With general practice being such a busy profession, at present it’s difficult to find the time to do all those other things you’ve been meaning to do. Reading more books, learning a language, satisfying an amateur historical interest — they’ve all had to be put on the back burner. However, with Jake Arnott’s new novel The Fatal Tree it may be possible to achieve all three during a short holiday.
The ‘fatal tree’ of the title refers to the gallows at Tyburn, the final destination of many of the characters who belong to the criminal underworld of 1720s London. They are members of the slang-speaking ‘canting crew’ and, with the help of the glossary, you too will prattle flash (speak slang) like a rum prig (good thief) within a couple of chapters.
Some of these criminals were the celebrities of the age, their final confessions ghostwritten by Daniel Defoe and life stories dramatised for the stage. Arnott however takes the rare step of writing the story of a woman — Elizabeth Lyon, alias ‘Edgworth Bess’, close associate of the great thief-taker Jonathan Wild and wife of the famous jail-breaker Jack Sheppard.
Hers was an untold story, but one, as a GP in modern times, that still rings true. We often meet young women who, having lost parental guidance and protection in their teens, made choices that put them in dangerous and exploitative situations. We also see the effect of a financial crash on the poorest in society — be it the credit crunch or the South Sea Bubble. Arnott’s attention to the loves and vulnerabilities of Bess mean that, despite all her crimes and exploitation of others, it is very hard not to take her side.
Not only do the themes reach into today’s world, but also, if you care to visit the Hunterian Museum, you can stand next to her associate Jonathan Wild. After his execution he suffered the fate most feared by the canting crew — to fall into the hands of surgeons. He was dissected and his skeleton is still on display today.
- © British Journal of General Practice 2017