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Caroline Shenton

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Vulgar Clatter and Clamour

18 January 2011 By Caroline Shenton

Sent off chapters 7 to 10 today to my prospective agent, at the end of a day of leave.  Feel very pleased.  Also sailed over the 99,000 word mark with some last minute splicing in of new sources.  One of my favourite bits added today:

 

Contemporaries described the fire as (amongst other things), “fearfully imposing” and “the acme of sublime terror”.  Sometimes the effect was eerie, even chilling.  In the darkness, viewed from the white-stuccoed palazzi overlooking the trees across St James’ Park, “the many and monster-tongued flames…seemed to be moving and twisting, seeking fresh objects to involve in the ravening jaws of destruction.”  The moon turned blood-red as fire-charged smoke ran across its face.  The inhuman sounds of the wind and the flames were, “deeply awful, and seemed as distinct from the vulgar clatter and clamour of the mob, as do the solemn notes of the cathedral organ from the squeaking of the itinerant hurdy-gurdy”.

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Filed Under: Historic Westminster, The 1834 Fire, Writing and Researching

About Caroline Shenton

Dr Caroline Shenton is an archivist and historian. She was formerly Director of the Parliamentary Archives in London, and before that was a senior archivist at the National Archives. Her book The Day Parliament Burned Down won the Political Book of the Year Award in 2013 and Mary Beard called it 'microhistory at its absolute best' while Dan Jones considered it 'glorious'. Its acclaimed sequel, Mr Barryís War, about the rebuilding of the Palace of Westminster, was a Book of the Year in 2016 for The Daily Telegraph and BBC History Magazine and was described by Lucy Worsley as 'a real jewel, finely wrought and beautiful'. During 2017 Caroline was Political Writer in Residence at Gladstone's Library.

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About Caroline

Dr Caroline Shenton is an archivist and historian. Her book The Day Parliament Burned Down won the Political Book of the Year Award in 2013. Read More…

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