I don’t like reading fiction anymore. I want to read about the author who wrote the fiction, what was it really about. What really happened in his life that is the raw material for his fiction. I loved Ian Rankin’s BBC documentary exploration of the story behind Jekyll & Hyde and in particular his trying to work out where was Jekyll’s house. In the book it is stated as being only “in a Soho square” but which Soho square? Which house number? Wonderfully, Rankin tracked it down to No.28 Leicester Square, now the Moon Under Water Wetherspoon’s pub!
Maybe self-preservation led him to set the novel in London rather than Edinburgh. On the other hand, London was perfect. It had been the home of a Scots-born doctor called John Hunter. Hunter was known in all the right circles. He was married to a patron of the arts who would give grand parties at their home in Leicester Square. But if you continued through the house you came to Hunter's surgery. You might also be shown his vast (and growing) collection of weird and wonderful specimens. And eventually, you'd find yourself in the cramped accommodation used by his students, beyond which a door led out into a narrow alley off what is now Charing Cross Road. This was where, at dead of night, the grave-robbers arrived with fresh deliveries of cadavers.
John Hunter did like his little experiments …
When you read Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde you will be struck by the similarities. (Jekyll himself purchased such a property from the heirs of a great medical man.)
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