Kirsty Manning grew up in northern New South Wales. A country girl with wanderlust, her travels and studies have taken her through most of Europe, the east and west coasts of the United States and pockets of Asia. Kirsty’s published novels include the enchanting The Midsummer Garden (2017), The Jade Lily (2018) and her latest book The Lost Jewels (2020). For a limited time only, if you order a copy of The Lost Jewels by midnight May 24, you’ll enter the draw to win a pair of yellow gold hook earrings with beach glass valued at $400!*
Today, Kirsty is on the blog to tell us all about The Lost Jewels and her approach to writing historical fiction. Read on!
The Lost Jewels is a work of fiction inspired by the true story of the Cheapside Hoard, dug up in a Cheapside cellar in 1912 and forming a significant collection at the Museum of London, and also at the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum.
While the Cheapside Hoard is one of the most famous caches of jewels in the world, it is also the most mysterious.
I stumbled across a review of an exhibition of priceless pieces from Cheapside Hoard and immediately went down the rabbit-hole of watching every video I could about these priceless jewels. Naturally, I totally ignored the manuscript I was supposed to be writing and started to research everything I could on this shiny new topic. I trawled the internet, ordered books, went to antique jewellery exhibitions and eventually booked myself a flight to London to see some of these precious pieces for myself.
As my imagination took flight … the same questions kept bugging me: How could someone neglect to retrieve 500 precious pieces of jewellery and gemstones? Why did nobody claim it in the subsequent years? Who were the workmen who actually discovered the jewels in 1912?
No-one knows the answers to these questions. Some of our greatest historians, curators and academics have spent years looking … So The Lost Jewels is my imagined tale woven between the facts.
I love bringing to life forgotten pockets of history—in particular, women’s voices that have long been overlooked or dismissed. For me, a novel begins between the gaps of history. I build my world on the bits we don’t know. This gives me opportunity to explore the dark, difficult and joyful parts of human nature.
In the 1600’s, Cheapside was the hub for gold, silver and precious gems that had threaded their way around the world to London. However, this century was also filled with fire, plague, revolution and an expanding empire … Seventeenth-century London was a city equal parts thriving and in turmoil. There were a million reasons why someone might not return for their precious jewels.
London was in turmoil again in 1912—on the brink of war—with women marching in the street demanding the vote. Both these eras seemed ripe for fictionalising, placing strong, interesting women at the forefront of each story.
As for Kate, my main contemporary character, I’m in awe of the research of historians, curators and conservators around the world. They tenderly dive into our past to give us stories for our future. To teach us lessons, to give comfort and warning where needed. This is my love letter to your important work in libraries, museums and galleries around the world.
People can dismiss jewels, diamond rings, necklaces and gold buttons as frivolous and superficial. But the story of a jewel tells a bigger story of trade and globalisation, design trends, economics and politics. Also, a story about care and craftsmanship.
Lastly, the story of a jewel is always about power, love and loyalty. Perfect starting point for a novel, right?
—The Lost Jewels by Kirsty Manning (Allen & Unwin) is out now.

The Lost Jewels
Inspired by a true story, The Lost Jewels unfolds an incredible mystery of thievery, sacrifice and hope through the generations of one family.
In the summer of 1912, a workman's pickaxe strikes through the floor of an old tenement house in Cheapside, London, uncovering a cache of unimaginably valuable treasure that quickly disappears again. Present day. When respected jewellery historian, Kate Kirby, receives a call about the Cheapside jewels, she knows she's on the brink of...
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