Summary

“The Story Begins…” began with a description of the Swan Inn, “perhaps the most ancient of them all” on the Thames, that drew a crowd who enjoyed storytelling (3). The Swan was large and made of stones. It was near the Radcot Bridge, the place of a bloody battle in 1387. Margot Ockwell inherited the Swan from her mother, and she married a storytelling patron, Joe Bliss. Together they had 12 daughters and a son, Jonathan, who was born with Down syndrome. The story began on the night of a winter solstice in the late nineteenth-century. As the patrons of the Swan shared stories, a man with a facial wound entered carrying what appeared to be a puppet. Margot determined the man was alive as Jonathan discovered the puppet was actually a young girl. She was considered dead and moved to the...