Reconstructing a life from silence, missing archives and contradictory memories
How do you write about someone’s life when the people involved wouldn’t talk about it, the archives have holes in them, and the surviving sources sometimes disagree?
While researching “Murder at the Docks”, I gradually realised that silence, missing records and contradictory memories weren’t simply obstacles to the story. Sometimes they were part of the evidence.
Perhaps reconstructing a life isn’t about eliminating doubt. It’s about establishing the boundaries within which doubt can honestly remain.
Read more on The Missing Pages on Substack