Old literary mystery sparks Ajay’s novel
Violence, madness and a whirlwind wedding
Perth writer Ajay Close sheds new light on one of the great Scottish literary mysteries in her latest novel, ‘What We Did in the Dark’, launched at the AK Bell Library next week.
The launch is planned to take place upstairs at the library at 7pm on Thursday, February 13.
The subject of the story is what circumstances made an ex-soldier become so unhinged that he tried to kill his new bride.
In September 1904, Glasgow student Cathie Macfarlane met English portrait painter and former soldier Herbert Jackson.
Within three weeks they were married, with the blessing of his sister and brother-in-law, but against the advice of her family and friends. Three months after that, on honeymoon in Italy, he tried to kill her.
Early in 1905 they returned to England, where Herbert was certified insane and committed to an asylum. Cathie began working as a journalist for the Glasgow Herald.
She went on to find fame as a biographer and novelist, under the name Catherine Carswell. Her books included an autobiography and a debut novel based on her own experiences, but neither gave her first marriage more than a passing mention.
Cathie never explained why she agreed to the whirlwind wedding, or why Herbert - by all accounts quite normal until his early 30s - became so violently unstable.
“I made what may truly be called a rash and foolish marriage to a man I scarcely knew,” she wrote in her autobiography, Lying Awake. “In reality… it was a desperately rational act.”
“As soon as I read that, I had to know the full story,” Ajay said.
She spent months in libraries and archives, following a trail that began with Cathie and Herbert, their families and friends, and led to the Boer War and the treatment of enemy women and children in British concentration camps.
In 1909, Cathie won her freedom, at the cost of making their daughter illegitimate, in a court battle that became a leading case in divorce law.
The judge annulled the marriage on the grounds that Herbert had been mad on their wedding day. He slept with a pistol under his pillow, sure that former friends in Liverpool were plotting against him. He thought Cathie had been unfaithful with the Prince of Wales (a man she had never met).
“He also believed he was followed by spies and informers, the newspapers contained coded references to him, American multimillionaire J Pierpont Morgan was his enemy and that his food was being poisoned.
“Several witnesses testified that Herbert’s erratic behaviour only began after his return from the Boer War,” Ajay revealed.
“Until I started researching this novel, I didn’t know that over 26,000 Boer women and children died of disease and starvation in British camps in Africa.
“As a lieutenant in the Royal Engineers, Herbert would have witnessed unimaginable horrors.”
As far as the doctors were concerned, Herbert was incurably mad, but Ajay thinks he may have been suffering from an extreme form of post-traumatic stress disorder. “I’m not saying I’ve come up with the only possible explanation for what happened between him and Cathie, but my plot certainly fits the facts,” she stated.
Ajay’s novel has been widely praised ahead of publication.
Scottish novelist James Robertson called it “A profound and moving exploration of a disastrous marriage,” and said: “I couldn’t stop reading it.”
Booker-prize shortlisted novelist Carol Birch found it “moving and compelling.” Sue Wilkinson, recently retired CEO of the Reading Agency, said it “speaks across time to all women everywhere.”
Ajay’s last two novels, ‘A Petrol Scented Spring’ and ‘The Daughter of Lady Macbeth,’ also featured unhappy husbands and wives. “I’m calling it my bad marriage trilogy,” she said. “I feel I’ve explored the territory pretty thoroughly now. The new book I’m working on is about something completely different.”
‘What We Did in the Dark’, published by Sandstone Press, costs £8.99.
At Thursday’s launch in Perth, Ajay will describe what happened on Cathie and Herbert’s hellish honeymoon, and show fascinating photographs of the couple and other major players in the story.
There will be another launch at Edinburgh University on February 20, followed by events at Dundee Women’s Festival on March 5, and at Aye Write! in Glasgow on March 15.