• Winner of the 2001 Golden
Leaf Award sponsored by New Jersey Romance Writers
• Finalist in the 2000 National
Reader's Choice Award, sponsored by Oklahoma Romance Writers
(First place went to Prince Charming)
• RRA-L 2001 Top Ten Reads List at #5
The Duke was my first lead title for
Ballantine’s Ivy imprint, and was the first of my novels to
make the Waldenbooks single title romance bestseller list. ~ GF
(This is the Historical Note that appears at the end of The Duke,
with background on some of the historical topics involved with the
story, such as the real life, top courtesans of the Regency who
sponsor our heroine, Bel, in the demi-monde and some of the top
politicians with whom Robert has dealings through the course of
the story. Don’t worry, no spoilers here to ruin the outcome
of the story for you!)
“I shall not say why and how
I became, at the age of fifteen, the mistress of the Earl of Craven.
Whether it was love, or the severity of my father, or the depravity
of my own heart, or the winning arts of the noble Lord, which induced
me to leave my paternal roof and place myself under his protection,
does not now much signify: or if it does, I am not in the humour
to gratify curiosity in this matter.”
So begins The Lady and the Game, the memoirs of Harriette Wilson.
Her first-hand account of high life in the Regency demi-monde was
a primary source for this novel. The Cyprians’ house in York
Place actually belonged to Amy, the eldest of the famous courtesan
sisters--Harriette had her own house in the New Road in Marylebone
and later, in Knightbridge, Trevor Square--but I condensed locations
for the sake of unity. In real life, Amy and Harriette, fierce rivals,
could not have lived civilly under the same roof. In 1815, the year
following my story, Harriette, aged 35, moved to Paris as her fame
in London began to wane. Amy turned respectable; Fanny died young;
Julia Johnstone bore a total of twelve children. The youngest Wilson
sister, Sophia, landed a viscount.
Marguerite Gardiner, who is also mentioned in the story, started
out in life as a poor Irish girl of great beauty and ended up the
Countess of Blessington, as well as a famed writer and confidant
to Lord Byron. It is hoped the reader will forgive the author for
taking the liberty of placing Lord and Lady Blessington’s
nuptials within the dates the story; in actuality, they did not
marry until 1818.
Politically, the Tories’ only foray into reform was in removing
the death penalty for minor offenses and working toward a more humane
penal code. Greater change would have to wait until after 1831,
but when it came, it was driven in part by the vision and ferocious
energy of Henry Brougham (later Lord Chancellor and 1st Baron Brougham
and Vaux).
“Wickedshifts,” as the diarist Creevy calls him, directed
the attention of Parliament in 1816 to the whole question of charitable
endowment and obtained a select committee to investigate the education
of poor children; in 1820, Brougham became the defense lawyer in
the trial of Queen Caroline. One wonders if his relationship with
a free spirit like Harriette helped to shape his amazingly forward-thinking
views on the rights of women.
But back to the Tories. The reactionary and repressive attitudes
exemplified by Sidmouth and Eldon resulted in the government’s
failure to take any positive steps to deal with the problems of
postwar England and led to public protests, one of which ended in
the “Peterloo Massacre” of 1819. A savage attack on
the Tory magnates still exists in Shelley’s poem, “The
Mask of Anarchy.” Wellington did not seem to suffer as badly
in public opinion as the others did and later became prime minister.
As for Viscount Castlereagh and his ongoing battle with depression,
after all his brilliant service especially as foreign secretary,
he took his life in 1822, slitting his throat with a pen knife in
his dressing room.
Finally, those familiar with the history of Lady Oxford and her
“Harleian Miscellany” will no doubt recognize her as
the model for my scandalous and beautiful Georgiana, Duchess of
Hawkscliffe and her variously-sired brood. This grand dame of the
ton was, of course, the inspiration for my new series about the
Knight brothers, the first installment of which you have just read--and
which I sincerely hope you will continue to enjoy.
With warmest regards, Gaelen
One of the biggest thrills for me during the writing of this story
was when I found out afterwards that my editor had given the manuscript
to “the” Mary Jo Putney to read. If you’ve been
living under a rock somewhere, Mary Jo Putney is one of the greatest
historical romance writers, well, ever. Back when I was unpublished,
she’s one of the authors who made me want to write historical
romance, in other words, one of my “idols.” Her “Fallen
Angel” series is legendary.
So, I was in shock when my editor told me that not only had Putney
read my manuscript—she liked it! She had given a longer quote
on the book which Ballantine clipped to “Sizzling and sexy.”
I wrote to thank Mary Jo for the endorsement, and she was kind enough
to point out to me a few errors I had made in some of my historical
terminology, and thank goodness, it was still early enough in the
production process to fix them.
Mary Jo Putney has been an inspiration, in some ways a role model,
to a whole slew of us “next generation” historical romance
authors. It’s not just her deeply emotional writing and her
delicious heroes that I admire, but her integrity and her grace.
I got to meet Mary Jo in person at a Ballantine party the following
year. Along with my best writing pal and fellow Ballantine newbie
at the time, Tina St. John, the two of us gave Mary Jo the Wayne
and Garth bow: “We’re not worthy! We’re not worthy!”
It cracked her up. ~ GF
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