4. Cell block tango

Will Josephine go to Urania Cottage? We know she will... so how do we add drama?

Photo by Ye Jinghan on Unsplash

This week we’re back at Tothill Fields prison.

I can’t just have a revolving door of women arriving at Urania Cottage, like guests descending on a party. It would be samey and I find it off-putting in fiction when lots of similar characters are introduced in a short period. Martha arrived, Polly arrived, and so far there hasn’t been any drama at the house. It’s a safe bet to assume that the girls accepting places in Dickens’ experiment want to be there, so we need someone in there who doesn’t. Enter Josephine.

Remember when I spoke about tension? An obvious way to do it would be to have girls clashing at the house. That comes later. But while we’re world-building we need some as well, and a good way to do this is have someone at the house who has resisted entry, who couldn’t care less about reforming herself. So why would she be there? Because she’s doing it for someone else.

In my research I read that Dickens found two inmates who were friends at the same prison and due to come to Urania together. One was a “model prisoner”. Well-mannered, eager to reform, keen to please the governors…and he didn’t trust her one bit. Sure enough, she backed out at the last moment, leaving her friend to enter alone. The friend felt betrayed and cried a lot, but she still came. This was the seed for Annie and Josephine’s relationship and storyline, though I chose not to build Annie up as the model prisoner, courting Dickens, because it would just take too long and we need Josephine in the house. Maybe the two girls were really in a relationship? I like to think so.

Here is Annie and Josephine thinking about going to Urania Cottage, followed by Annie’s betrayal, which Josephine doesn’t yet realise: