“This being a song cycle inspired by a list of the clothes and belongings found upon Catherine (Kate) Eddowes at the time of her death. Catherine was the fourth victim of the “Whitechapel murderer”. Our aim was to humanise Catherine and relegate the perpetrator; she was a person not just a victim. A person who lived a colourful life. Using the incredibly detailed list of her pitiful worldly belongings, which were transcribed for the inquest into her death, we aimed to give Catherine a voice, allowing for suggestions of stories from her life. I find the list strangely poetic, incredibly moving and evocative. I feel that many of the items could stand as the titles of the songs and so they have become. A few recorded verbatim details of her character and intriguing glimpses of her life add even more to the palette. For instance, she and her common law husband had been hop-picking near Maidstone, returning to London just the day before the murder. And, then she’d been arrested, drunk and disorderly, midday at Aldgate, for impersonating a fire-engine (horse-drawn with clanging bell!) The desk sergeant reported that she’d been singing all afternoon and bade him a cheery ‘G’night old cock!’ when she’d sobered up and was released. Whilst economically destitute, eking a subsistence by selling penny-dreadful ballad sheets on the streets, seasonal picking in Kent and occasionally dulling herself with gin to earn tuppence for a bed via casual prostitution, she loved to laugh and sing. We imagined her as defiant too; loving and flawed and we aimed to create songs bursting with life and character. Songs to honour and redefine her memory.”

Chris Broderick 2021