NICOLA MORGAN

Voted one of the 40 Best Books of All Time by Teen Titles

Scottish Arts Council Award 2004;

American Library Association Best Books for Young Adults 2004;

Shortlisted for Scottish Children’s Book of Year,

North East Book Award

and North Lanarkshire Award

Widely used and enjoyed in schools throughout the UK

Q: What is it about?
A: It’s set in Edinburgh in the gruesome 1820s. It’s about a boy, Robbie, who when he was younger was outside the room where his mother was having surgery without anaesthetic. He hears her scream and watches her die five days later from blood-poisoning. His comfortable life is destroyed and Robbie and his sister have to survive somehow, in dirt and poverty. Later, Robbie comes across the surgeon and his anger takes over. The surgeon is Robert Knox, the famous anatomist who became involved with the murderers, Burke and Hare. Robbie’s search for revenge takes him to the depths of despair and disgrace. Somehow, he must find a way to turn himself around and create good from evil. But what choices does he have? He is in a world where the wealthy and educated hold all the power. Can he overcome these circumstances and take control or must he pay the ultimate price for his sinister dealings with Burke and Hare?

Q: Where did the idea come from?
A: One evening, I went to a talk about the history of surgery. I heard the true story of a woman walking into an operating theatre and having a tumour removed, without anaesthetic, in front of a crowd of watchers. Afterwards, she stood up, curtseyed her thanks to the surgeon and walked out with her family. She died five days later from blood poisoning. The idea came when I asked myself, ’What if her young son had been standing outside the door and heard her screams …?’

Q: How is the atmosphere different from Mondays are Red?
A: I think the atmosphere is driven by the setting. Edinburgh in the 1820s was pretty much the most horrendous place to live, especially if you were poor. A third of the population lived in dwellings of one room - that could be a family of 10 children, plus pigs and rats, all in one room, with no sanitation. The streets were sewers. Diseases like typhus and smallpox were rife. I describe it all vividly - don’t read this book while you are eating breakfast! But there are some light moments too - like eating steaks cooked over a wood fire on the top of a hill while watching the sun set on the walled city.

Q: What about imagery?
A: Because one of the aspects to the story is the work of surgeons in the days before anaesthetics, I have used a lot of imagery to do with the body. I describe Edinburgh as being like a gigantic and sick man, with the castle his head, and the tiny crooked streets below his veins and arteries, all clotted up with diseased blood. You’ll find loads of words do to with the body and disease. There’s also imagery to do with music, especially violin-playing. You’ll see what and why when you read the book …

Q: How much of the story is historically true?
A: All the description about life during that time in Edinburgh is as accurate as I could make it. Dr Robert Knox was as I describe him, and his involvement with the murderous Burke and Hare is accurately based on what we know happened; I invented some of the descriptions of Burke and Hare, but they did do everything they do in my book: they did shoot their horse, they did stuff bodies in herring-barrels, they did murder at least 16 people, including women and children, and sell the bodies to Knox. And the dates are all accurate so that the visit of George IV, the fires, the murders, the trial and the hanging, as well as James Young Simpson’s work with anaesthetics, are all as they happened. In fact, I really did not have to change very much at all.

Selected reviews

The Bookseller (Grainne B Cooney)
... Morgan’s vivid portrayal of Edinburgh’s Old Town, steeped in poverty, corruption and disease, has a Dickensian lucidity which lifts this novel out of the ordinary. The struggles of a young boy caring for his sister, coupled with the ethical and moral dilemmas facing the early surgical pioneers, make this a powerful and unforgettable story. Morgan has avoided the second novel curse by following up with a book that deserves attention."

The Scotsman (Interview/profile/review by David Robinson, Literary editor)

Click here to see full text and scary photo

The Independent
"In Fleshmarket, Nicola Morgan also looks back: to early 19th century Edinburgh, through determinedly grime-tinted glasses. Rarely can so much urban filth have been recorded on the page, but it all makes for a convincing background to a gripping story about a young hero caught between dying of poverty or earning an income from helping those sinister resurrection men, Burke and Hare. Morgan  - in only her second novel  -  could already be fairly compared to the late, greatly missed Leon Garfield."

The Sunday Herald
"Fleshmarket more than lives up to its evocative name and stylish jacket. Set largely in Edinburgh’s Old Town during the turbulent times in which Burke and Hare were at large, the novel opens with a passage describing an operation on a woman in front of an audience of men. There is no anaesthetic and no sterilisation. Behind the door to the operating theatre is the woman’s young son. It is his story which is at the heart of this novel, as he tries to slay the demons which subsequently laid waste to his childhood. Morgan raises surprisingly contemporary issues about medical ethics through her rip-roaring plot with its mix of real and imagined characters. It’s a tour de force, the kind of novel that simply will not let you go."

The Sunday Telegraph
"There’s no sanitisation of history ... and no anaesthetic either in the mastectomy with which this most unpredictable of novels opens. If the 12 year-old plus readers can stay conscious, however, they will be rewarded by a gripping and intelligent read veering between the slums and medical establishment of early -19th-century Edinburgh at a time when pain was considered to be "God’s will" and murder victims furnished the anatomy table. Morgan expertly plays with readers’ expectations and judgement right to the end."

The Herald (Anne Johnstone)
".... This book grabs you and never lets you go."

Journal of Adolescent Literature
"Despite the historical setting and the mature themes, Morgan’s bildungsroman is readily accessible to modern adolescent audiences. Although most readers will not come face to face with the poverty that Robbie and Essie endure, the issues of losing one parent only to be neglected by the other will resonate. Additionally, Robbie’s burning hatred and its consequences are significant issues for readers young and old.

Fleshmarket is Morgan’s second novel, and her description of life in 19th-century Scotland is so vivid that one can almost smell the stench of narrow, cobbled streets and taste the rough “porridge”on which Robbie and Essie subsist.

Morgan uses precise word choice to carry her message. ...boldly drawn characters and strong imagery make Fleshmarket historical fiction that transcends time and place." 

Writeaway website (Rhian Tracey)
"The intense sadness that grips the reader at the start of this novel is shocking and ever-present through out the remainder of this gripping narrative. ... This wonderful, original, horrifically descriptive and empathetic start ensures the reader’s imagination is ready to follow this multilayered story right through to its end. To do anything less would be a sacrilege." 

For the full review, click here

Australian Libraries Website
"This is a very fine novel and will also appeal very much to boys .... Like Dangerous Places, it is fast-paced and dramatic. Again, it would be an excellent choice in Years 8 and 9 and it would work particularly well in boys’ schools" 

Sydney Morning Herald
"a splendid book” which “crackles with mordant energy and bravura writing"" 

Readers’ Reviews

Josh D, Scotland "What a title! It really opens your eyes to what is inside. Shock! Horror! the first chapter is great. It sets the scene and gives you a sense of the horrible events to come. ....This book is truly a thriller and it carries an abundance of excitement on every page. This is the sort of book you read over and over again."

Catriona M, Scotland "This book has a fast paced story line and the way the emotions are described is terrific. I felt as if I was there."

Gillian, Linlithgow, Scotland  "First I’d like to say that Fleshmarket is a really great read. I’ve finished it within 2 days which is one of my records during school term, I just couldn’t put the book down. Also considiring that I don’t like grusome books this is excellent. ... I’m really glad that I was born when I was. Even though the world still isn’t perfect it’s better than it was in some ways in others it has become worse.
    I would really like to read Mondays are Red, and Sleepwalking, because I would have to say just by reading Fleshmarket you are 1 of my favourite authors."

Amy E, 13, East Lothian, Scotland "Fleshmarket is a very strong and powerful book, both morally and emotionally. It gives an amazing insight into the city of Edinburgh during the 1820s. However, this novel is not for the faint of heart or stomach! ... I usually just stick to my romantic, slushy, teenage stories, but this novel made me realise what I’ve been missing by not reading thrillers and historical novels such as Fleshmarket."

Edward M, 13, Aberdeen "First of all, this book is not for the faint hearted. With operations being performed without anaesthetic and a drunk baby getting eaten by a rat, life is shown at its worst and most gruesome during the late Georgian times. ....
    I found this book compelling and thoroughly exciting. It was easy to picture the bustling city and build up an image of the characters in my head. After I had finished this novel, I had to stop and think and even now I still have the images of the vividly portrayed characters and scenes.
    A haunting and thought provoking novel, well worth reading!"

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