Mortmain

Sir Penniston Crisp is a celebrated London surgeon whose fame rests as much on his dazzling skill as on his unorthodox curiosity. By day he follows a meticulous routine—breakfast, newspapers, a crisp uniform—before slipping into his laboratory to supervise a cadre of eager assistants. There, amid a fire‑lit study and a sterile operating theatre, he undertakes daring experiments that push the boundaries of anatomy, from grafting limbs to transplanting beating hearts.

The story opens on a bright morning when Crisp, ever the showman, prepares to operate on the Marchioness of Cheshire while a mischievous cat prowls the lab’s sun‑lit tiles. His loyal associate, Scalscope Jermyn, gathers the gleaming instruments, and the atmosphere crackles with a blend of scientific precision and theatrical flair. Listeners are drawn into a world where Victorian medicine meets unsettling innovation, setting the stage for moral dilemmas and the thin line between genius and obsession.