Time moves slowly for Janey, a young woman locked in by her gender and her time in history, so when her brother brings a fine gentleman home from university she falls in love quickly. Tom Pascoe interrogates their middle class pretentions and opens Janey’s eyes to the beauty of art and simplicity. But she slowly learns his approval comes at a cost, a very real and painful one.

Hermes Gowar, author of the Sunday Times best seller, The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock, chose the chastity belt.

Victor’s wife moved through their community like a hurricane, while the other wives watched on resentful of her freedom and vitality. But when Victor decides enough is enough, and holds down her tongue and her spirit beneath a hideous mask, they start to miss her. As she disappears in body and mind, and her husband refuses to accept his grave mistake, the women of the village come together to celebrate all that she represented.

Booker long-listed author of My Sister, the Serial Killer, Oyinkan Braithwaite, chose the scold’s bridle.

A young man moves through the streets of London, reflecting on the Empire and its subjects. He remembers the devotion he felt to the refined English man who trained him in the innate difference between people like him and people like them. But as he recalls the depths of his master’s needs, and the cost to his own life, he reconsiders what he was taught about morality, fate, and the gifts of birth.

Khan, acclaimed author of The Study Circle, chose the phrenological skull.

Jennifer has voices in her head, and she wants them out, whatever it takes. While the sinister Dr Claymore prepares for the operation, she contemplates the path that brought her to this brutal decision. She remembers loving her husband, more than anything else, and she remembers the voices telling her to do anything to save their marriage.

Costa winner Andrew Michael Hurley chose the trepanned skull.

When Lady Isabella married into wealth, her maidservant thought she had it made, until her mistress’s mind and body unravel before her and she loses her own sense of what’s real. While part of her wants to blame the scorned lover and his gift of a sinister waxen skull, time brings her to reconsider the worth of the new husband, and what he really brought to the marriage.

Best-selling author of The Silent Companions and The Corset, Laura Purcell, chose the vanitas.

Sarah Moss has spent many years considering the items of Wellcome Collection, and what they reveal about the human spirit. In this illuminating and personal essay, Moss considers how tattoos have served to capture our sense of adventure and our understanding of our own mortality.

Three-time Wellcome Book Prize shortlisted author, Sarah Moss, chose the tattoo.