Mary Stuart Boyd spent Christmas 1900 in Versailles, not on a festive tour of the grand palace, but to stay with her 13-year-old son, quarantined there with scarlet fever. Her Versailles experience seems worlds away from today’s tourist mobs. The author of eight novels and three travel narratives, her delightful insights leave us amazed that no one’s ever heard of her.
This year’s Christmas Special is read by Sophie Greenhalgh-Cook from Not For the Dinner Table.
Images from Mary Stuart Boyd’s book, drawn by her husband Alexander Stuart Boyd
courtesy of Auckland Museum
Music featured in this episode included
“O Christmas Tree,” “Auld Lange Syne” and “Jesu” performed by Marc Nelson
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