Whitcoulls Recommends: Isola and The Monster of Harrods

Isola by Allegra Goodman. In the 16th century, Marguerite is born into great wealth but after being orphaned at the age of three a guardian, Roberval, is appointed, who over several years steals her entire fortune. Destitute, her only option is to rely on him for everything and when he takes her on an expedition to sea she falls in love with his servant. Incandescent with rage, Roberval abandons them on a remote, inhospitable island where they’re left to fight for survival. Based on actual historical events, this is extraordinary. 

The Monster of Harrods by Alison Kervin. Turns out that Mohamed al Fayed was a monster and presided over a reign of terror during his ownership of Harrods. Scores of women were offended against and this offending was known by the Metropolitan Police, who colluded with him, and by parliamentarians and the Royal family - but no one ever acted and he went to his grave without justice being done. This is a very dark history of an amazing department store that many of us have loved for a long time. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News TALKSB.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Joe McKenzie, good morning. Hello, and Legra Goodman has a
book out called Isola. She does indeed, and I had
not heard of her before, and I don't know much
about her. But this is one of those historical novels
which is based on real events that are actually scarcely believable,
but I understand that a lot of this actually was true.
It takes place in the sixteenth century where a child

(00:35):
named Marguerite is born into enormous wealth, but she's orphaned
at the age of three, and a guardian is appointed
to look after her affairs, and his name is Robervland.
He's a cousin of hers, and over the next several years,
as she grows up, he methodically steals her entire fortune,
so when she becomes of age, she finds that she's
completely destitute and her only option is to rely on

(00:58):
him for everything. And he announces that he's taking her
to see because he's off on a voyage of exploration.
So he sticks her on his boat and there she
meets his secretary. He's referred to as a secretary in
the book, I guess you maybe say a man servant,
and they fall wildly in love, at which point Roberval
takes enormous umbrage and he sails to a remote island

(01:19):
and dumps them there, along with the nurse who has
been with Marguerite since she was a child, and the
three of them are left on this remote island in
the middle of nowhere, and they spend the next two
years trying to survive, and Roberval of course assumes that
he'll never see them again. But the story of how
they managed on that island is just extraordinary, and I
believe the real events that happened. In the sixteenth century.

(01:41):
The island in question was up in the Gulf of
Saint Lawrence, so you can imagine how cold and barren
it would be and what these people had to do
to get through. It's just extraordinary. Tell me about The
Monster of Harod's by Allison Kurvin. Well, you know, harod
is such a beloved institution. I've been there many a
time and loved the ambience of that store. But what

(02:05):
I think none of us knew until recently was that
the owner, Mohammad al Fayed, who owned it for think
about twenty five years. Truly was a monster, and sadly
it only came to life light after he'd died. But
he had an enormous system within that store. He had
recording equipment in every room, he had videos, he had

(02:26):
screens downstairs in the basement where he had former sas
soldiers who were monitoring everything. And when he would attack
one of his staff, female staff, of course, which he
did with great regularity, if she was then found to
have mentioned it to anybody, or been seen or heard
on any of these cameras and sound equipment to be

(02:47):
talking about it or telling anybody, then she was marched
out and fired. And there was that, and a great
deal worse that went on. It's absolutely extraordinary. And the
thing about it is that so many people in positions
of authority knew he was stupid enough to attack and
essentially abduct for a period the daughter of an American
ambassador to London. And when she got back home and

(03:07):
told her parents what had happened, they all agreed it
was better if nobody said anything. But the Prime Minister
was told because this was the ambassador after all, and
the Queen was told. So can you imagine how the
Queen must have felt when Diana started going out with
Fired's son. Extraordinary stuff, but so many people knew and
nobody did anything about it, which, as we all know,

(03:29):
is the way of things like Jimmy Saville and Harvey
Weinstein and so on. So this is not breaking news.
But to have it all associated with an institution like Herod's,
it's just extraordiny. It was a very dark story, isn't
it It is, it really is. Yeah, Oh, thank you
so much, Joan. So the first book was a solo
by Alegra Goodman and The Monster of Harod's by Allison Curvin.

(03:49):
Thank you so much. See you next time.

Speaker 1 (03:52):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
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