Mrs. Robinson in Edinburgh

    "The true story of an intimate diary and a scandalous trial that rocked Victorian England," Kate Summerscale's Mrs Robinson's Disgrace: The Private Diary of a Victorian Lady has just been published to rave reviews. "Captivating ... instantly gripping," it tells the story of Isabella Robinson's infatuation for the married Edward Lane, and how her diary - discovered by her husband and used in evidence in the divorce court - was her downfall.

    It was in Edinburgh that Mrs. Robinson met Lane, and as both lived just a stone's throw from my house, I did a bit of 'location shooting' this morning to give you a flavour of part of the book's setting. In the picture* top left and right is Moray Place, a very fine twelve-sided circus in the New Town, and the house with the blue door (middle right) is No. 11 where the Robinsons lived. Middle left and bottom is Royal Circus, a short distance away from Moray Place, and it was here on a November evening in 1850 that Mrs. Robinson met Lane, her feelings for him eventually causing her to be the object of the scandal of the day.

    In that house with the white door just beyond the lamp-post (middle left), Mrs. Robinson attended a soireé given by Lady Drysdale who was Lane's mother-in-law and a renowned hostess. Dickens was a guest at a party there, and Edinburgh luminaries such as James Young Simpson, obstetrician and pioneer anaesthetist, and Robert Chambers the publisher were to be found at the gatherings in that elegant crescent, but that evening it was Lane Mrs. Robinson wrote of in her diary: he was "handsome, lively and good-humoured ... fascinating." She would chastise herself for being susceptible to a man's charms, 'but a wish had taken hold of her, and she was to find it hard to shake'.

    Do visit the book's website to learn more about Mrs. Robinson's story and to see videos of Kate talking about various aspects of it; there is also a podcast. If you're already eager to get your hands on a copy, it so happens that I have one to give away, so pop your name in the hat by way of the comments, please, and tell us if you would whether you have ever kept a diary, and if so, what kind it was - a childhood one, for example, a simple engagements book, a gardening diary, a record of guests and menus perhaps, a repository for miscellaneous notes and observations, or one for your innermost secrets. If you've never kept one or would rather not say, that's fine, just leave a comment anyway. The draw is open to all, regardless of location, and the book promises to be an excellent read, so please do have a go.

*Click to enlarge.

Comments

[Leela Soma]

I'd love to win a copy of the book. I saw Kate Summerscale on the Book Review on BBC2 last evening. I start a diary every year but never manage to keep going till the end of the year so I have snippets of diaries from years ago,nothing to match Mrs. Robinson's Disgrace' of course!

Love your location shots of Moray Place, a familiar place even for a 'Weegie' from Glasgow. Lol!

[rhonda]

Would love to read this Book. I write in my diary every evening keep track of days activity books I've read. Life in general helps vented and calm [email protected]

[Harriet]

Put me in the hat please. Sounds fascinating.

[Harriet]

Oh sorry should have said - I still keep a diary and write in it every evening.

[Rosie H]

I am now in my twelfth year of regular diary-keeping and only wish I'd started earlier; it's fascinating to flick through them and see how my life and I have changed. The ones I have cover my engagement and wedding, which is nice, but I'd love to have one of my student years, or my first few years in London! Please put me in the hat.

[Stacey]

Please add my name to the hat and I will enter the fact I've replied in one of several diaries/journals I seem to have going at any given time. I've never been disciplined enough to make it through a whole year in one diary, but scattered here and there I can usually piece it together. My favorite one is the one I write down any dreams I may have and then whatever reflection may come to me about them. We won't talk about the one that is filled with lists of books I find here! :)

[Catherine]

I would love to win a copy. Please add me to the draw.

[catharina]

This sounds like a lovely book! I'd like to enter the draw please. Writing in my diary is an integral part of my life since I was fourteen. During busy times it helps me to stay mindful. From time to time I focus on a topic in it, like f.i. a month long writing a few lines every day about the sky, or a tree I see on my walks. I write with a fountainpen and take special care to write unhurried.

[Lizziemac]

Please put me in the draw, Cornflower.
I have never kept a diary, but feel I may now.

[Janet]

Please enter me in the draw. I have kept an engagement diary for many years, and I also write a travel diary, with notes about where we have stayed, what seen, what eaten if especially delicious and so on. It helps revive holiday memories and also reminds me of some places not to revisit! I started it in the 1980's when travelling with young children, but have continued it to the present.

[m]

Not since the teenage heartbreak years, when I could write reams about spotty boys whose names I now can't remember.

[Nancy]

I always thought I'd like to keep a diary but numerous attempts failed after only a few days. Diaries are one of my favorite reads (along with letters). I even have a very large collection of real, handwritten diaries, collected over a period of time - and I love reading those. So, yes, put my name in the hat as well. Thanks! :-)

[Susan in TX]

Oh, thank you so much for the pictures! I've been looking forward to this one, so I'll happily put my name in the hat. I can't say that I've ever kept a diary. I've tried a couple of different times, but just never stuck to it.

[Dorothy]

I kept a diary when I was 13; it was a "Thelwell Pony" diary and was a gift from my big sister. I religiously filled it in for the first month or so then ......nothing. However, since all the entries read 'school is so boring' I'm feeling that the literary world was not reeling from the loss.
Nowadays, I am back at work and have three children so my diary is full of who is going where and when and each day is full to overflowing. School no longer looks so boring!

[Kate/Massachusetts]

I kept a diary as a child but have only kept food diaries as an adult! Thanks for the chance to enter your book giveaway!

[Barbara M.]

Hi...... I kept a diary as a teenager, and have often tried to since. Unfortunately, it seems that two weeks per year is my quota, and after that I give up. But I've always loved reading other peoples' diaries and memoirs, and would find Mrs. Robinson's diary fascinating!

Barbara M. in NH

[Elizabeth]

I loved Mr Whicher and told my book club about it - one of the members subsequently bought it and found it fascinating too, so I would love to win Mrs Robinson! I kept a diary (under lock and key) as a child but despite good intentions have never lasted very long since.

[Claire]

I keep a very mundane, dog clip, dentist, type diary. If I'm not lucky enough to win I'll definetely be buying this book. Thank you for the oportunity.

[Claire]

Sorry, "opportunity"!

[Barbara]

I used to keep gardening diaries and see I wrote about it here last year. Written with a fountain pen, of course.
I adore reading diaries, real and fictional, Pepys or Adrian Mole.

[JanetD]

I have an appointments style diary which is kept up to date but have failed dismally to keep a personal diary going for more than a few days at a time.However I am intrigued by published diaries and the hand written note books writers and artists kept throughout their working lives.

[Gwendoline]

Please put my name in the hat! I am a sporadic diarist; I find it immensely helpful when my sense of perspective does a runner and I need to get 'things' back into proportion. I am also a keen reader of published diaries, the waspier the better.

[cindy]

I've stopped diary writing but kept it up during my wild single days, surprisingly. Wish I'd have put in more practical details, like how much things cost, rather than how I waiting by the phone - would make for a much more interesting read now.

Loved Ms Summerscale's last book - and this one looks good, too - so put me in your draw, please, Cornflower!

[Deirdre]

I would love a copy of Mrs. Robinson's Disgrace, so, please enter my name in the draw. I have lots of beautiful notebooks in which I intend to write my thoughts; I have many! I go through phases of diary-keeping but, honestly, I am far too inconsistent to be considered a real diary writer. I did well for about a year when I was a child!

[Ruth]

Hmm I have never kept a diary. But feel my blog is now a sort of memoir of what I have been up to! Ruth

[Freda]

Like Ruth my blog is the nearest thing to a diary, and I've kept it up daily for more than two years now - though of course it is only about one aspect of my life (trying to live more simply). Knowing that people look out for it helps me keep it up....with very few breaks.
Would love to read this one. Thank you.

[Sarie Fuller]

I would love to win this book so please include me. I don't keep a diary nowadays but recently found an old one from 1980 when I would have been 15/16yrs that provided plenty of nostalgia and amusement!

[Barbara MacLeod]

Please put my name in the draw.

In my youth I kept diaries: two 5-year and then one 1-year. These days I keep (and rely on!) an appointment diary. When the year finishes it goes into a drawer for archive purposes. Like Ruth, I keep a blog which has just clocked up its 4th year this week.

[Anne]

Not a diary keeper but one year I did keep a daily record of the meals cooked.

[Marlene C.]

I'd love a copy of this book. I haven't kept a diary since grade school, in fear that my most private thoughts might end up in the wrong hands. Even as a young girl I wrote mine in "code". But, like all readers, I love looking into others' lives.

I do love journal books, though -- I can't pass one up, especially if it's on sale. I keep notes on books I've read: other books or authors mentioned, words I've needed to look up in the dictionary, and the season, month and year in which I read the book. Also a few notes and thoughts.

Journal writing is very therapeutic for difficult times. But, anytime I've used this method of healing, shredding the evidence always comes later. I've rarely wanted to go back, read, and relive something I've passed through and put behind me. Some things might have made great book material, though!

[Deborah]

Please add me to the draw - just read Rachel Cooke's review of it in the Observer and would love to read it!

[margaret46]

I try every year to keep a diary but always fail.Please put my name into the hat -thanks.

[Kate]

I used to keep a diary - back when I was in high school. They're kind of embarrassing to read now. So much drama and garbage. But at the time they helped me order my thoughts and get everything sorted out in my head.

[Iris]

Please enter my name into the draw :)

I used to keep a diary throughout childhood and my teens. I often try to start again but it feels to awkward. I guess my book blog in part functions as a diary.

[Sandra]

Oh, I'd love to add my name to the pile in this little Sorting Hat! I enjoyed the Suspicions of Mr Whicher and was happy to hear Kate Summerscale had a new book coming out again, so I would love to have it and read it!

And yes, I've kept a diary when I was a kid. Anything from trouble at home to (now cringeworthy) crushes at school - which is probably why I've never read them since, haha.

I am keeping a somewhat diary now, not on a day to day, but event by event, basis of my baby boy growing up. I love jotting everything down - it's so easy to forget all those little things!

[Iain Stevenson]

please put my name in the draw. You should consider the scandalous case of Madeleine Smith next!

[AnnP]

Please add my name to the draw. Yes, I had a 5 year diary when I was a teenager and kept it for most of that time. I found it again a few years ago and it was so embarrassing that I burnt it.

[Nancy]

I totally forgot that I do keep a travel diary for each trip we take - even those tend to taper off by the end, the comments at least, but the log continues to the end. I like to tally up the total cost after we're home, and I mean _total_. :-)

[Nancy]

Beatrix Potter kept a diary in 'code' as well. It's a good read.

[Audrey]

This is wonderful - both the tour and the chance to win the book - thank you! I put this on my reading list as soon as I heard about it - I enjoyed Mr. Whicher very much. As for a diary, I kept one occasinally as a child - I only wish I still had it, so I could meet my childhood self again! It's more of a reading journal/commonplace book now, but that's a kind of diary, isn't it?

[Anji]

I hope that I am not too late to be included. I tried to keep a diary when I was a child and I wasn't very sucessful. With the many moves my family made when I was a child I honestly don't know what happened to the diary. I did find some of the letters I had written to my parents when I was at school and I just cringed when I re-read them. Oh my!

About four years ago I started to write my Morning Papers and I have managed to keep it going. I try to write about 3 pages, some mornings I write more. I usually write before I have breakfast while I am sipping my first cup of tea of the day and I don't re- read the pages either. I was never sucessful trying to write at the end of the day but it's the first thing I do in the mornings.

I am amazed that I have been able to keep it up considering that I am not a morning person at all and I need to ease into the day.

[Cornflower]

No, you're not too late to be included, Anji.

[Rebecca]

Lovely pics! I did keep a journal for many years, but now I only entertain my children by reading excerpts of their youthful comments from them! I'd love a copy of the book!