TURTLE SOUP FOR THE KING

Welcome to a journey through some of the ideas and resources that contributed, with the remarkable participants themselves, to the making of Turtle Soup for the King, The Cato Street Chronicles. The website is an occasionally capricious companion to those who have read the book, but will not, I hope, spoil the anticipation for anyone who has yet to try it.

Depending on your inclinations, consider this a scrap-book or a kind of sketch pad, revealed.

Turtle Soup for the King focuses on the men who are hanged on the 1st May, 1820, the principal spy and their families. I have suggested, but (with regret)not focused on significant characters, who may have joined them on the scaffold, had they not been in prison during the conspiracy. Other conspirators in the group are transported or save their own lives (and their families’ livelihoods) by giving evidence. Each of them has a rich story to tell, but there isn’t room in a single book (even a big fat one) to accommodate every one in a meaningful way.

The characters of Turtle Soup for the King developed in my mind as living, perhaps universal men, women and children, whose lives resonate today. No matter what their social expectations , all the families struggle in a time of upheaval. Like so many in the pandemic and post-pandemic world, each in its own way demonstrates the great instruments of peace: faith, hope and love - and sometimes, its enemies: greed, aggression and duplicity.

I have not repeated information about the empowered, which can be discovered in a few finger taps. I have recommended a few books, and scholars can usually access archives, of which the examples quoted here might whet the appetite.

Some short readings are provided within the body of the text. some are by professional performers, others by friends who have in some way contributed to the work. They are also collected in the READINGS segment towards the end of the website.