Q&A: Nancy Springer, Author of ‘Enola Holmes and the Black Barouche’

Enola Holmes is back! Nancy Springer’s nationally bestselling series and breakout Netflix sensation returns to beguile readers young and old in Enola Holmes and the Black Barouche.

Nancy dropped by The Nerd Daily to chat all about her latest release, Enola Holmes and the Black Barouche!

What was your inspiration to invent a younger Holmes sister?

I’m not sure the way Enola Holmes came into being can be called inspired.  At the time, it seemed to be just a mundane matter of business.  My editor (the one I had then) wanted me to write something set “in deepest, darkest London at the time of Jack the Ripper.” I didn’t really like the idea, myself, but, trying to come up with something for this maniac, I thought of giving Sherlock Holmes a daughter, because my previous book series for this same editor had been about Robin Hood’s daughter. Of course, I immediately realized that Sherlock Holmes could not possibly have a daughter because (in my mind) he was as good as a vestal virgin, but how about a sister?  So I consulted the Baring-Gould Annotated Sherlock Holmes, figured out a timeline, and decided that yes, I could give it a try. And, over the next several years, so I did.

Enola – ‘alone’ spelled backward – is an inspired name, esp. for a Victorian family with brothers named Sherlock and Mycroft.  Do you remember the ‘a ha’! moment when you came up with that?

I’m not sure whether I can call that inspired, either, because the name “Enola” had been in my mind for decades.  Living near the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania as a young adult, I became familiar with a railroad town, Enola, a bit north of me, and my curiosity led me to find out it was named after the founder’s mother, and I then found out “Enola” was a not-uncommon Victorian women’s name, and backward, it spelled “alone.”  Other Victorian women occasionally were named “Perdita,” which was Latin for “lost,” or “Dolores,” which meant “sad,” or “Isola,” which meant “isolated.”  Why, I wondered, would people give their daughters such names?  Did the Victorian British not want their women to be happy?  Hmmm.  Anyway, when the time came that I needed a name for Sherlock Holmes’ sister, I had one waiting for her.

The Enola Holmes books seem to require a lot of research – clothes, institutions, prominent figures, social issues, etc.  Do the plots develop out of your research or is your research directed by the plot?

Good question. Most fundamentally, I think, the plots grew out of the research.  The more idiosyncrasies of Victorian society I could discover, the more my ideas flourished.  What you might call the Victorian “dress code,” for instance, dictating that almost every inch of skin must be covered, just begged for hidden pockets and compartments wherein mysterious things could be stored and smuggled. That, and secret codes of fans, handkerchiefs, hats, and even gloves, which were mandatory – what would it mean if Enola took off her left glove and carried it in her right, gloved hand?  It would be a signal! 

And more research carried my opportunities far beyond items of dress.  In a culture that had seances, safety coffins, and decorative scroll-work in which to hide secret doors, possibilities were rife.  When, in the course of writing, it seemed for a moment as if research might be directed by the plot, when I looked up something just to corroborate a detail, most often I’d find a whole new nest of lively weirdness.  Who knew I would ever grow to love research?

After The Case of the Disappearing Duchess, there was a ten year break before Enola Holmes and the Black Barouche.  What’s it like coming back to Enola after a decade?

It is an unexpected pleasure.  When I finished the original six Enola Holmes mystery novels, I put them to bed with a kind of warding-off gesture, feeling certain that they were an anomaly in my life as a writer because I never, ever again wanted to do that much research, thank you very kindly.  No more historical novels for me.  But every month or so after that, confound it, maybe even every week, I would encounter by chance some yummy detail of Victoriania that I had  previously missed completely.  Who knew that Florence Nightingale, during her valetudinarian years, had dozens of white-and-yellow Persian cats?  Or that the lives of upper-class Victorian women included an important hierarchy of gloves, categorized by the number of buttons? Or that automatic writing was done in a darkened room with the eyes closed and one’s fingers resting on a planchette? There came a time, after a few years, when I felt a distinct urge to immerse myself once again in the world of Enola Holmes.  And so I did, rewarding myself, during the writing of Enola Holmes and the Black Barouche, with a special treat:  I included a feckless horse.

What was it like to see your character on film?  What was your favorite thing about it?

To see my brainchild, Enola Eudoria Hadassah Holmes, embodied in a motion picture was an extraordinary, nearly surreal experience. I felt, and still feel, that I was amazingly lucky to have Millie Bobby Brown undertake the movie project.  My favorite thing? I found it  wonderfully appropriate, and I appreciated very much, that Enola in the movie spoke directly to the viewers, almost exactly the way Enola in my novels spoke to the “gentle reader.” In the books, the viewpoint I chose is no big deal, just ordinary first person with a Victorian touch, but in film this became a much more unusual, difficult, and risky technique; it’s called “breaking the fourth wall,” and it required a great deal of charisma from the actor. I saw what happened as Millie Bobby Brown “channeled” Enola to the camera, and I remain in awe of how well she did it.

The Viscount Tewkesbury, Marquess of Basilwether was a very popular character for fans of the movie.  Did that influence your decision to bring him back (no spoilers) in the new book?  Will readers see him again?

I adore Tewkesbury in the movie! While I was on set, I met the actor who played the part, Louis Partridge, and had a fascinating conversation with him, and I wish him huge success in his career!  But no, none of that influenced my including him in my next book, and I know this for sure because Enola Holmes and the Black Barouche was already written!  Already, before I ever knew a thing about the movie Tewkesbury played a big part in Enola Holmes and the Black Barouche. 

Will readers see him again?  I’d like that, but honestly, I think it depends on whether I live long enough and how many more books I have in me!

What is a Black Barouche and what did that phrase mean to Victorian era English?

The Victorians had many names for various styles of horse-drawn vehicles, just as we, today, have many names for motorized vehicles. British horse-drawn vehicles included wagons, carts, gigs, traps, flies, omnibuses, trams, carriages – and we need to talk about carriages, which are rather fancy  four-wheeled vehicles drawn by two or four horses.  A barouche is a kind of carriage.  “Black Barouche” means (or at least I intend it to mean) the conveyance in which bad guys come at night to carry people away. 

While I was writing the novel, I considered that maybe I should use a black brougham instead of a barouche, because, while a barouche has a top that goes up about halfway, a brougham is completely enclosed, would be difficult to get out of, and therefore would be a lot more sensible for bad guys intending to abduct someone.  But, confound these Victorian names, I didn’t like “brougham,” because nobody would know how to say it!  Correctly spoken, “brougham” sounds kind of like “broom,” which is just not cool. And really, bottom line, a brougham was simply not dashing enough for an Enola Holmes novel. It’s not much more than a box on wheels. And my only other choice, besides brougham or barouche, would have been a victoria, which is old-fashioned and even more uncool than a brougham. Other carriages with great names included phaetons, landaus, or curricles, but all of those were built to be wide open, like convertibles without tops. They simply would not do. So, after much deliberation and by process of elimination and compromise, I ended up with a black barouche.

Enola – in the new book – has made peace with her brothers, Sherlock and Mycroft. Will this stage of affairs continue and will readers see more of them in future books?

If Enola plans to quarrel with her brothers any time soon, she hasn’t yet told me about it.  Absolutely, I think this state of affairs will continue, and yes, readers will see a great deal of Sherlock Holmes in future books, of which I have one in manuscript, one in limbo, and one half-finished and going strong.  So far, however, Mycroft has not shown his face.  One cannot blame him.

What is the plan for Enola Holmes going forward?  More books?  More movies?

The second Enola Holmes movie will begin filming in late September of 2021, which probably means it will release sometime late in 2022.  The next novel, which has the working title “Enola Holmes and the Right-Handed Rescue,” deals once more with Enola’s dear friend Lady Cecily Alistair, whose pretentious and bozo-brained father has locked her in her third-floor bedroom and taken away her scissors (along with her clothing, et cetera) because she cut her hair to keep him from marrying her off. Of course Enola helps her escape, but then what to do about Sherlock, who is looking for both of them?

After that?  I hope, more movies.  And, as long as I can keep writing, yes, more books.  Enola is way too much fun to put to bed anymore.

What is the one thing you want readers and fans to know about Enola Holmes and the Black Barouche?

Thanks for asking!  What I’d like is for people to think of Enola Holmes and the Black Barouche as book number one in the next Enola Holmes series, rather than perceiving it as the continuation of the first six Enola Holmes novels.  That series is over. Sherlock, Mycroft, and Enola are reconciled.  Their mother’s fate is known and accepted.  Enola is getting older, and is established as an autonomous person.  Now begins a new era.      

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