The Greatest Diamond in the World (and its Curse)

This is the story behind Moonfleet, John Meade Falkner's smuggling novel set in 1757. Exhaustive research reveals for the first time the previously undocumented facts on which he based his story. Love of the sleepy Dorset countryside with its captivating history, picturesque country houses and a desire to discover what lay behind his italic prompts led to this unique guide. It explains how the diamond at the heart of his story belonging to King Charles 1 wasn't imaginary but was based on one of the world's most famous diamonds which still exists & has an ancient curse that brings bad luck & hardship to all that own it. Stewart Granger, Ian Fleming, James Bond, Noel Coward, & Daphne du Maurier all have connections to Moon Fleet. Catholics, Protestants, Civil War, Cromwell, James Duke of Monmouth, Rebellion are central to the plot. Was the milk, once sold through the window of No. 1 Butter Street the basis for Meade Falkner's Ararat Milk and his intended location for the 'Why Not Inn', located adjacent to Fleet Road? How else could the eavesdropper (8) have disappeared into the night without being spotted? What was JMF's connection to Vice-Admiral the Hon. Sir Montagu Stopford, Cordelia Whitmore & Gen. Sir John Miller Adye? Did Prisoners Base derive from the old running game played by Napoleon Bonaparte at Malmaison hinting at his connection to the Diamond? Was JMF guided by the O/S Benchmark symbols such as those chiselled into the brickwork of 1 Butter St, the buttress of Holy Trinity New Church and at his father's Church of St. Nicholas, Buckland Ripers? Did he copy this idea replacing the diamond shaped Benchmark Arrow with his own mark, the Y symbol of the Mohunes scratched on the brick down Carisbrooke's Well? Meade Falkner peppered his story with riddles and cyphers unknown to the unsuspecting reader. Was Edward Falconer, Vicar of Old Fleet church in 1762 his Grandpa? Was Rev. Tucker, vicar in 1663 his 'Granny'? On the old church roof, east facing gable, beneath the stone T (Trinity) are four inverted pommy end Y's incorporating what looks like a triple candelabra (like dangling arms) all symbols of the Holy Trinity. Worth Matravers his favourite location in Dorset is oft-revisited. Lytchett Matravers was once the home of Sir John Trenchard his main character alias in Moonfleet and Sir John Maltravers in The Lost Stradivarius. Deciphering this Bon-aventure will interest lovers of Moonfleet and mystery solving! Does the 'Y' point the way? © Copyright