Prosser fic challenge, suggested by legionseagle

[lilliburlero.livejournal.com]

legionseagle has suggested the following fic challenge and offered a ficlet to start us off:

Holders (including past holders) of the Alice Prosser Scholarship and others whose lives have been touched by her legacy reflect on what it means to them.

And, to kick off, this pump-priming ficlet:

"Standing here in Stockholm before you all I am both proud and humbled. Proud because this is the highest honour a scientist can receive; humbled because I feel the comparison with so many greater than I, both those recognised by the Nobel Committee and those who never have and never will be. Truly, Isaac Newton observed, "I appear tall because I am standing on the shoulders of giants." Before I go on to mention the outstanding contribution made to today's award by my research team, without whom I would not merely not be standing here before you today, I doubt I would be standing at all, I would like to take a moment to pay tribute to one of those giants. Alice Prosser was not a giant in stature, so far as I have ever been able to ascertain; the surviving photographs show a slight woman, made slighter still by a certain evasiveness before the camera's gaze. She was, I believe, a woman defined in life by self-effacingness; she would, I rather think, be sidling unobtrusively for the exits could she be present in this hall today. But, nonetheless, she was a giant in spirit, with a vision that saw how, if one only chose the right place to stand, with the leverage of her backing one could move mountains..."

Comments

[lilliburlero.livejournal.com]

Mine got a bit long for a comment box, but it's here at my journal (http://lilliburlero.livejournal.com/288937.html). (DW mirror (http://lilliburlero.dreamwidth.org/79600.html))

[jackmerlin.livejournal.com]

That's a very interesting line of enquiry. Even if the money doesn't come from slavery, it presumably comes from exploiting someone - children in factories, coalminers, the inhabitants of some part of the British Empire....
I like the glimpse of the 10 year old Karen.

[lilliburlero.livejournal.com]

Cheers. I thought it best to leave it unspecific, but I'm intrigued by Trennels being built with slavery money and couldn't resist the resonance.