Being a country kid I was very much aware that not
everything growing in garden, field or forest was good to eat. Great Aunt Mary
had a fund of stories about foolish wilful children who didn’t listen to wise
advice and went about stuffing glistening berries, tasty looking mushrooms and
tantalising fruit into their mouths. She regaled myself, and my siblings and cousins
with tales of disobedient greedy brats who died horrible deaths, shrieking and
foaming at the mouth, or at the very least were left hideously deformed, sobbing
in sorrow and regret. If her aim was to terrorise us into not touching anything
without first checking with an adult that it was OK to handle and eat then she certainly
succeeded. Obviously it also engendered in me a fascination for the subject. I spent
hours making lists of forbidden items, with notes attached. For instance when
the season arrived where we broke off sticks of rhubarb, running into the
kitchen to raid the sugar bag, then pouring a handful into a twist of paper to use
it like a sherbet lolly, I scribbled in my jotter:
“RHUBARB - sticks taste good with sugar - Do NOT eat the leaves. Theresa you will DIE!!!!”
Beside this entry I drew a skull and crossbones
I was big on skulls and crossbones and also placed these
beside entries for laburnum, foxglove, deadly mushrooms etc. I made maps to show where I’d found suspect items,
and in turn I terrified younger relatives by telling them that if they even
wandered close to some plants they might succumb, and the rest of us would have
to carry their corpses home to their weeping mothers.
While researching The Nostradamus Prophecy I discovered that it’s Catherine de’ Medici whom France has
to thank for ballet, bloomers, perfume and… poison. It is said that she brought
from Italy the secrets of scent, thus founding the French perfume industry, but
also carried with her the dark art of poison. This is in part linked to the
reputation of the famous poison garden of the Medici family situated in Padua.
I regret not visiting it when writing The Medici Seal but to my amazement, after that book was finished, I discovered that
Britain has its very own poison garden…
Alnwick Castle, home of the Percy family, of song and story and famous as a location for filming Harry Potter. I
couldn’t resist having my photograph taken in the courtyard where the Broomstick Flying Lesson was filmed!
And the Poison Garden?
The first thing to say is that the custodians take
their responsibilities very seriously indeed. The area is kept securely locked
and guarded and entry is only via guided tours given by experts, who have a
wide knowledge of plant history, their therapeutic use and modern medical
developments.
Vital research is conducted here and there’s a huge amount of
information being garnered about effects on the human body - marijuana, magic
mushrooms, aphrodisiacs, poppies, and plants so dangerous that they are kept in
cages.
The staff are charming, helpful, willing to share information and very
interested in visitors’ anecdotes and tales of country lore.
Go visit.
Theresa’s latest book is Spy for the Queen of Scots
Twitter: @theresabreslin1
The Edinburgh World Writers’ Conference debates are online with the Conference now
moving to different venues around the world. In November Theresa will be with
Melvin Burgess to debate themes in Krasnayarsk in Siberia. You might like to
join in!
Theresa Breslin and Kate Leiper will discuss research for the Illustrated
Treasury of Scottish Folk and Fairy Tales, at the National Library of
Scotland in EDINBURGH on 22nd and 24th October.
Divided City – in conjunction
with the Citizens Theatre a schools production is now underway in South
Lanarkshire with performances scheduled for February 2013.
