Arabella Trinity, by her ex-lovers
Jeff: The first time I saw Arabella, she was stealing from Tesco’s. I remember she wore a short green dress and had a big bag on her shoulder. I noticed her legs first, almost missed seeing her place a packet of muesli in the bag. She saw that I’d seen and grinned like a cat as she took another packet of muesli. She walked past the security guard and out of the shop. I just had to talk to her. I fell in love with that shoplifting smile.
Roger: She was very proud of this ironing board she had, which she said that she stole from a party at Nick Cave’s house. It’s not that surprising to be asked about Arabella by a journalist – but I expected something more flamboyant than an affair with an MP.
Name Withheld: She’s basically a Manic Goblin Dream Girl. I met her on a business trip. She sneaked away while I was sleeping, leaving a note, and taking my wallet. Just the wallet. She took everything out and left it neatly on the bedside table.
Gary: I don’t know about her stealing things, but I remember her gate-crashing parties. That’s a little bit like stealing, right? She loved getting into places she was not invited to. I once watched her pick up a bottle of wine while entering a party, then give it to the host as a gift. Arabella and I were splitting up at that time, but I met a girl at that party and we went out for about a year.
Martin: She once made me walk hours into the countryside to find this orchard she wanted to steal apples from. Scrumped apples taste better, she told me. You’d go to a shop with her and, a few streets later, she’d reach into her clothes and extract a pilfered trinket.
Sally: Arabella was in the shower one day and her wardrobe door was open. I looked inside, you know, as you do, and there was a pile of shoes inside. But I realised that they were all mismatched. There were no complete pairs. And I realised she’d stolen them the displays outside shoe shops.
Andy: One time, we passed this hotel door that had been left open. She ended up roaming all round the back rooms of that hotel, even found the way onto the roof. It was an amazing view.
Thomas: I’m not sure why she stole, and I guess she just enjoyed it. Everyone needs a hobby. But if you get in touch with her, tell her I’d like to have that photo back.
Background
I love oral histories as a form. I’m not the only one, judging by the number of oral history articles that are published online - I particularly like the ones that pick quirky topics like weird twitter or being an extra in Game of Thrones. For me, their power comes from how they can be used to tell lots of smaller stories. They’re a good example of microfiction.
Arabella Trinity was last mentioned in Ghost Particles. That story was about a woman called Jemima dealing with the aftermath of Arabella’s affair with her husband, Tory MP Hugo. This story opens up some of the strangeness of Arabella, who will definitely be in some other stories.
This is another piece that might not work so well without the framing of the South Downs Way collection. But I like the different stories people tell about Arabella, and how this piece triangulates her with some other characters. Andy will turn up in a few weeks time, with his stories about with 90s rave culture and the road protest movement. Martin will feature in some creepy stories about the Apple Tree Man. I’ve sent out previous stories featuring Sally, Roger and Jeff. Gary is brother to Sam, the main character in A Foolish Journey; he’s also singer with the tribute band Nearvana.
Recommendations
I met Kate Shields through Brighton life-drawing classes in the noughties and we became friends via the Golden Age of Twitter. She’s about the most creative person I know, always experimenting with new ideas and media. She writes a regular substack where she sends updates about her art and her experiments. Her current work explores the body, and includes some amazing models and images of imaginary organs, some of which she’s turned into musical instruments.
The main thing you need to know about Kate is that she has incredible, exquisite taste. Among the things that she’s introduced me to are Talking Heads, Silvana Imam, Tina Bausch, Big Frieda, Twitch, and Beatrice Eli’s classic single Girls. (Kate is also an excellent DJ, and her nights are not to be missed - check out Church of Italo if you’re near Brighton). Not all of her recommendations have stuck, but some of them have become important parts of my life. How could I love without the Big Frieda and Boyfriend single, Marie Antoinette?
What Else?
I’ve now been sending out weekly stories for three months. Thank you to everyone who is reading. It’s been good to be getting these stories out, rather than letting them go stale on a hard drive.
Everything I’ve shared so far is part of my South Downs Way collection, which is planned to be made up of twenty story zines over ten years. So far, I’ve published five. The sixth was due at the end of 2022, but I got a little lost in the stories. I’m starting to make progress again, building up some new zines.
This week I also went to Leeds Trinity University where I gave a talk on Digital Folklore and how it can backfire. I need to get some bits of that recorded. I find filming myself uncomfortable, but I need to get over that.
Enjoyed this a lot as well as they Background and how the characters relate to each other in your bigger picture. Liked the last line about wanting the photo back. Nick Cave owning an ironing board seems to really put that occasion post 90s though who knows, he was always rather well turned out even in his Berlin period... Don't think it was him that did the ironing, though!
Andy's story reminds me of the time when Andrew Gilligan (yes, that Andrew Gilligan) tested the handle on a "staff only" door deep in the bowels of Earl's Court station. We emerged, eventually, from behind a stall in the centre of the Boat Show.