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Beware flashes of inspiration! I am a demon for making sure that my plots make sense in their time-frame. (Indeed, one of my most treasured reviews comments that “[Sam and Wilson] do not crack the case in a matter of a quick fortnight, but weeks, months, pass with the crime in hand on-going with other, everyday things, happening in the background”.) For the Sam series, my main concern was to ensure that things happened in the right order, and that big events did not pass without comment. But for the Gregory series, my goodness, the calendar takes on the most enormous significance.
Cambridge in the 1820s was a very religious place – the town, and especially the university. As a result, church high days and holidays were observed without exception, and other events were timetabled to fit in with them. I found a wonderful – and enjoyably quirky – guide to the university year published by a former university officer in 1854, and I thought, I know, I’ll quickly work my way through it and create a handy ten-year calendar for the 1820s. Oh the naivete – it has taken me most of the day.
There are certain events whose date is fixed from year to year: there’s Christmas Day, of course, and the Michaelmas (i.e. autumn) term always started on 10 October and finished on 16 December. But many things move from year to year. Some are pegged onto other dates – for instance, the Proclamation of the Markets always happened on the second Saturday after the start of the Michaelmas term. And many depend on Easter, which in turn dictates the start and end dates of the Lent (i.e. summer) term. Some of these make your head spin. Have a go at this one: the annual sermon in Burwell was given by the Vice-Chancellor on (wait for it) Midlent Sunday, which is the fourth Sunday after Ash Wednesday. I am now going to lie down in a darkened room with a cold flannel over my eyes.