Gate_shoe_path_2.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #666666;">It had to connect with ordinary people, not just gallery going artists, people like the ladies from the over 50s exercise class who grumbled when my show at The Gate in 2005 came down.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"><br /></span>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #666666;">It had to be portable, so it could visit a space for a short time - a school, library, community group, gallery, museum. </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">It had to involve the voices of real twenty-first century people.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">It had to involve stitching. Isabella was brought up to sew a fine seam and ended up stitching men.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">
It had to allow other people to take part, making it a celebration of womanly achievement, not merely the story of one woman.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">It had to convey the sense of excitement that I’ve experienced while doing the research to uncover the story.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">As a story, it had to create the opportunity for people to talk, tell their own stories and respond.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">So my version of Isabella’s story will be multi-media, including textiles, artist’s books, audio, photography and what might loosely be called film.</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">To give away any more would spoil the ending, but I’m looking for:</span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">artists who might be interested to chat or collaborate</span></div>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Scots who might read voiceovers</span></div>
</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">groups or classes who might like to play a small part</span></div>
</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">places that might like to show the work</span></div>
</span></h4>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><br /></span>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I’ll be in Edinburgh 15-18th April, and London 22nd - 26th. The rest of the time I’m in South Wales. Anyone out there? Get in touch.</span><br />
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div>
<div>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5415672133295282364.post-74857574055364758022013-04-04T18:20:00.000+01:002016-09-08T10:27:36.312+01:00So many stories, so many ways<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg49NUzd6np4Cd6Cexv60gggZjvtr-V1LQ_4vq8dceMGO638m54s40H7UWBpO-0DUta8z3oyCKDyAyaM5iChm2Z7LS6lp3ZDbYgNnSVxdsp1ZP8AVs0Ct8IvlWfZJnWNDSsR5Zv2qhUnyY/s320/Cavemen.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg49NUzd6np4Cd6Cexv60gggZjvtr-V1LQ_4vq8dceMGO638m54s40H7UWBpO-0DUta8z3oyCKDyAyaM5iChm2Z7LS6lp3ZDbYgNnSVxdsp1ZP8AVs0Ct8IvlWfZJnWNDSsR5Zv2qhUnyY/s400/Cavemen.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Did tales begin by the fire, connecting with poetry, rhythm and song? Did people act them out, impersonate the characters with their voices and their beings? Did the listeners quietly listen, or did they heckle, sing along, divert the tale? Did it matter what the story was, and who was telling it?<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.umilta.net/PsDion.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://www.umilta.net/PsDion.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
With painting, and writing, stories could be told without a storyteller; they could be digested on their own. Stories no longer had to be a communal event.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/images/hb/hb_1981.1178.29.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="282" src="https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/images/hb/hb_1981.1178.29.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
When print came along, stories could travel far and wide. They grew lives of their own, and as literacy grew, more people could interpret the squiggles on the page and recount the tales to themselves and others. And people in different places encountered the same tales and found common ground.<br />
<br />
With photography came film, and television, and .... Youtube.....<br />
<br />
I'm getting fanciful now.<br />
<br />
But since there are so many ways of telling stories, I've been taking advantage of this research grant to meet people who choose different media to tell their stories. Why should one medium work better than another? Are some stories better suited to one medium rather than another? What are the limitations and advantages of different storytelling modes: Live theatre vs film? Book vs film vs oral storytelling? And where do new, digital modes of storytelling fit in, and are there limits to what they can achieve?<br />
<br />
But maybe all that comes later - why tell a story in the first place? What do story recipients gain from a story? Different environments produce different responsiveness, effects, results. How does that feed into the decision to tell a story one way or another?<br />
<br />
Has the advent of the internet and social media changed the way stories are received? Is the traditional model of a linear narrative less relevant in an age when people have been accustomed to continual commentary through Twitter and other social networking sites? Are there ways of telling stories which allow the story recipient more control, more interaction? How many people want that sort of experience, or will it always be nice and relaxing to sit down with a good book/film and receive a good story?<br />
<br />
All stories are not designed for all audiences - who would be interested in Isabella, and how do these changes affect the way her story deserves to be told?<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0