The Key to Anchor Lake ✓

48 : The Anchor Lakey

18th May 2019

THE ANCHOR LAKEY: Episode 140

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Intro: A segment of Ludovico Einaudi's "Fly" is played on the piano over a track of rustling trees and whispering.

SUKIE:

Hi folks, and welcome back to The Anchor Lakey! I know it's been a couple of weeks since the last episode, but an awful lot has happened since then. I'd like to start by saying that this will be the final episode of this podcast. Hopefully there will be something else in the future for me to dig my teeth into, maybe something a bit less dark.

The reason this will be the last episode is that I'm joined today, for an exclusive interview, by the enigmatic author of The Key to Anchor Lake: Mary S Nesbitt, the pseudonym of lifelong Anchor Lake resident, Betsy Martins, who is now known as Elizabeth Wickham.

[Elizabeth laughs quietly]

ELIZABETH:

It's a bit of a lengthy introduction, I'm afraid. Just Elizabeth is fine.

SUKIE:

So, first of all, Elizabeth, do you mind if I start by summarising what I know and how we reached this point, how we found you?

ELIZABETH:

By all means, go ahead.

SUKIE:

Okay, thank you. Loyal listeners will know that The Key to Anchor Lake by Mary S Nesbitt has been my passion project for a number of years now, when I realised that nobody seemed to know who had written it – that is, nobody knew who Mary S Nesbitt really was, as we couldn't track her down – and the events in the book all seemed to be connected. I started this podcast and a book club for fellow fans of the book, which details the most tragic events in Anchor Lake's history, starting with the execution of seventeen women accused of witchcraft.

Recently, I posted an interview with Anchor Lake's newest resident, Blaire Bloxham, who soon got involved in the mystery: it was her keen eye that spotted the anagram none of us had seen for so long. Mary S Nesbitt was untraceable, she realised, because it was a pen name for Betsy Martins. An exact anagram.

If you've read the book, you'll know that Betsy features prominently. She is also the only survivor – every other person mentioned between those pages is dead, except Betsy, whom we thought had disappeared. But she is alive and well, and she has never left Anchor Lake.

I have to thank Blaire again here, for noticing that the pattern linking these events was not necessarily the twenty-five-yearly occurrence, but the people who died in each tragedy. While following this thread of thought, Blaire discovered that Betsy Martins was the former name of her aunt, Elizabeth Wickham, and she found out that the connection between the events is far more than we ever realised.

It isn't just about bad things happening every twenty-five years. It's about a family. It's about the descendants of Temperance Key herself, who once owned this very town, and the ways in which they have died.

Now, of course, I want to tread carefully here. Because, as we now know, Elizabeth is a direct descendant of Temperance Key, a descendant of almost every person she mentions in her book. I don't want to make light of your loss, Elizabeth. Please, if you want to stop at any point, just let me know.

ELIZABETH:

I will, thank you, Sukie. And thank you for your introduction. Now, what would you like to know?