I had thought that Marjory Fleming was just about forgotten now, plenty of people local to Kirkcaldy have never heard of her. So I was really surprised to discover that she was being discussed on Fleur Fisher Reads confessions of a Cornish bookworm – a lovely blog.I hadn’t heard of the Persephone book by Oriel Malet called Marjory Fleming but people seem to be enjoying reading it.

Fleur did reply to my comment that it sounds like I’m living in a lovely place so I think that Oriel has used her artistic licence as I would say that the Kirkcaldy area is one of the least scenic places in Scotland that I know of. It was probably very dirty and smelly when Marjory was living here too.

Marjory was happiest when she was living with her cousin in Edinburgh. Isabella encouraged Marjory to keep a journal, which she did until she died of meningitis when she was not quite 9 years old. I read it years ago and seem to remember that it was quite a charming but sad read given how quickly her life was over. She is buried in Abbotshall Churchyard, Kirkcaldy.

Probably nothing would ever have been known of her at all if it wasn’t for Sir Walter Scott who was a distant relative by marriage.

Abbotshall Church looks the same from the outside as it did when Marjory died in 1811 but internally it has been gutted and modernised, sometime around 1960 probably. Such a shame.