Inspiration for a novel

My life as a “servant” was short-lived, memorable, humbling — and became the inspiration for my second Regency novel, Lord Fenmore’s Wager. Regency novels are often about wealthy rakes and feisty debutante heroines, but what about those heroines who work for the privileged of society? I learned firsthand that governesses, companions and nannies are the stuff that true heroines are made of. They have to be tough and resilient, even by today’s standards. I should know — I was one for a brief while.

I travelled to England a few years ago on a working holiday visa and decided to try my hand at being a nanny, as I was keen to experience the English way of life, and to live and work in the English countryside that I had read (and written!) so much about. So I registered with an agency and was interviewed by an aristocratic couple from Wiltshire. They offered me the job, and a few days later I travelled from London to Wiltshire to look after the couple’s two children. Little did I know how difficult it would prove to be!

The English still have a fairly rigid social structure, and although I’m well educated and used to mixing with people from all walks of life, because I was the “nanny” I existed in a sort of twilight zone.

The titled lady of the house, who came across as a lonely woman, welcomed my arrival there, and I got on well with her. Her husband, however, was a different matter altogether. He was a cold man with a violent temper (which he took out on his children), and he treated me like a servant. He told me that it was my responsibility to carry in wood and coal from the outside woodpile (thankfully, I didn’t have to chop it!). I had to sweep the fireplace and lay the fires. I was also informed that my nannying duties included looking after the children’s menagerie of pets. The children were meant to take care of these animals, but they had lost all interest in their rabbits, cats, hamsters and guinea pigs. I was told that it was my duty to clean out the animal hutches every morning and feed the pets, as well as the chickens and the resident pony!

However, when I discovered that the children attended school from early in the morning to late in the afternoon, and I was given a long list of domestic duties to carry out, I began to wonder exactly why the aristocratic couple had hired me. Obviously, it wasn’t solely because they wanted a nanny. They wanted a live-in cleaner. I wasn’t particularly happy about how I had been misled about the nature of the job. It had been advertised as a nannying job with “light household duties.” Instead, it was a housekeeping job with light nannying duties!

I’d wake up at 6:30 am, get dressed, wake the children up, prepare their breakfasts, help them get ready and drive them to school. When I returned to the house, I’d load or unload the dishwasher, care for the pets, make the children’s beds and clean their rooms. Then I’d bring in the firewood, lay the fires, clean the other rooms in the house and do the laundry. I had a few hours off in the afternoon before I’d collect the children from school and then make their supper/tea. The children were very fussy about their food, and I had to have a pizza standing by in case they didn’t like the meal I made them! After dinner, the children were served tea in the sitting room while they watched television. Then it was time to do the dishes, help the children with their baths and put them to bed, before retiring to my quarters at 8:30 pm.

When I told the agency about the misleading advertisement a week after I had moved in, they were concerned and agreed that I shouldn’t stay on there. The lady of the house perfectly understood my decision — she said that my job was, in effect, “the life of a drudge”; she was tired of domestic duties herself and that’s why she and her husband had decided to get someone to live in. I only wish she had told me this before I accepted the position!

But I didn’t leave the job empty-handed — my experience gave me a germ of an idea for a story. The house I stayed in, in Wiltshire, was on a large shooting estate and whenever I had free time I was allowed to wander the grounds. I saw men shooting birds, accompanied by large packs of hunting dogs. I passed by a burnt-out manor house, which had gone up in flames years before, and discovered that the present owners lived in an old stable block that had been converted into a house. The whole place simply reeked of history and as I walked for miles and miles, I pictured myself as a governess on a noble estate in Regency England, escaping my arduous duties for a brief while, in order to exercise my limbs and get a breath of fresh air…

When I returned to London, I visited the British Museum and stumbled across a book called “Women Alone, Spinsters in England, 1660 - 1850” by Bridget Hill, which has some fascinating accounts of the lives of single women in England during this period. Using this material and drawing on my own real-life “governess” experience in the 21st century, I created Diana Hamilton, the heroine of Lord Fenmore’s Wager. Diana goes off to an aristocratic estate in Regency England to act as a governess to the Earl of Fenmore’s twin nephews. Thus begins her life in that strange twilight zone that I, myself, had existed in for such a brief yet enlightening while… Fortunately, Diana’s experience as a governess turns out more happily than mine did, and she gets to fall in love with her handsome, charming employer— but that’s another story entirely!

Read The Dashing Debutante, Lord Fenmore’s Wager and Send and Receive