Nitric Acid

I am descended from violent criminals and circus folk.
Further research (I love research – such a great time waster) on the Gomez family genealogy has uncovered an 1880s London family business of Bow & Arrow Makers.

I also found out that scores of my ancestors are buried in the same Islington cemetery. I can't wait to visit and try to find a grave bearing the Gomez name. Throughout my childhood in the Buckinghamshire countryside, I would search for my name any time I passed a list on a War Memorial or found myself in the grounds of a church. Search in vain.

There is also evidence of a court appearance starring my favourite ancestor : Signor Cayetano Gomez, the professional lasso artist. Which details a judge cheerfully letting him off a near knife attack on a man who'd been sleeping with his wife. The judge was quite vehemently on Cayetano's side, and even gave the other man a severe telling off. How times have changed.

I once went to see one of my ancestor's London homes. It was right in the middle of China Town, just off Leicester Square. If they'd kept it in the family I'd be worth millions by now.

It's not the ones who had happy and stable family lives that get me excited. When there's a sufficient gap between us, when a hundred years separates us from them (and reality) the things I was thrilled to discover were the scandals.

Scandals such as babies born out of wedlock, intriguing careers of musician and coffin maker, strange old fashioned deaths from mysterious causes like brain softening, and one of my favourites (in a suitably macabre way) : suicide by nitric acid.