Today I am delighted to welcome author, Catherine Kullman, onto the blog. Catherine is the author of the The Duchess of Gracechurch Trilogy series. In fact, I reviewed her book, The Husband Criteria, and you can find my review here.
Lord Frederick's Return is recently published and Catherine is going to tell us about how she went about her research for her book.
But first, a little about the book...
The Blurb
An older hero, an enigmatic heroine and a delightfully outspoken four-year-old. Throw scandal into the mix for a gripping and tender Regency love story
August 1816. Lord Frederick Danlow returns to England after spending 18 years in India. He plans to make a home for himself and his motherless, four-year-old daughter, Ruperta. Unsure where to start, he accepts an invitation to stay at Ponsonby Place, home of Colonel Jack Ponsonby who made his fortune in India, and his daughter Susannah, the mistress of the household.
Soon Frederick finds himself in need of a governess—and a wife? The more time he spends with Susannah, the more his admiration of her deepens. Is she the woman with whom he will share his life?
He is resolved to court her, but then his younger brother Henry engulfs his family in an appalling scandal that could prevent any lady from agreeing to a connection with it. Now Frederick must support his family during this ordeal.
But what of Susannah? What will she say when she hears of the scandal? Should he, dare he offer her his heart and his hand?
Welcome to the blog Catherine. We are really looking forward to hearing from you.
Research for my Novel
Lord Frederick’s Return is my ninth Regency novel. I have been writing for over ten years and in that time have built up a considerable research library, the nucleus of which had been formed over a lifetime of reading. My interest in the period began when, a teenager, I first read Georgette Heyer and Jane Austen in addition to the great romantic poets and essayists we studied at school. My library now covers everything to do with the Regency, from great matters of state and war to the trivia of everyday life—what people ate, the clothes they wore, their pleasures and pastimes as well as their struggles not only to survive but to lead meaningful lives. Apart from the physical library of about one thousand books, I also have a very extensive data base where I record the treasures and trifles of the internet. As a result, I can now step into the Regency world as easily as stepping outside my own front door.
There is always a trigger for a new book: a what if or what next? In this case, it was two books, White Mughals by William Dalrymple and The Memoirs of a Georgian Rake by William Hickey. Together they cover mid-eighteenth century to early nineteenth century when the East India Company ruled in India. This was before the great social changes brought about by the advent of steam ships that almost halved the duration of the voyage between Great Britain and India, and before the transfer of power to the British Crown in 1858. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 shortened the voyage even more, leading to the ‘Fishing Fleets’ of the Raj, when unmarried girls and women went to India hoping to find a husband but, prior to this, the British presence was predominantly male and it was usual for gentlemen to set up Indian women as mistresses or bibis. Some men stayed in India, others left their mistresses and any children they might have had together behind them, and still others either sent or brought their ‘Anglo-Indian’ children back to England with them. What was it like for these fathers and daughters or sons, I wondered.
This is where my special research began. Hickey’s detailed accounts of his various voyages were invaluable, as was Dalrymple’s focus on the family life of the eponymous White Mughals. As usual, the internet yielded up many treasures. One little nugget was the fact that the great East India men could not venture alone up the Thames to their final anchorage. They must anchor in the Downs off Deal in Kent and wait for the Company’s cutter to bring the pilot. I was able make use of this to allow Lord Frederick to send a letter with the cutter.
Intelligent and inquisitive travellers find not only their minds broadened but their palates stimulated. Spices were very important in the trade between India and Britain. In 1810, the Hindoostanee Coffee House was opened in London, the first Indian restaurant in Britain. The Epicure’s Almanac, a guidebook published in 1815, refers to several taverns and chophouses near East India House where the gentlemen belonging to the house ‘have a good dinner together’. By 1829, Meg Dodds in Chapter III (Scotch and Other National Dishes), of her Cooks’ and Housewives’ Manual refers to curry-powder and gives recipes, among others, for Le bon Diable, (devilled fowl) as prepared at Pondicherry, and Indian Burdwan. I felt I could safely enliven the colonel’s table with chutneys and crisply fried pastries.
Over the years, I have found that the websites of British institutions are a fount of information about their histories, and their archivists, librarians, research officers etc. are always willing to answer any questions. For this book, I needed details of procedures in the Old Bailey and found the following websites most useful:
https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/about/the-old-bailey
https://www.digitalpanopticon.org/The_Old_Bailey_Criminal_Trial
For travel from London to Danlow Castle in Northumberland, I followed the route as set out in Cary’s Itinerary which gives the distances between the stages and posting inns, helped by a copy of Pratt’s High Test Map of the Great North Road. It is surprising how many of the old Posting Inns have survived and their websites can help you visualise your characters turning in. Apart from that, I drew on my accumulated knowledge of the period and my vivid imagination.
Wow, that is an impressive library that you have at home Catherine. Thank you so much for being on the blog today. Reading how you do your research is so interesting.
Book Details
ISBN: 979 8899657405
Publisher: Willow Books
Formats: e-book, hardback and paperback
No. of Pages: 269 (paperback)
Purchase Links
About the Author
Catherine Kullmann was born and educated in Dublin. Following a three-year courtship conducted mostly by letter, she moved to Germany where she lived for twenty-five years before returning to Ireland. She has worked in the Irish and New Zealand public services and in the private sector. Widowed, she has three adult sons and two grandchildren.
Catherine has always been interested in the extended Regency period, a time when the foundations of our modern world were laid. She loves writing and is particularly interested in what happens after the first happy end—how life goes on for the protagonists and sometimes catches up with them. Her books are set against a background of the offstage, Napoleonic wars and consider in particular the situation of women trapped in a patriarchal society.
She is the author of The Murmur of Masks, Perception & Illusion, A Suggestion of Scandal, The Duke’s Regret, The Potential for Love, A Comfortable Alliance and Lady Loring’s Dilemma.
Catherine also blogs about historical facts and trivia related to this era. You can find out more about her books and read her blog (My Scrap Album) at her website.
You can contact her via her Facebook page or on Twitter.
You can also find Catherine at:
(media courtesy of The Coffee Pot Book Club)
(all opinions are my own)
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