Getting there...

I'm really excited that we have now nearly 40 people signed up - I'm loving that you're all helping me :o)

I'm sure that I'm very close to cracking the letter... I know that "this is not a clue" is not a clue (I guess!).

It's got to be something to do with the underlining on the letter - I've found another phrase, but it's not any English I recognise...?

Viola

Back on the case

Well I'm now more or less settled in to Manchester - I have somewhere to stay and can find my way onto the main campus. It's a start anyay...

Can now spend a bit more time trying to work out what's going on here. Things I'm thinking so far:

1. I have one piece of what looks like a larger map. Where is it of? Why was it split into pieces? Can I even get all the other pieces? Where do I start?

2. I have a letter from some long dead relative that talks about a secret society and a machine. What was the society and what did it do? What was the machine and what was it for? Why was the machine hidden? Where is the machine now?

3. The letter says it contains some kind of clue to a play - but I'm lost...

Lots of questions. No answers yet.

Getting help!

It's been a busy week for me getting ready to go to Manchester, so I haven't had too much time to work on the letter.

In order to get people to help me and some of my friends have been putting posters and stickers up around the university. If you see one, please join us!

Thanks Percy!

My friend, Percy Root, has very kindly set up a web site for me (and anyone I can persuade to help me - hint, hint) to keep track of what's going on and who's involved.

You can come and take part at http://www.violaquest.org/.

I'm still getting nowhere with the letter - any ideas, anyone?

The start of something bigger?

Forgot to say in my last post, that with the letter I also found a piece of an old map - it's a bit crumbly and dirty but you can still read it.

From the grid in the corner it looks like it's one part of a bigger map. I've decided to copy this and distribute the pieces around the Uni - might be a good way of getting people to help me?

A strange letter from the past

Hi again!

Last week I was round at my Gran's house and discovered this strange letter while nosing around in the attic looking for some books for Uni (click on the thumbnail below to see a full-size version).

Very bizarre! I wonder what the secret machine is? I’m certainly not clever enough to solve this on my own and wondered if there was anyone out there who could help me?

When I asked my Gran she said that my great, great grandfather (or it is great-great-great) was some high-flying industrialist and it was him that bought her house in the first place. Don’t know what the letter means about a library – there is one in Gran's house but it’s massive and there must be thousands of books – I can’t look in every one!!!

Can anyone help?

Viola

Hello World!

Hi and welcome to my first ever blog post!

My name is Viola Procter and I'm a student in Manchester. I've started this blog because of a really strange thing that happened to me about a week ago that I've been puzzling over ever since.

I'm completely stuck so am using this blog as a way of getting people interested enough to help me. Please join in!

I'm not really sure what's going on - this might be something or nothing - but I'll tell you a bit more about what happened in my next post and fill you in on some of the details.