There’s a veritable patchwork quilt of my past research stitched into this book. Daniel was partly inspired by the renegade explorer and diplomat Richard Burton, whom I read about in Mary S. Lovell’s excellent biography A Rage to Live, when I was writing about another explorer—Christopher, in Claiming His Desert Princess.
Burton notoriously translated the infamous sex guide, The Perfumed Garden, and it is this book I have Daniel obliquely referring to—although I do know that the timeline is slightly out! Other previous reading which informed Daniel’s life in foreign service include H.V.F. Winstone’s biography of Lady Anne Blunt, and Deborah Manley and Peta Ree’s biography of Henry Salt.
So what was Daniel actually up to when he was captured?
I’m sorry, I can’t tell you that—it’s classified!
But just to do a little bit of scene-setting: in Egypt, Muhammad Ali ruled for a huge chunk of the nineteenth century, during which time he did a lot of modernising and warmongering. He established coveted trade links with India, positioned Alexandria as a key world port, and made Egypt pivotal to the cotton trade.
In Daniel’s time Ali was involved in the Greek War of Independence (1821), the Ottoman War (1831-1833) and the invasion of Syria in 1831. Britain at this point was on the side of the Turks. So, as you can imagine, there were vast swathes of opportunity for an undercover British agent to do his thing.
But Daniel’s activities are not confined to Egypt, and—because I do like to re-use worlds I’ve already built—he takes a trip to my fantasy Arabia, and thus encounters two daughters belonging to the eponymous Lord Henry Armstrong.
If you’re interested in finding out how they ended up married to Arabian princes, you can check them out in Innocent in the Sheikh’s Harem and The Governess and the Sheikh.
Talking of sheikhs... Kate’s new career as a botanist is inspired by two people—one of whom is my invention and one real. The Cornish botanist whose book she reads was the work of Daniel Trevelyan—or was it? You can find out the history of that publication in my book The Widow and the Sheikh.
Marianne North was an eminent Victorian botanical artist who explored the far reaches of the globe in search of specimens for Kew Gardens, and it is this real-life character whose history I ‘borrowed’ for Kate and Daniel’s happy-ever-after—though I let them precede Miss North in their travels.
What else?
Squire Mytton—or Mad Jack Mytton—was a real character, whose exploits sound wholly fictional.
I’ve taken a few liberties with Farmer Styles’s experimentation regarding different fertilisers, though the agricultural revolution was in full swing by the eighteen-thirties.
And, finally, Donne’s Good Morrow is not only one of Daniel and Eloise’s favourite poems, it’s one of mine.
Keep reading for an excerpt from Mr. Fairclough’s Inherited Bride by Georgie Lee.