Joachim Martin was the carpenter who installed the parquet for the chateau’s then owner – and what he left behind was a kind of secret diary intended to be read only long after he was dead and buried. Joachim’s diary implies that in places like the village of Les Crottes infanticide was taboo. People knew it went on, but no-one spoke out. Quite possibly the pressure of the secret was one factor that prompted Joachim to unburden himself on his planks. Another appears to have been his anger at the local priest. The 1880s were a time of rapid change. France’s Third Republic was bedding in, having seen off a final challenge from the monarchists, and across the country reforms were being introduced that limited the powers of the church. Joachim approved of these reforms – principally, it seems, because of his personal animosity towards the Abbé Lagier; he thought he was an obsessive womanizer, who abused the confessional for sexual kicks.

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