03/01/2013

The Alum Maker's Secret is a novel by Stephen Chance set in the 18th century alum mining hamlet of Scarshead. 





             At the inception of the industrial era, Ana, daughter of a widowed Spanish urine trader, complains she feels 'bartered like a Moor' to procure work for her father in a desolate and inhospitable region of northern England.
            Making alum, a beautiful translucent crystal, essential to the dyeing of cloth, has been a lucrative business for centuries, however, its obscure and obnoxious manufacture, burning rocks and stirring together urine and seaweed, dominates a remote part of eighteenth century Britain.  
            Ana is put to work with the inheritor of the 'alum-makers secret', manager Robert, and witnessing the almost alchemical rituals of his work, an attachment starts to form. Shortly after her arrival a canny scientist-on-the-make arrives from London's Royal Society to investigate a disturbing discovery in a quarry rock fall. 




©StephenChance


4 comments:

  1. Great! More details please....
    ManelDS

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes - have just set this up - more to follow...
    Stephen

    ReplyDelete
  3. Guardian article ends with the comment "lives in a rusty steel house" any chance of images somewhere. thanks

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. www.chancedesilva.com - see project 'Cargo Fleet'

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