Lucky students, indeed. I love seeing them going into Trinity or King's or St John's any College, with a carrier bag from the supermarket, stocking up for their daily life there. I hope that they are aware of their surroundings :-)
Wonderful! So much history and story of a world and time, in this short piece. Amazing to think that as a woman one was subject to that much risk just walking through a university town.
It makes me wonder if the universities there still had their own separate criminal judicial systems for students and faculty as late as that? I vaguely remember hearing (I think that it was at a house museum, so quite random, maybe not accurate) that the Swedish universities had that, even though they were never ecclesiastical institutions I don't think.
This was so interesting - and shocking. Thanks for another great essay. I look forward to reading Caroline Biggs's book too. From the way you describe it, it sounds like exactly my sort of thing.
Many thanks, Emily! Caroline's book really brings this rather shocking story to life and it's great that she presents it from the vantage point of being a townsperson, understanding the power that the university wielded over the town.
Not at all, Christina! You know, I just picked the ones I mentioned from the top of my head... and because I was keen to hear others' suggestions. Yours are great, and I'll confess I hadn't heard of any of their memoir-writing.
I discovered her during Covid times when I was buying almost everything Fitzcarraldo Press— her UK publishers— were publishing. They make the most beautiful books. Happening was the first I read and I knew immediately I had come across something special. I bought several copies for friends as I do when I love a book. But more than that, for the first time in over ten years, I discovered a way to write about my illness, which I’d always wanted to but never quite knew how to enter and navigate.
This Voice! I said. This is the voice I need to be writing in. This is the only way to talk about something devastating. I’m still working on it. .I’m hoping I finish this year although Ernaux herself took many years to complete one hundred page memoir. So I’ve been telling myself not to be too hard on myself. Seasoned enough to know a book is done when it’s done and not when you want it to be. It has to be its best form and if it takes ten years, so be it . Ps: I just discovered substack (including yours of course) a month ago so I’m quite new here but I’ve been serialising the memoir (Containment Diaries) little by little— inspired by writers like yourself. Perhaps it’s the little nudge I needed. We’ll see. Till then, I will relish your notebook…I just bought an IPad for the first time just to be able to read some of the wonderful writers I’ve discovered here.
Amazing and disturbing! I wonder if there were other institutions like the Spinning House in Britain.
Reading your posts or seeing your notes always makes me want to jump on a train down to Cambridge! How lucky you are to have lived there since the 80s!
Thanks Anne, I hope you do come & visit! I think only Oxford and Cambridge had this kind of legally sanctioned jurisdiction over townspeople. As far as I know, Oxford closed their jail for so-called 'streetwalkers' much earlier than Cambridge (and of course it was a way of controlling independent women's freedom to be outside, by labelling them as disrespectable).
Oh, so much to see, Ian. I think it's worth wandering through Queens' College (one of the oldest and prettiest, lovely garden by the river), the Wren Library (check visiting times) and if it's not too obvious, King's College Chapel.
Thanks Holly, I didn't know about that memoir - it sounds fascinating. And yes, the name has ironies - not least that its pronunciation 'Maudlyn' is thought to be a tribute to Lord Audley, who helped Henry VIII to dispose of Anne Boleyn.
Thank you so much for again bringing an astonishing and shocking bit of Cambridge University's history to wider notice: like most reading, I had no idea! There's quite a bit about Cambridge University that sometimes feels almost like remnants of feudalism, but I'm also reminded of US universities which still have their own police forces - something that always struck me as odd and disturbing. Taking such core functions of the state as law enforcement/justice and handing them over to universities, whether 19th century Cambridge or 20th and 21st century America, seems a fundamentally odd thing to do.
There is actually an episode of The Good Wife (that wonderful Chicago set series!) which revolves around university police, and whether the crime was committed on the univerisity's territory (therefore under their jurisdiction) or in the city of Chicago. So universities as law-enforcers is not just of historical interest!
Thank you Emma, and I hadn't thought of that connection to modern US universities. It's definitely a remnant of feudalism I think. Gosh, I don't remember that episode of The Good Wife, will have to track it down (not wishing to sound too much like a law-enforcer myself).
Thank you Anne, and that's a lovely piece. Anthony is a great local historian, a diligent researcher into Cambridge's forgotten histories and very generous with his time. That bookshop is an atmospheric place to have such a fascinating encounter!
Thank you for such an interesting essay. Despite living in the Cambridge area for over 30 years I had never heard of the spinning house before. Fascinating!
It is shocking, isn't it - and I think Daisy had to fight her case in three separate courts before the university finally gave in. A very impressive young woman.
One of my favourite memoirs is Fierce Attachments, by Vivian Gornick - a ferocious account of a mother/daughter relationship. Other favourites: Paula Fox's Borrowed Finery, Viv Albertine's To Throw Away Unopened (which contains the most blackly comic deathbed scene I have ever read), Mikal Gilmore's extraordinary Shot In The Heart, Edmund Gosse's Father And Son...
It shows how up to date I am by the fact that Father and Son is the only one I've read (loved it so much). Thanks for a great list, and I've been meaning to read Gornick's for ages since reading the 2020 New Yorker piece:
Good grief. I had no idea about the Spinning House. How shocking.
Thanks Anna, it is hard to believe, isn't it. You can see why townspeople hated the university.
Lucky students, indeed. I love seeing them going into Trinity or King's or St John's any College, with a carrier bag from the supermarket, stocking up for their daily life there. I hope that they are aware of their surroundings :-)
Thanks Christina - it is a great opportunity - sometimes most appreciated from a distance!
I know that I was, back in the late 70s. Walking across the Bridge of Sighs every day.
It may have been one of the reasons I got into photography.
It's such a beautiful bridge, Jon. Very atmospheric at night.
Wonderful! So much history and story of a world and time, in this short piece. Amazing to think that as a woman one was subject to that much risk just walking through a university town.
Many thanks, Maria. It is chilling to think how vulnerable women must have felt - and ridiculous the university could wield so much power.
It makes me wonder if the universities there still had their own separate criminal judicial systems for students and faculty as late as that? I vaguely remember hearing (I think that it was at a house museum, so quite random, maybe not accurate) that the Swedish universities had that, even though they were never ecclesiastical institutions I don't think.
I'm updating my reading list!
Thanks Mimi!
This was so interesting - and shocking. Thanks for another great essay. I look forward to reading Caroline Biggs's book too. From the way you describe it, it sounds like exactly my sort of thing.
Many thanks, Emily! Caroline's book really brings this rather shocking story to life and it's great that she presents it from the vantage point of being a townsperson, understanding the power that the university wielded over the town.
May I suggest (3 men ) "I confess I have lived", by P Neruda
"Live to tell the tale", by G García Marquez
"La promesse de l'aube" by Romain Gary (there must be an English edition)
Colourful lives, indeed.
Thanks Christina, I will look into those.
sorry, Ann. I know that you are after women's memoirs...
Not at all, Christina! You know, I just picked the ones I mentioned from the top of my head... and because I was keen to hear others' suggestions. Yours are great, and I'll confess I hadn't heard of any of their memoir-writing.
Thank you for encouraging me to dust off and read "The Rector's Daughter", I am greatly looking forward to the discussion of it.
So pleased, Deborah, I think it should be a good discussion!
Annie Ernaux.Her memoirs are so stark and crisp as though she hides Hides behind a wall, but it’s oozing with subtext.
Thank you Buku! You express the essence of her writing so well.
I discovered her during Covid times when I was buying almost everything Fitzcarraldo Press— her UK publishers— were publishing. They make the most beautiful books. Happening was the first I read and I knew immediately I had come across something special. I bought several copies for friends as I do when I love a book. But more than that, for the first time in over ten years, I discovered a way to write about my illness, which I’d always wanted to but never quite knew how to enter and navigate.
This Voice! I said. This is the voice I need to be writing in. This is the only way to talk about something devastating. I’m still working on it. .I’m hoping I finish this year although Ernaux herself took many years to complete one hundred page memoir. So I’ve been telling myself not to be too hard on myself. Seasoned enough to know a book is done when it’s done and not when you want it to be. It has to be its best form and if it takes ten years, so be it . Ps: I just discovered substack (including yours of course) a month ago so I’m quite new here but I’ve been serialising the memoir (Containment Diaries) little by little— inspired by writers like yourself. Perhaps it’s the little nudge I needed. We’ll see. Till then, I will relish your notebook…I just bought an IPad for the first time just to be able to read some of the wonderful writers I’ve discovered here.
Lovely to meet you..
Amazing and disturbing! I wonder if there were other institutions like the Spinning House in Britain.
Reading your posts or seeing your notes always makes me want to jump on a train down to Cambridge! How lucky you are to have lived there since the 80s!
Thanks Anne, I hope you do come & visit! I think only Oxford and Cambridge had this kind of legally sanctioned jurisdiction over townspeople. As far as I know, Oxford closed their jail for so-called 'streetwalkers' much earlier than Cambridge (and of course it was a way of controlling independent women's freedom to be outside, by labelling them as disrespectable).
Oh gosh, the actual criminalizing of women’s being in public! I hadnt’t thought about it that way.
I know! All about protecting their valuable assets (male students).
I have three days in Cambridge next month; where should I visit?
Oh, so much to see, Ian. I think it's worth wandering through Queens' College (one of the oldest and prettiest, lovely garden by the river), the Wren Library (check visiting times) and if it's not too obvious, King's College Chapel.
Oh, the irony of an exclusive male college named after Mary Magdalene.
A favorite memoir-diary is P. D. James' 'Time to be in Earnest'.
Thanks Holly, I didn't know about that memoir - it sounds fascinating. And yes, the name has ironies - not least that its pronunciation 'Maudlyn' is thought to be a tribute to Lord Audley, who helped Henry VIII to dispose of Anne Boleyn.
Thank you so much for again bringing an astonishing and shocking bit of Cambridge University's history to wider notice: like most reading, I had no idea! There's quite a bit about Cambridge University that sometimes feels almost like remnants of feudalism, but I'm also reminded of US universities which still have their own police forces - something that always struck me as odd and disturbing. Taking such core functions of the state as law enforcement/justice and handing them over to universities, whether 19th century Cambridge or 20th and 21st century America, seems a fundamentally odd thing to do.
There is actually an episode of The Good Wife (that wonderful Chicago set series!) which revolves around university police, and whether the crime was committed on the univerisity's territory (therefore under their jurisdiction) or in the city of Chicago. So universities as law-enforcers is not just of historical interest!
Thank you Emma, and I hadn't thought of that connection to modern US universities. It's definitely a remnant of feudalism I think. Gosh, I don't remember that episode of The Good Wife, will have to track it down (not wishing to sound too much like a law-enforcer myself).
I learned about this from my chance encounter with Antony Carpen (Cambridge historian) in G. David several years ago! I wrote it down here and it lines up perfectly. https://thecambridgeplacebook.com/g-david-bookseller/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CSurely%20you%E2%80%99ve%20heard,end%20to%20that.%E2%80%9D
Thank you Anne, and that's a lovely piece. Anthony is a great local historian, a diligent researcher into Cambridge's forgotten histories and very generous with his time. That bookshop is an atmospheric place to have such a fascinating encounter!
Yes it was! It’s good to see that he’s actively publishing on his blog!
Good to know about Caroline Biggs' book!
Thank you for such an interesting essay. Despite living in the Cambridge area for over 30 years I had never heard of the spinning house before. Fascinating!
Many thanks Gina, much appreciated. I think quite a few people who live here don't know the story!
Wow! This is really shocking to read about. I’m glad the higher courts could dispense justice.
It is shocking, isn't it - and I think Daisy had to fight her case in three separate courts before the university finally gave in. A very impressive young woman.
One of my favourite memoirs is Fierce Attachments, by Vivian Gornick - a ferocious account of a mother/daughter relationship. Other favourites: Paula Fox's Borrowed Finery, Viv Albertine's To Throw Away Unopened (which contains the most blackly comic deathbed scene I have ever read), Mikal Gilmore's extraordinary Shot In The Heart, Edmund Gosse's Father And Son...
It shows how up to date I am by the fact that Father and Son is the only one I've read (loved it so much). Thanks for a great list, and I've been meaning to read Gornick's for ages since reading the 2020 New Yorker piece:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/02/10/vivian-gornick-is-rereading-everyone-including-herself