Clark, Corinne Leigh: The Butcher‘s Daughter

Margaret Evans is a butcher‘s daughter, working in Whitechapel‘s Butcher Row in the late 1830s. Her skill with the knife and saw brings her to the attention of an upper-class doctor, who witnesses her carrying out an impromptu amputation of an injured child‘s leg, and he offers her a position in his Highgate house as a maid and sometime medical assistant. At first, all is well. Margaret likes her employer and, as well as learning to make pies worthy of a gentleman in the kitchen, she assists the doctor with medical procedures. But something is off. The doctor‘s wife is bedbound, her body criss-crossed with surgical scars, and the collection of body parts that float in jars in the surgery seems to be increasing. Then when Margaret recovers from a debilitating illness only to discover she is pregnant, she realises her unborn child might well end up in a specimen jar alongside several others in the doctor‘s study. Arriving in a Mayfair brothel as her pregnancy nears its end, Margaret finds friendship and comfort, but realises she‘s in danger when she sees several of the doctor‘s freemason friends visit the bordello. One night, Margaret goes into labour and passes out. When she wakes, she is told her baby was born dead and has been taken away to be buried. But an anonymous note, pushed under her pillow, tells her otherwise, and to come to a pie shop for more information. The baker, Mr Lovett, who was tasked with taking her child away tries to extract money from Margaret but, in a scuffle, he hits his head and dies instantly. Margaret decides to take over his pie shop and pose as his widow. Margaret finds she‘s unable to get any credit at butchers‘ shops as her ?husband‘ owes so much money. Thankfully, her upstairs tenant, the barber Sweeney Todd, is on hand to pay the bills - though this means she‘s now in his debt. So, when the body of a man, bleeding from the neck, falls through a trap door into the shop, she‘s powerless to do anything about it. Deciding to turn the situation to her advantage, she butchers the body and uses the meat to fill her pies. A symbiotic relationship is formed, in which Mr Todd keeps the clothes and valuables of his victims, while Mrs Lovett builds a reputation for making the tastiest pies in the area. But with so many gentlemen disappearing, how long can the situation endure?