Why a Booktrail?
1724: Inspired by an infamous real-life case
The Mourning Necklace
What you need to know before your trail
In a tavern just outside Edinburgh, Maggie Dickson’s family drown their sorrows, mourning her death yet relieved she is gone. Shame haunts them. Hanged for the murder of her newborn child, passers-by avert their eyes from her cheap coffin on its rickety cart.
But as her family pray her soul rests in peace, a figure appears at the door.
It is Maggie. She is alive.
Bruised and dazed, Maggie has little time for her family’s questions. All that matters to her is answering this one: will they hang her twice?
Locations
Reset- Scotland - Edinburgh
- A: Sheep Heid Inn Edinburgh
- B: Maggie Dicksons
- C: Grassmarket
- D: Musselburgh
- Scottish Borders - Kelso
- E: Kelso bridge/River Tweed
Travel Guide
Edinburgh
Maggie Dickson lived from about 1702 to about 1765. She was a fish-wife who came to fame after being convicted of killing her newly born baby. She survived her subsequent execution and was subsequently known as Half-Hangit Maggie.
She was born in Musselburgh in about 1702 and in 1723 she found work at an inn in Kelso, and subsequently “fell pregnant” after a relationship with the innkeeper’s son. She abandoned the baby near the river and claimed it had died of natural causes. She was arrested and hanged. However she managed to survive and lived for another 40 years.
Booktrailer Review
True story set in Scotland
How have I never heard of Maggie Dickson? I haven’t heard of her, well, not really and so this was quite the read
she was a woman accused of killing her baby that she has just given birth to – well nothing is as simple as it looks. things were very different that day. There were no choices for women and childbirth options.
A story about her being convicted, hanged and then saved from the hangman’s noose by a twist of fate…is quite something. Kate Foster writes some amazing stories about amazing true life figures and this is no exception.
How Maggie is treated before and after the hanging – how people feel when they see her ‘ come back from the dead’ is eye opening.
there’s a pub in Edinburgh where the story is set named after Maggie Dickson. This is sharp, immersive reading and highly recommended!
BookTrail Boarding Pass: The Mourning Necklace
Destination/location: Edinburgh Author/guide: Kate Foster Departure Time: 1724
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