Samhain Publishing Ltd Weblog

Princess Caraboo and other matters

I’m working on a new historical romance featuring Richard and Rose. Delving into history always provides me with new tidbits I’d never known before. From passing fashions like red-heeled shoes and cut steel jewellery (revived in the Victorian era) to the thoughts of reformers like Jethro Tull and Benjamin Franklin. Always something.
For a long time I’ve wanted to write my Princess Caraboo book. She was a cobbler’s daughter who took in a Gloucestershire village and landowner by pretending to be a foreign princess. She spoke a language she’d made up herself and dressed in an exotic fashion. Looking at it today it’s hard to believe, but haven’t we had similar hoaxes and tomfoolery? How about Borat, played by a Cambridge graduate, or his previous incarnation, Ali G? Ali G ended up in a Madonna video, and while most people were in on the joke, a few believed the whole thing, especially when Sasha Baron-Cohen first started out.
Sadly, Princess Caraboo was found out, but she went on to have a varied, if not always successful career.
Ephemera always turn out fascinating, especially for the novelist, who tends to think, “what if…?” and then can take the story in a completely new direction. The story of the murderess, Mary Blandy has proved inspirational to me, although it turned out completely different to the real thing. And reading about the development of lenses in the 1740’s led me to write “Alluring Secrets” with its short-sighted heroine. A case in the Newgate Calendar about two counterfeiters led me to part of the plot of “Tantalizing Secrets.”
My husband always claims that I’d rather read the newspapers of two hundred years ago than the ones today. He’s quite right. Who wouldn’t?