Chance Street : Book I I : Tales From Edwardian Portsmouth

From 1897 until the outbreak of WW2, May Miller wrote a diary. Recipes, flower arrangements, homemade cosmetics, lovers, friends, family and enemies, jostle with gossip and told with saucy, black humour. This is her story. Just as she thought her life and luck had changed, she discovered she was with child. May had to make the best of her limited choices. She wouldn’t give up her child. One way or the other, she would do more than survive, she would thrive – somehow. George Spritely’s sudden death left the young widow, Susannah Spritely, mistress of Fairview House, and his mother, close to a nervous breakdown. George died of Arsenic poisoning. George’s doctor prescribed Savarsan, a new drug for the treatment of syphilis, which contained arsenic. But why should the doctor tell his patient such detail? The amounts of arsenic in Susannah’s fly juice punishments were small. The Savarsan medication was safe, at the prescribed dose. It was unfortunate George didn’t understand he’d such a bad wife.