The Era of Refinement and Snobbery: An interview with English historical fiction author Debra Brown

Today, I'm talking with Debra Brown about her Victorian novel of manners and romance, The Companion of Lady Holmeshire.

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1) Tell us about your book.

The Companion of Lady Holmeshire is an early Victorian novel about a foundling girl who was given the name Emma. She was raised as a servant and then became the companion of a countess. She was polished up and taken along into snobbish, aristocratic society where she was often rejected and treated rudely because of her background.

She had eyes for the young Earl of Holmeshire, but he was engaged by arrangement. Mysterious men seem to be watching both her and the earl's fiance. Sweet romance and humor come together, upstairs and down, as the story moves from a stone castle to London mansions to the Midsummer's Night Dream Ball, and answers begin to fall into place.

2) What inspired your interest in this period of English history?

I love all of English history, but I really love the eras of gentlemen, ladies and manners. If you don't dig too deeply, it seems so peaceful and pleasant. I also like the idea of gentlemen walking ladies to picnics on a hill rather than driving them in a car. The beginning of the Victorian era was still somewhat agricultural outside of the cities.

3) There's quite a bit of period detail in this novel. How much research did you do?

I did quite a bit, but in an unorthodox way. Like everyone, I read some of the classics in school. Then I spent some years making jewelry, and during those years I had period movies on the TV as I worked. I frequently went to books or the computer to find answers to the questions that the movies brought to my mind. With Britain a continent and an ocean away, books, movies and the internet are what were available to me.

4) You've set your book in the early Victorian period, a time of transition away from the lengthy Georgian era. Why this time, instead of earlier, such as the always popular Regency, or the later Victorian era?

I actually like the Regency era better, at least on the Isles. It seems a little quieter without as much grating machinery and influx into the busy cities. However, I needed the help of a certain historical personage, a traveler in the Regency era, as part of the back story. I had to move the "present" to about 1840. I have to say that I really like the lady's fashions and hats of the 40s better than Regency wear. It was quite elegant, with larger hats, billowing sleeves and (artificially) tiny waistlines.

5) Even in this modern more democratic age, the aristocratic societies of the past continue to fascinate readers. Why do you think that is?

It is partly because we allow ourselves to be fooled by it. The class structure allowed for quite the lovely and leisurely lifestyle... for a relative few. The landowners in the magnificent homes had vast sums of money... at the expense of the tenants. If we can close our eyes to the plights of the poor and the servants and other dismal realities of the time, we can picture ourselves dressed to the hilt in finery, lovely hats and jewels, riding in carriages and living in leisure. There was an expectation of absolutely enchanting manners. A gentleman would never turn his back on a lady without excusing himself. People bowed and curtsied to each other. Hands were kissed. Perhaps this all hit me at age 20 when an elderly man from England kissed my hand when we were introduced. I was charmed beyond belief. I want a fair amount of that charm in my novels.

6) Though this is more in the style of the 19th-century novel of manners, you touch on some of the inequities of the period. Why did you include those elements rather than focus on a more straight-forward aristocratic novel of manners and romance?

Though I love the Austen-like fairy tale, I suppose I don't want to mislead anyone about the times. Life was not all beauty. Regency novels are often so pretty that people who don't dig deeper can get the wrong idea of the time- though I am not against such novels. People bowed and danced, but what about those men who carried in the drinks? Did they only exist for that ten or twenty seconds, and then they disappeared and ballroom-perfection returned? Or were there lives and problems downstairs? The vast majority of people were not lords or ladies, and much of life was truly sad. I tried to introduce some of that while leaving the conclusion of the matter pleasant.

7) You've put a lot of obvious effort into studying the period. Do you have any other novels in this time period planned?

My second novel, working titled For the Skylark, is set back in the Regency. I preferred to back out of the noisier, busier Victorian era. I would like it if we, today, could take a step backward. It would be nice if we could all have some quiet land and the know-how to live from it. I think we could manage hot showers and some decent hygiene with what we have learned by now... and I'd be happy with that. I think.

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Thanks, Debra.

The Companion of Lady Holmeshire is available in both physical and electronic form at Amazon, Barnes and Noble.

Magical Mondays on Hold Until Further Notice, but the Heian and Regency entries will continue

After careful consideration, I've decided to temporarily (and likely permanently) shelve the Magical Mondays feature on my blog. Although I really enjoyed doing it, I've found that the research involved in finding interesting new topics (rather than just going into increasing, intense depth on certain things already mentioned) was starting to take up a lot of time, especially as I'm interested in trying to accurately document people's true beliefs in these matters. Due to various recent changes in my circumstances, the amount of free time I have has become increasingly constrained, and I need to make sure I have time to squeeze out some actual fiction now and again.

My Heian and Regency features have benefited from the fact that I've already done extensive research or am in the process of doing research for various novels set in those periods (or, in one case, a slightly alternative history paranormal version), so I often have easy access to relevant research materials or detailed notes I can draw on. So, while they do take up some time, they don't require quite the effort of Magical Monday.

Thank you for your attention, and I hope that those who have stopped by for Magical Mondays will check out my continuing series on Heian Japan and Regency England. The Heian series will, on occasion, contain entries related to magical an supernatural beliefs of the period. In addition, though perhaps less exotic, there is still the occasional ghost story or bit of spiritualism to talk about in the Regency period (the Victorian period was more the heyday of that sort of thing).

Mr. Beard's Regency Tour Day 13: Married Over The Anvil: Gretna Green

Welcome to my continuing series on late Georgian/Regency England. If you haven't a clue what I'm talking about, please check out this post.

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It's a story as old as marriage itself: a young couple falls in love, but their parents don't approve. They rush off to find a friendly clergyman and tie the knot in secret. Under the watchful eye of God's representative, the couple is joined in holy matrimony. For all the emphasis on protocol and social etiquette, eloping Regency couples were hardly unknown.

Prior to 1753, that basic scenario above could pretty much work out in England and Wales. In theory, people were supposed to also have a license or a marriage bann (public posted announcements of the upcoming marriage to give people a chance to come forward if they knew a reason to object). In addition, the marriage was supposed to be celebrated in a parish of either the bride or the groom. The actual legal nitty-gritty, though, only truly required the aforementioned friendly clergyman. Where there are legal loop-holes, of course, there are people who take advantage of them. Young couples, and various other sorts who might otherwise have some difficulties getting married, took advantage of these opportunities.

In an effort to tighten down on these sort of clandestine marriages, the Marriage Act of 1753 was introduced. For couples under the age of 21, parents could potentially object, though there were ways around that. Technically a couple getting married with a bann, and, as long as their parents didn't register active dissent, the marriage was valid. This could still be tricky though, as it required some potential subterfuge and banns typically were posted for a period upping the risk of discovery.

The act also helped legally formalize the rules many people were previously bypassing and so helped reduce the number of clandestine marriages (though obviously didn't eliminate them all). It, however, had a number of important exceptions. Among one of the more notable was that the act only applied in England and Wales. It didn't apply to overseas marriages or marriages in Scotland. While the latter could potentially create some marriage legal issues for couples, the lack of standing in Scotland actually created a window of opportunity.

Scottish marriage law during the Regency period had much lower age requirements than the act established in England or Wales: 14 for boys, 12 for girls. It also didn't require parental consent for those of age. In addition, under Scottish law, a publicly witnessed promise and subsequent consummation was enough. So, if 18-year old Jane and William wanted to get married despite their parent's objections, if they could make it over the border, it was a simple matter of finding a willing public witness. Blacksmiths (so-called anvil priests or blacksmith priests) were popular choices, as they were distinct, known individuals of the community.

While a number of border villages and towns became stop for the occasional eloping couple, the village of Gretna Green was the first that would be encountered along the path from London to Edinburgh. This made it a popular destination for eloping English couples during the Regency.

The Secret Life of George Washington: An interview with historical fiction writer, Tim Queeney

Today, I'm talking with Tim Queeney, author of the satirical "secret" history novel, George In London, which I just read for Goodbookalert.blogspot.com and will be reviewing in the next couple of days.

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1) Tell us about your book.

George Washington made a brief visit to Barbados as a young man and never again left America. Well, that’s what the history books say. But an eighteenth-century manuscript discovered in the foundation of Mount Vernon changes everything. The manuscript tells of 19-year-old George Washington’s comic, picaresque 1751 trip to London seeking his fortune.

This isn’t George Washington the stuffy old founding father with the wooden teeth. He’s a young man still finding his voice. A younger son with no inheritance, George must make his own way in the world.

The newly discovered manuscript was written by George’s traveling companion, Darius Attucks, an African-American master mariner. Though an experienced sailor, Darius is barely older than George and not quite the man of the world he imagines himself. After saving George’s life in a shipwreck, Darius is convinced he has been tasked by Heaven to be George’s guide.

Darius and George join their patron, a German baron, and sell American land to wealthy Londoners. The well-connected baron promises George cash, a title and even a country estate for his efforts. Best of all, George wins the love of Sophie, a beautiful French countess. George’s expedition to London seems an utter success. What could possibly go wrong?

2) How did you come up for with idea for this book?

The idea of a previously unknown trip by young George Washington to London sprang to mind one day while reading a short biography of Washington. I hadn't known that he made a trip to Barbados with his older half brother Lawrence when he was 19. It suddenly occurred to me: what if he had met an aristocratic European who recruited George to assist him in a business venture in London? The story very quickly flowed from that idea. Sort of sprang to life full grown. But since it's a very simple, silly story, that isn't too amazing!

3) Despite the presence of George Washington, this is less a counter-factual exploration of hidden aspects of George Washington's life than it is a social satire of life and society in mid-18th century England. Why choose to have George Washington play such a large role in the plot?


Yes, the book is not a classic alternative history. To get technical, George in London is a "secret history." It does not suggest that George's experience in London changes history as we know it. What it does suggest is that the experience changed George personally and that influenced the way history played out.

As to why include George Washington at all, I was intrigued with the idea of young Washington on a London adventure. I saw it as a way to investigate what the young man might have been like before he became the famous dour face on the dollar bill — when still young and eager, ready to take on the world. It was fun to explore the popular view of Washington and some of the famous Washington stories like the cherry tree, throwing a dollar across the Delaware, etc. It was also fun just to have a famous central character.

The real George Washington was a younger son, which under the British system meant that he received very little inheritance when his father Augustus died. George's older brother Lawrence took possession of the Mount Vernon property. In fact, it was Lawrence who named the estate Mount Vernon, after British Admiral Edward "Old Grog" Vernon with whom Lawrence served in the Caribbean in the War of Jenkins Ear (1739 to 1748 versus Spain). With no other means of income, George had to learn a trade and he chose surveying. He worked surveying land, some of which was in the wilderness on the western side of the Allegheny Mountains.

Thus, in the novel, when the Baron Mowenholtz meets George in Barbados and learns that George has surveyed areas in the Ohio River valley, the Baron is pleased to ask George to accompany him and help in the business venture of selling land parcels along the Ohio to wealthy Londoners. For his part, George, who in real life was quite ambitious, jumps at the chance to make his fortune in the capital of the empire.

Incidentally, one reason I had George's sidekick Darius refer to George as "Geo" was to distance the George character from the historical George Washington a bit. So one could read the book as simply the story of a two young men seeking their fortune in the great city of London.

4) Why did you pair of a freeman African-American character, Darius Attucks, with a man whose family had more than a few slaves? Was this something you decided on from the beginning?


I wanted George to become allied with a mariner he met on the trip across the Atlantic from Barbados to the British Isles. When I first started to think of the story I wanted that sailor to be an African American. I was aware of African American sailors in the age of sail after conversations with my friend Lincoln Paine, a maritime historian who has written several non-fiction books, including the encyclopedic Ships of the World (Houghton Mifflin). Plus, I thought the tension between a freed slave and young George, from a family of Virginia slave holders, would add sparks of conflict to their relationship. It was also a way to explore the themes of freedom and race in American history. Not in a boring, academic fashion, I hope, but rather in a personal way, by how these two characters learn to accept each other and become friends.

5) As one of the Founding Fathers and the first post-Constitution elected president, George Washington has an almost sacred status among Americans. Did you ever worry about tackling, even in a humorous way, such an icon? Have you received any negative feedback because of it?

Here in Portland, Maine, stands the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow House, largely unchained from the Nineteenth Century. In the parlor of the house is a framed American print from the early 1800s depicting angels raising the body of the dead Washington to heaven. That idea of Washington as a secular saint continues to this day. It is not, however, detracting from all the things that Washington accomplished for the United States to admit that, after all, he was a human being like us, with faults and foibles. To realize that and to see him as less than some unfeeling demigod makes his accomplishments even more impressive, in my mind. And, of course, Washington the icon is far too big an operation to even notice a little novel like mine. I'm convinced GW's reputation is secure! I actually haven't received any negative feedback. Fiction readers are a smart and sophisticated lot, they see the book for what it is: a fun adventure.

6) This book is a fascinating mix of encounters with both fictional characters and actual historical personages. How did you decide which historical figures you wanted to include?


I wanted to include only those actual historical figures who were actually alive and could possibly have been in London in 1751. As for the actual figures, I knew that I had to have a meeting between the 19-year-old Washington and the 13-year-old Prince of Wales, the future George III. That was too juicy to pass up! Even though the book on the whole is a complete concoction, I tried my best to make the everyday details of London life at mid century as accurate as possible. A great aid to this was John Rocque's 1746 map of London which depicts every street and lane by name. This map was an excellent base on which to build up the details of what was the largest city of its day; a sprawling, growing metropolis of fantastic vibrancy, wealth and squalor.

7) Even if it would be difficult to exploit more potential "holes" in the life of George Washington, Darius could easily have more adventures. Do you have any more sequels in the works?


There are more holes in George's life to squeeze a book through than you might think! Yes, I have several sequels sloshing on the stove. The next George and Darius adventure isGeorge and the Mystery of the Pyramids. That one is on the way sometime in 2012. Thanks for your excellent questions!

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If you'd like to read more for Tim, you can find him at his website at http://www.timqueeney.com/.

George In London is available at Amazon and at Barnes and Noble. 

Back Home

I'm back home from my vacation and now have access to a working computer. So, I can start posting actual useful content again. I have an interview with a historical fiction author coming up tomorrow and we'll get back into themed content on Friday with a continuation of Mr. Beard's Regency Tour. Maybe I should start packing two computers with me when I go on vacation.