Rhys Bowen's The Rose Arbor: A Review by E. B. Davis

 

An investigation into a girl’s disappearance uncovers a mystery dating back to World War II in a haunting novel of suspense by the bestselling author of The Venice Sketchbook and The Paris Assignment.

London: 1968. Liz Houghton is languishing as an obituary writer at a London newspaper when a young girl’s disappearance captivates the city. If Liz can break the story, it’s her way into the newsroom. She already has a scoop: her best friend, Marisa, is a police officer assigned to the case.

Liz follows Marisa to Dorset, where they make another disturbing discovery. Over two decades earlier, three girls disappeared while evacuating from London. One was found murdered in the woods near a train line. The other two were never seen again.

As Liz digs deeper, she finds herself drawn to the village of Tydeham, which was requisitioned by the military during the war and left in ruins. After all these years, what could possibly link the missing girls to this abandoned village? And why does a place Liz has never seen before seem so strangely familiar?

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I love books by Rhys Bowen, especially those featuring WWII British history. I’ve learned so much from her. My reading of The Rose Arbor, her recent release from Lake Union, was no exception. I knew about the London children who were shipped out of town on trains to the countryside so they could survive the bombing by Axis planes. What I didn’t know was that the British military took over at least one town to simulate fighting conditions to train troops.

 

In this case, the village of Tydeham, which was a coastal town with similar geographic features to the beaches of Normandy and was annexed by the British military. Its inhabitants were evacuated and told to find somewhere else to live without compensation. Rhys didn’t make it up. It’s a real town, still sitting blown to smithereens by training exercises during WWII. Since we won, it must have helped, but I can’t imagine that happening in the US. The British sacrificed so much to survive.

 

Rhys set the plot in 1968. When a little girl goes missing, main character Liz Houghton decides to investigate on her own. She knows her skills are good since she had delved deeply into political shenanigans getting her busted back to writing obituaries via the good, old boy network, alive and well in 1968. She has no intention of remaining in that boring dead-end job. To circumvent the chauvinistic system, she decides to find the little girl before the police can and get the scoop—which starts her unraveling the mysteries of more missing little girls, including two from WWII and bringing her to Tydeham.

 

Because of the multiple cases, the plot became complex, but also surprising. In a manor house nearby to Tydeham, Liz experiences a déjà vu moment while seeing a rose arbor in the garden. Fear overwhelms her and also mystifies her. A phone call to her parents reveals nothing as they claim she never visited the manor house. Solving each case brings her closer to learning of her own personal history, one she never questioned or suspected.

 

Rhys has written another wining book I enjoyed reading. I was surprised and grateful to find it on Kindle Unlimited.  

An Interview with Rhys Bowen By E. B. Davis

Londoner Madeleine Grant is studying at the Sorbonne in Paris when she marries charismatic French journalist Giles Martin. As they raise their son, Olivier, they hold on to a tenuous promise for the future. Until the thunder of war sets off alarms in France.

 

Staying behind to join the resistance, Giles sends Madeleine and Olivier to the relative safety of England, where Madeleine secures a job teaching French at a secondary school. Yet nowhere is safe. After a devastating twist of fate resulting in the loss of her son, Madeleine accepts a request from the ministry to aid in the war effort. Seizing the smallest glimmer of hope of finding Giles alive, she returns to France. If Madeleine can stop just one Nazi, it will be the start of a valiant path of revenge.

 

Though her perseverance, defiance, and heart will be tested beyond imagining, no risk is too great for a brave wife and mother determined to fight and survive against inconceivable odds.

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This is one of Rhys Bowen’s stand-alone novels that I look forward to reading. For those of you who subscribe, it is available through Kindle Unlimited. The Paris Assignment is set in France, England, and Australia during the years of 1931—1946. There are many crimes in this novel only some of which are war related. Others are personal vendettas, and some are crimes through neglect, laziness, or insensitivity—in other words—bureaucracy gone amuck during war.

 

Rhys writes two historical series. She knows the ins and outs of WWI and WWII in detail, which always provides for interesting reading. Please welcome Rhys Bowen back to WWK.    E. B. Davis

 

Madeleine’s mother was French and died a few years after her birth. Her father was English. They lived in England, where Madeleine grew up. Was she always bilingual? Did she want to teach French?

RHYS: Her mother had spoken to her in French but died when Madeleine was ten, so I’d say her French was a little rusty at the beginning of the book. I don’t think her aim was to teach. Just to enjoy life in Paris.

 

Why didn’t Madeleine keep up with her mother’s aunt, Tante Janine?

RHYS: After her mother died and her father married again she was shipped off to boarding school and probably had no way of keeping in touch.

 

When Madeleine became pregnant to Giles, I was surprised how supportive Tante Janine was—so unlike Giles’s mom. Did WWI open the eyes of her generation?

RHYS: I suspect she was very fond of Madeleine’s mother, thus has a soft spot for her daughter. Also, she realizes that she is alone and will need all the help she can get.

 

Giles says to Madeleine, “But one should never be safe and protected….To live with danger is to know that you are fully alive.” Madeleine believes Giles is right. Are they both rash and young? Does she still think so by the end of the book?

RHYS: This statement sums up Giles, doesn’t it? Part of the reason that Madeleine is so attracted to him. She has led a completely safe and boring life and he is showing her what’s possible. Would she have taken the same chances when she looked back over her life? I think she’d have done anything to help her husband and revenge her child.

 

There is a Parisian restaurant with the name Les Deux Magots. I’m hoping that magots in French doesn’t mean the same as maggots in English, does it?

RHYS: It’s a real café, still there. Magot doesn’t mean anything repulsive. It means something like a pile of money or a nest egg! 

 

Giles says that he was promised by his family to another woman, as in an arranged marriage. I knew that during Victorian times that happened, but it still happened then?

RHYS: Among aristocrats, especially in France, marriages were still arranged between families, to make sure the wealth and property were kept in the hands of the family.

Don’t forget Prince Charles’s marriage to Diana was arranged by the family not so long ago.

 

Giles is half Jewish. What was the Kristallnacht?

RHYS:November 1938 the Nazis attacked the Jewish population in various German cities, smashing windows of Jewish businesses, beating up and killing.

 

What was the Maginot Line?

RHYS: It was a supposedly impenetrable line of defense running along the French border with Germany—lots of concrete bunkers, hidden guns etc. They were sure the Germans could never cross. Instead, the German army came from the North through the Belgian forest.

 

Was an Anderson shelter a bomb shelter? Why the name Anderson?

RHYS: I presume Anderson designed it. At the start of the war every family was given corrugated iron and plans to make a shelter in their back garden. You had to dig down several feet, cover the top of the hole with corrugated iron then put the sods of grass on top so that it couldn’t be seen from the air.

 

Madeleine trains as a spy for the British. She goes through extensive training including, Morse Code, radio building and breakdown, sending and receiving signals, physical fitness training, self-defense training, mountain climbing, and skydiving. How long did spy training usually last? Were they really given cyanide capsules to eat if captured?

RHYS: The training was rushed through when the government realized they needed female operatives in France. It would have taken at least a couple of months, maybe longer. The important part was the psychological aspect—making sure you were training someone who would not crack. And yes, the most common cyanide pill container was in the button of a coat. Preferable to betraying colleagues under torture.

 

What is a Meccano set?

RHYS: An early building toy—metal rods that could be joined with nuts to make cranes and cars and buildings. They also came with a motor so that the cars would go.                                                                            

The women who trained for spying with Madeleine were very different from Madeleine, who is an academic. They range from a Moulin Rouge dancer to a debutante. The only thing they shared was a command of the French language. Was this the first time women didn’t experience the segregation of class?

RHYS: I’d say the first world war was the time women did not experience class distinction. Women worked together in the fields, in factories in WWI.

 

What is Printemps?

RHYS: It means springtime in French. It is also a famous department store in Paris: Au Printemps. It’s still there.

 

At the end of the book, you challenge readers to understand what happened at some of the Australian orphan camps, where the children were treated like slaves. What possessed the nuns to act in such an inhumane manner?

RHYS: I have to add that there were also some very kind and loving nuns, I’m sure. But there were enough reports that have just come to light recently of awful abuses to realize it was quite widespread. If you go back far enough imagine all those families in Ireland who had 12 kids. If the girls didn’t marry then the convent was one of the only options for them—thus very unsuitable people became nuns!

 

Did your family immigrate to Australia after the war? Why?

RHYS: My family migration started with me. I was working for the BBC in London when I was lured down to Australia to work for Australian broadcasting. I loved it, sent glowing reports and my brother followed me down to Sydney. Then I met and married my husband and moved to America, but my brother stayed (is still there) and my parents moved to be with him. So my whole family was in Australia until my parents died, and I went to visit every year.

An Interview with Rhys Bowen by E. B. Davis

 

Georgie is excited for her first Christmas as a married woman in her lovely new home. She suggests to her dashing husband, Darcy, that they have a little house party, but when Darcy receives a letter from his aunt Ermintrude, there is an abrupt change in plans. She has moved to a house on the edge of the Sandringham estate, near the royal family, and wants to invite Darcy and his new bride for Christmas. Aunt Ermintrude hints that the queen would like Georgie nearby. Georgie had not known that Aunt Ermintrude was a former lady-in-waiting and close confidante of her royal highness. The letter is therefore almost a royal request, so Georgie, Darcy, and their Christmas guests: Mummy, Grandad, Fig, and Binky all head to Sandringham.

Georgie soon learns that the notorious Mrs. Simpson, mistress to the Prince of Wales, will also be in attendance. It is now crystal clear to Georgie that the Queen expects her to do a bit of spying. There is tension in the air from the get-go, and when Georgie pays a visit to the queen, she learns that there is more to her request than just some simple eavesdropping. There have been a couple of strange accidents at the estate recently. Two gentlemen of the royal household have died in mysterious circumstances and another has been shot by mistake during a hunt. Georgie begins to suspect that a member of the royal family is the real target but her investigation will put her new husband and love of her life, Darcy, in the crosshairs of a killer.

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I can’t believe God Rest Ye, Royal Gentlemen is Rhys Bowen’s fifteenth Royal Spyness mystery. It seems like only yesterday when I picked up the first book and fell in love with the series. In this book, as in the others, Georgie finds herself in difficult circumstances, but this time not because Queen Mary asks her for reports on Mrs. Simpson and her son. Men are being murdered on the royal Sandringham estate. None of them have much in common. A strange phenomenon for Georgie and Darcy to muddle through and figure out. In this episode, Queenie’s faux pas makes for a great laugh. Thanks, Rhys! Well done.

 

 

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

You mention at the end of the book that the British populace really had no idea of the relationship between Mrs. Simpson and the Prince of Wales. Have all of the press gone from one extreme to the other, especially the British press? But then, Wallis Simpson says in Switzerland, reporters followed them. Was it the secret that was only secret in Britain?

 

RHYS:  It was so strange, looking back on it, that the British press had a gentlemen’s agreement not to mention her until the new king declared that he wanted to marry her. Of course, those who traveled knew all about her, because the foreign press hounded them wherever they went. Can you imagine the press today agreeing not to report on Diana, or Meghan and Harry? And you’re right. They have gone to the other extreme, giving these poor royals no privacy at all, and in fact hounding Diana to her death.

 

Binky, Fig, Ducky, Foggy…all the nicknames! Is this a phenomenon in Britain? Or was this the cute thing do in the upper classes when four names were common? How did they all come to get their names?

 

RHYS: I suppose the upper class has always had such long and boring names that a nickname was a way of showing affection within the family. If you are called Sebastian Alexander Melville it’s much easier to be called Shrimpy, isn’t it? Sometimes nicknames came about because of looks or size: Tubby, Shrimpy, Froggy, and often these were given in the first years of boarding school.

 

And this has by no means died out. My husband’s aristocratic family has cousins called Fig (yes, I stole her name) Dudh, and Puff. Puff is a distinguished elderly lady whose nephew is the current Sir Ferrers Vyvyan of Trelowarren.

 

What is Spotted Dick?

 

RHYS: It’s a suet pudding. These were popular desserts when I was growing up, houses were cold and we needed calories. Suet is animal fat and suet puddings were stodgy and cooked in a pudding basin. Spotted dick was one made with currents and raisins in it, and would have been served with custard over it. It’s usually a humble dish, a nursery dish, not one for polite company.

 

As landlords of the manor (even if they don’t really own it), Darcy says they are obligated to have the neighbors in for holiday festivities. So many of the landed gentry lost the family money during the 20^th century. Were they obligated to keep up the old traditions even when they couldn’t afford it?

 

RHYS: Many big estates were sold and divided after WWII because it was impossible to get servants or to pay for coal to heat them. Most people who have managed to keep big estates have been forced to open them to the public, to create attractions like theme parks and zoos. But they still do have celebrations for their estate workers, and local traditions—a harvest festival, for example.

 

But this takes place in the 1930s when servants were still plentiful and the way of life had not changed.

 

Does Mrs. Holbrook work well along with Queenie?

RHYS: Mrs. Holbrook is a sweet and tolerant soul. I expect she manages to keep

Queenie in line without being too harsh on her. And of course, Queenie does cook quite well!

 

When Zou Zou recommends going to an agency to get a cook to replace Queenie, Georgie finds it far too late for a holiday hire. Plan B is to put an advertisement in The Lady. Was that a real publication? Was it a newsletter, magazine, or newspaper?

 

RHYS: The Lady still exists, unchanged since that time. It’s a magazine with articles about home decorating, flower arranging, plus pictures of hunts and balls and coming out parties (debs not the other kind). And advertisements! My daughter got a job helping at a house party one Christmas through an advert in The Lady.

 

Georgie’s plans for the holiday in their own home keep falling through. Except for her granddad, no one who they want as guests can come. But due to their boiler breaking, Fig and Binky must vacate their home. So, they invite themselves to Darcy and Georgie’s home. Georgie’s Mummy also arrives having been spurned by the German Max for his mother. What’s the up side for Georgie now that the party will now go to Aunt Ermintrude’s house near Sandringham?

 

RHYS: The upside is that Georgie won’t be in charge. She’ll be a guest and can enjoy the company without worrying whether anything will go wrong. (Of course it does go wrong, but that’s what mystery novels are all about, aren’t they?)

 

Georgie hopes that while they are away, Granddad will play draughts with Hamilton (Binky and Fig’s butler). Is that darts when you play for ale?

 

RHYS: Draughts is the British name for checkers.

 

Sandringham Estate appears to be northeast of London. You have Darcy and Georgie going through London to get to it. Where is Eynsleigh located?

 

RHYS: Eynsleigh is in East Sussex, pretty much on a direct route from London to Brighton. So main roads lead into London and then out the other side. Before the war there were no ring roads around the city. And yes, Sandringham is in Norfolk, due NE from London.

 

Why are/were affectionate displays between parents and children discouraged?

 

RHYS: The upper-class children were raised by their nanny in the nursery and just brought downstairs to meet their parents at tea-time. Nanny was often warm and affectionate so they got their hugs, but not from parents. (My husband never did anything but shake hands with his father). Children were raised to be future leaders of the empire. Especially boys were told to be a man and never cry.

 

What is cauliflower cheese?

 

RHYS: Yum! One of my favorites. Cauliflower is cooked, then a cheese sauce is poured over it and it is put under the grill until it becomes bubbly.

 

Mrs. Simpson calls the future queen Elizabeth (QEI) “Cookie” and Elizabeth (QEII) “Shirley Temple.” Was Wallis Simpson critical of the royal family publicly?

 

RHYS: She wasn’t in the public eye until the king told the world about her, but at gatherings of social equals she made it quite clear that she loathed the Duchess of York and the young Elizabeth. She mocked the duchess’s dress sense and made fun of the duke’s stammer.

 

Georgie’s interactions with the royal grandchildren Elizabeth and Margaret were interesting. Does she know Elizabeth is bound for the crown?

 

RHYS: Nobody had any idea at that time. It was assumed the Prince of Wales would marry and produce an heir. It was a horrible shock to the Duke and Duchess of York to find themselves thrust into the role of king and queen. And Elizabeth always said that she wanted to grow up to marry a farmer and keep horses. Poor thing.

Did Mrs. Simpson really think she would be accepted as Queen? How could she be that naïve?

 

RHYS: I find it hard to believe now, but the more research I have done, the clearer it is that she really believed that when Edward became king he could override Parliament and the church and make the country accept her as queen. She was, indeed naïve.

 

After WWI, most Britons weren’t enthralled by Germany or Hitler. I saw footage of the Prince of Wales and Mrs. Simpson as Hitler’s guests on the TV show The Crown, which was real footage. How could a future king be so clueless?

 

RHYS: How indeed? They were both great admirers of Hitler and the way he had put

Germany back on its feet. I think he was also a little naïve and of course Hitler flattered him. But the British government saw what a threat he could become—put on the throne as a puppet king, which is why they sent him to the Bahamas, safely near the US coastline.

 

Winston Churchill once said that we should erect a statue to Mrs. Simpson because without her we’d have been conquered by Germany, as Edward would have invited Hitler in.

 

Does being on time for the royal family mean a half hour early? Or was that just for Queen Mary and King George?

 

RHYS: It was just King George who had this thing about being early. It was only at Sandringham that this was enforced: called Sandringham Time, but if you read other books in the series you’ll know that Georgie always made sure she was really early for any meeting with the king and queen, just in case.

 

Does hell hath no fury like a woman scorned?

 

RHYS: There is certainly a character in the book that this could apply to. You’ll have to read the book to find out which one.

 

Do you see parallels between 1935 and 2020 for the royals?

 

RHYS:  I do. I think we have Harry who has been so brave in some ways, fought in Afghanistan, but is so emotionally fragile because of the death of his mother that he chooses a dominating woman. Meghan is clearly the one in charge, just as Mrs. Simpson bossed Edward around.

 

What’s next for Darcy and Georgie?

 

RHYS: I haven’t started to write the next book yet but I can tell you that it takes place in Paris and may involve a fashion show at Chanel’s salon!

 

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. . . .

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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

An Interview with Rhys Bowen by E. B. Davis

Isabella Waverly only means to comfort the woman felled on a London street. In her final dying moments, she thrusts a letter into Bella’s hand. It’s an offer of employment in the kitchens of Buckingham Palace, and everything the budding young chef desperately wants: an escape from the constrictions of her life as a lowly servant. In the stranger’s stead, Bella can spread her wings.

Arriving as Helen Barton from Yorkshire, she pursues her passion for creating culinary delights, served to the delighted Queen Victoria herself. Best of all, she’s been chosen to accompany the queen to Nice. What fortune! Until the threat of blackmail shadows Bella to the Riviera, and a member of the queen’s retinue falls ill and dies.

Having prepared the royal guest’s last meal, Bella is suspected of the poisonous crime. An investigation is sure to follow. Her charade will be over. And her new life will come crashing down—if it doesn’t send her to the gallows.

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Above The Bay of Angels by Rhys Bowen is set in London and Nice during the last years of Queen Victoria’s reign. It is one era I know little about so reading the book was a learning experience, which I’ve now come to expect when reading Rhys’s books. It’s not just the big milestones, but the minutia of daily life that fascinates.

Rhys creates another memorable character in Isabella Waverly (aka Helen Barton). Isabella must adjust from peerage class to working class status after her father loses his job due to his drinking and her mother dies. Although her father didn’t inherit a title, he and his children were educated and of the peerage class. Put into servitude to help upkeep her little sister, Isabella puts her feelings aside to do her best in a bad situation. Given the opportunity, Isabella excels in Queen Victoria’s kitchen.  

When I read the royal menus loaded with calories, it was no wonder few British people lived past 50 in 1900.

The book is also a study of contrasts. Isabella is a woman of little power and status working for a queen who rules much of the world.

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

I’ve read most of your books. Is this the first one set during Queen Victoria’s era? Was the research motivation to write the book?

RHYS: The motivation came from a previous visit to Nice. I was up on a hill and saw an enormous white building. I asked a gardener if it was a hotel. He said, “No, madame, it was built for your queen.”  Did he mean Queen Elizabeth? I asked. “No, madame. Queen Victoria.”

That was the first time I learned that Queen Victoria had spent her later years visiting the Riviera every winter. A hotel was built for her. She came with her entire household (including her bedroom furniture). This was something I had to write about so I started doing more in- depth research both through reading and in the library in Nice.

Hotel Regina Excelsior--Nice, FR. Built for Queen Victoria--now apartments

Before the social changes brought about by WWI and WWII, women had little power, especially in England where the class system was entrenched. Isabella is a study of grace under pressure. Was this a common situation, one in which impoverished gentry ended up in the working class?

RHYS: Usually an impoverished girl of the upper class would end up as a companion or, if educated, a governess. But Bella is so young that the only position open to her was that of household servant.

After women married, it was expected they would stay at home, one rationalization for not providing training for women in the workplace. How did women in the lower classes survive when they married without jobs? Their spouses didn’t make much money.

RHYS: Until recently most households could exist on the salary of the husband. Food and lodging were affordable. Even the poorer families had a roast on Sunday. If the wife wanted to help out with money (or if the husband drank away his paycheck, which sometimes happened) she could take in laundry, do someone’s ironing or mind someone’s children. There were plenty of factories where women also worked.

I’ve never thought of Queen Victoria as being progressive. Did she push for positions for women in the workplace?

RHYS: She was divided on such matters. In some ways progressive, as in cleaner standards for water and labor laws for children. But she also felt that women should defer to their husbands, or at least be guided by them, as she was by Albert. She probably felt that women shouldn’t have to work.

I loved Lady Mary Crozier. Would she later become a suffragette?

RHYS: I don’t think she would actively demonstrate. She was too much in love with her husband to want to embarrass him.  

Isabella had problems transitioning to her lowered status. Louisa, Isabella’s little sister, doesn’t seem to have a problem with it, although she isn’t in servitude. Louisa decides to marry into trade. Isabella isn’t happy, yet can’t fault Louisa because her future in-laws are wealthy. Was Louisa more practically minded or did she not appreciate her former gentrified status?

RHYS: Louisa was younger, so probably didn’t remember her father at a time when he behaved like a true aristocrat. And she is less intelligent/ambitious. I presume also that she has fallen in love with this boy and love blurs all boundaries of class.

When Louisa offers a place in her household for Isabella so she will not have to work, why did Isabella turn her down?

RHYS: She was definitely tempted, especially when it is pointed out to her that she could resume her education. But I think it was pride, not wanting to be beholden to a younger sister, or to a family she considers lower down the social scale. But also, it was the realization that she loved to cook and she has a chance to make strides in her new career. If she had still been with her horrible employer, she would have accepted!

I was a bit confused about meals. Did they eat breakfast, lunch, teatime, and dinner, too?

RHYS: Oh yes. They ate and ate. Full breakfast, kidneys, bacon, eggs, fish, etc. and for the royals also lamb chops and more. Then all those courses for lunch. Sandwiches, cakes, scones for tea and then a full banquet of food for dinner. If you saw how fat Queen Victoria became you would understand where all that food went!

The elaborate meals with many courses couldn’t have been healthy. But during that era, wasn’t being plump a status statement of wealth?

RHYS: They liked a girl with some meat on her, as they put it. But also remember that houses were very cold. They burned calories keeping warm, and they took a lot of exercise. Think of Jane Austen. Those women walked into town and back, several miles. The aristocrats would go riding, hunting, dancing.

Although Isabella gets her position in the Royal kitchen through false pretenses, how does she earn her way to Nice?

RHYS: Through a stroke of luck! The pastry chef injures his leg and cannot travel. She is the assistant pastry chef and also the only one who speaks French so they have to take her.

At one point, the Queen’s doctor asks the cooking staff to reduce the calories of the Queen’s meals because she was having difficulty walking. Was this solely due to her being too heavy, or did she have gout and a congestive heart condition?

RHYS: I don’t think she had a heart condition. She was so heavy that her legs would no longer support her. She might well have had gout, or diabetes.

What were chilblains? Do people still get them?  

RHYS: They were red inflamed sore places on fingers and toes. I have never seen them personally but the generation older than I spoke about them. Apparently, you got them from sitting too close to the fire, although that might be an old wives’ tale.

Bayer Heroin? When was this product outlawed?

RHYS: Oh, you would be amazed at what products were readily available: cocaine in children’s drinks, arsenic in various medications, and the newly invented heroin—more refined and better for you than opium! It was marketed as good for coughs!  I’ve no idea when it was outlawed.

Helena, Queen Victoria’s daughter, was addicted to heroin, but she lived 77 years. Did she remain addicted throughout her life?

RHYS: I’m not sure. She also took cocaine.

When did “Cordon Bleu” become common terminology?

RHYS: The term was first used in 1827. The Cordon Bleu cooking school in 1896.

I was surprised Isabella didn’t encounter more prejudice and sexism in a kitchen led by male chefs. Is there honor among chefs?

RHYS:  In the royal kitchen it was known that Queen Victoria wanted her. Therefore, it was up to the staff to accept her. The male yeoman cooks ignore her and she is assigned to the female cook. In the French kitchen the male chefs probably think this is some kind of English peculiarity. However, when they see that she knows how to cook, they accept her. The food is the most important thing!

Why did Queen Victoria become close with Abdul Karim and why did this alarm those near to her?

RHYS: He was sent over as a gift from India, to be a table servant. She was always attracted by the exotic and by handsome young men, so gradually he wormed his way into her affections.

He claimed to be the son of an army surgeon when in reality his father was only an orderly. He claimed to be an educated man when he wasn’t. The queen became dependent on him, because she had recently lost John Brown who bossed her around, I believe. She liked a man telling her what to do.

Unfortunately, this man was not only objectionable but dangerous. He was close friends with the head of the Muslim League—actively working to expel the British from India. Victoria used to have him in the room while she went through the confidential government papers. There were many attempts made to get rid of him.

Queen Victoria was the last British monarch of the House of Hanover. What does that mean? She had children.

RHYS: She was actually a Saxe-Coburg because she was married to Albert. At the outbreak of WW1 there was much anti-German feeling in Britain and her grandson, King George, changed the family name to the House of Windsor to sound more British.

Obviously, the Queen no longer arranges marriages for her children. But back then Queen Victoria did, and the motive was to increase political allies—often by relations marrying relations—resulting in hemophilia. When did arranged marriages stop? Was hemophilia a factor in stopping this practice?

RHYS: The lack of suitable monarchies stopped it. Germany became a republic. France was a republic. Russia murdered its Tsar. But to a certain extent, royal marriages have still to be arranged. Charles was told that Diana was suitable, not Camilla. The queen was attracted to Prince Phillip and then a match was arranged between them. Harry is the first to marry a commoner.

Why is Jean-Paul Lepin impressed by Isabella?

RHYS: Physical attraction, then her feisty nature, then her ability to cook.