An Interview with Rhys Bowen by E. B. Davis

I am a bit at loose ends at the moment. My cook, Queenie, is making my new role as mistress of Eynsleigh something akin to constant torture as Darcy is off on another one of his top-secret jaunts. And Grandad is busy helping wayward youths avoid lives of crime. So when my dearest friend, Belinda, inherits an old cottage in Cornwall and begs me to go with her to inspect the property, I jump at the chance.

After a heart-stopping journey in Belinda’s beast of a motorcar, we arrive at the creaky old cottage called White Sails and quickly realize that it is completely uninhabitable. Just when I’m starting to wonder if I would have been better off trying to get Queenie to cook a roast that hasn’t been burnt beyond all recognition, we meet Rose Summers, a woman Belinda knew as a child when she spent time in Cornwall. Rose invites us to stay at Trewoma Hall, the lovely estate now owned by her husband, Tony.

Belinda confesses that she never liked Rose and had a fling with Tony years ago, so staying with them is far from ideal but beggars can’t be choosers as they say. Trewoma is not the idyllic house Belinda remembers. There’s something claustrophobic and foreboding about the place. Matters aren’t helped by the oppressively efficient housekeeper Mrs. Mannering or by the fact that Tony seems to want to rekindle whatever he and Belinda once had right under his wife’s nose.

Our increasingly awkward visit soon turns deadly when a member of the household is found murdered and all clues point to Belinda as the prime suspect. I soon learn that some long buried secrets have come back to haunt those in residence at Trewoma Hall and I’ll need to sift through the ruins of their past so Belinda doesn’t lose her chance at freedom in the present. . . .

Amazon.com

The Last Mrs. Summers is the fourteenth book in Rhys Bowen’s Royal Spyness mystery series. In the forward of this book, and others, Rhys has apologized for distasteful subject matter. In this instance, it is the topic of female sexual abuse, especially by upper class males against service class females. Although I agree it was a horrific crime, I am nonetheless glad that Rhys writes about it. But I don’t think she need apologize for it as she is in no way responsible for it. History must be talked about. As George Santayana is attributed as saying, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Few of us were alive during the 1930s and cannot remember it. I am thankful to Rhys and historians who search the records and literature to provide us with the truth as distasteful as it may be, in all its horrific detail. I’m thankful the records haven’t been destroyed. My most educational experience ever—my high school presented a film made by the Nazis of bulldozing their murder victim’s bodies into mass graves from nearby concentration camps. Graphic—you bet. But it taught me more about WWII than any other resource.

Events in the news make me fearful of a future in which we rewrite history to fit with our current mores. Little do they know that preserving such evidence will educate and shock future generations.

Please welcome Rhys Bowen back to WWK.                                                                           E. B. Davis

To marry Darcy, Georgie had to renounce her right to accede to the throne. Does this mean Georgie will never be summoned to the palace again?

RHYS: Probably not on official occasions but we know the Queen is fond of her and has used her detective skills on occasion. That may well happen again sometime soon…. Hint, hint…

No matter the generation, the Prince of Wales always seems to get into trouble. Is there something about the position or the title that trips up those who hold it?

RHYS: Isn’t that interesting. On each occasion you are thinking of, Queen Victoria’s son, King George’s son and now Prince Charles they have all had to wait a long, long time as heir with too much time on their hands. They have the title and the powerful image that comes with it but no real job. In the case of Edward and Mrs. Simpson, I think he had always shown himself to be a weak character, although the other two I’ve mentioned certainly weren’t. In Charles’s case, he was not allowed to marry the woman he loved but had a bride found for him who was not his intellectual equal and so much younger. That was a recipe for disaster, wasn’t it?

Georgie is worried that after three months of marriage she hasn’t gotten pregnant. Were expectations so high to cause anxiety and pressure in such a short time?

RHYS: Nobody has put pressure on her. And we know it’s a really short time but I think she expected it to happen really quickly.

Georgie’s long-time friend Belinda inherits a Cornish cottage, White Sails, of little value. In fact, it is barely inhabitable. I was surprised Belinda wasn’t more disappointed. Has she grown up?

RHYS: Belinda has also inherited a really nice house in Bath, quite a lot of money. The cottage would have been fun but it’s not the end of the world. And Belinda has become older and wiser after her experiences (no spoilers).

Belinda hints to Georgie that there are “precautions” women can take to avoid pregnancy. What contraceptives were available to women during the 1930s?

RHYS: First there were condoms of course. Then a female thing called a Dutch Cap which was an early rubber cervical cap. Not readily available, I should think! Belinda would know.

The entire time Georgie and Belinda are in Cornwall the weather seems nasty. But then on one property there is a cove where tropical plants grow. What’s the truth about Cornish weather?

RHYS: They are there toward the end of October. This is a time of Atlantic gales. The climate is quite balmy compared to the rest of UK. No frosts in winter and plenty of warm weather in summer, meaning that palm trees can be grown and the area is known for growing early spring flowers.

Who was Oswald Mosley and his gang?

RHYS: He was the leader of the British fascist movement called the Black Shirts. An imitator of Hitler. They paraded around, loved to attack Communists. However, he always remained a fringe movement in England as the British are sensible!

Why does Belinda remark that, “Those Victorians should never have been allowed to build anything.”?

RHYS: Victorian architecture is often over-the-top ornate without a feel for line and simple beauty. Think St Pancras station in London.

Rose, who was in Belinda’s childhood gang while she visited her grandmother in Cornwall during summers, seems partly passive aggressive/partly tragic. Georgie has her sympathies as she can identify with Rose in some aspects of her life. Why the dichotomy?

RHYS: Rose is out of her element. She is in a situation for which she wasn’t raised and feels insecure and inadequate all the time, especially when Mrs. Mannering makes it quite clear how perfect Jonquil was. Since Georgie has felt an outsider at times she can appreciate how Rose feels that way.

Tony, Rose’s husband who was also part of Belinda’s childhood gang, and his first wife Jonquil were risk takers. Is this part of the survivors’ syndrome of the Great War and depression or are they just spoiled brats?

RHYS: It is the way upper class youngsters behaved. Maybe the aftermath of the Great War had something to do with it but in the 1930s there was a lot of risky behavior, driving around in fast cars, flying planes, etc. You have brought up an interesting point. Maybe they were trying to say ‘look at us. We’re alive.’

You have a knack for naming characters. Jonquil is a lovely name. Did you choose that name as a contrast to the character?

RHYS: Sometimes I think of the perfect name. Sometimes it just comes to me. I was going to call her Jasmine but then I wrote Jonquil. Sometimes characters surprise me.  I wanted a name that was clearly upper class and different from the ordinary ROSE.

In thinking about Rose’s isolation and now with our Covid-19 induced isolation—does it make people paranoid?

RHYS: I think living in that house would make anyone paranoid. Parts of it she wasn’t allowed to go. Long dark hallways. Walls full of old weapons. And above all loneliness. No one she could turn to. A husband who didn’t want to be married to her. Her mother far away. We have all seen how being isolated can bring on depression.

We’ve talked about food before, especially the consumption by the Victorians. But I was hoping by the 1930s the diets had improved. They didn’t have to walk so much since automobiles were invented. Georgie seems to think nothing of eating in one meal; consommé, lobster salad, leg of pork with crackling (!), sage and onion stuffing, chocolate mousse with clotted cream—all that followed by Anchovy toast! Did they eat small portions? Did you research menus? Was this typical?

RHYS: It was not unusual for the upper class, who had more time on their hands (and money for food.) In my lifetime my in-laws (upper class Brits) would have a full English breakfast, sherry before lunch, wine with lunch, tea with cakes and then a big dinner like that. They didn’t put on weight because English houses are really cold and you burn calories to keep warm. Also they were quite active: working in the garden, walking, riding.

The Scotland Yard detective seemed prejudiced against the upper classes. He was especially deprecating toward their morals. Was this a common attitude after the Great War or after the depression? Why?

RHYS: The British upper class had a bad reputation in that period between the wars when they were particularly hedonistic. Lots of loose morals, plenty of drug use, cocktails, reckless driving etc. And the class system in UK was so strong that there was often a ‘chip on the shoulder’ feeling toward the upper class. For the police he might have experienced someone getting away with a crime simply because of who they were and could pull strings.

Were there real instances of foreigners or Germans buying properties near English ports between wars? Were they expulsed?

RHYS: There certainly was German infiltration in many sectors so quite possible that they bought properties. My mother had a German penpal who asked her to send maps!

I recently read that weekly bathing became the custom in NYC during the 1880s (but brushing teeth was unheard of). When did daily bathing take hold in England?

RHYS: Working class families often didn’t have an indoor bathroom. The loo was outside the back door. There might be a wash basin but the only way of taking a bath was to heat up water for a tin bath in front of the kitchen fire. This only died out when more modern houses were built with bathrooms. And even then central heating was rare so bathrooms were cold. I remember my father lighting the oil stove in the bathroom an hour before I would take a bath.

What’s next for Georgie?

RHYS: I promised my editor that the next Georgie book would be another Christmas story. So it will be called GOD REST YE ROYAL GENTLEMEN…  and yes, the royal family will be involved.

Cheers!

Rhys