Sunday Times bestselling author Wendy Holden brings to life the unknown childhood years of one of the world’s most iconic figures, Queen Elizabeth II, and reveals the little-known governess who made Britain’s queen into the monarch we know today.
We chat to Wendy about her recently published novel The Royal Governess, writing, book recommendations, and more!
Hi, Wendy! Tell us a bit about yourself!
I’m a British writer who was a glossy-magazine journalist before turning to novels. I spent twenty years as a successful comic author – ten top tens, a number one, over 3 million books sold – before taking the plunge into what I really wanted to write which was historical fiction. Twentieth-century royal historical fiction in particular. I couldn’t understand why no-one had written a novel about the Windsors, but thank goodness they hadn’t so I could! THE ROYAL GOVERNESS has been the most interesting thing I have ever done, a real passion project.
With the current state of the world, what are you both doing to cope with the changes we’ve had to make with our day-to-day?
The lockdown has had so many stages and I’ve dealt differently with them all. When it started I was seized with the urge to cycle but that’s long gone. Then there was the cake-making phase, which undid all the good cycling work, then the gardening began. But right from the start I stopped watching the TV news; the urge to hurl heavy objects at the screen would have been too much.
The Royal Governess is out now! If it could only be described in five words, what would they be?
Story of the Queen’s childhood.
What inspired The Royal Governess?
A memoir called The Little Princesses. It was written by Marion Crawford, who for 17 years was the governess to Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret. She was with them through the Abdication of their uncle Edward VIII and the unexpected accession to the throne of their father George VI. And then World War 2 came along. For the two little girls at the centre of all these epic historical moments they were confusing times, but ‘Crawfie’, as they called her,steered them through it all.
Tell us about the research you did for the novel!
While Crawfie’s memoir was the inspiration, I also read round the period as much as I could. My sources ranged from biographies and official histories to out-of-print royal souvenir books which I found on market stalls. These often had amazing nuggets of information in them, such as Queen Mary’s kleptomaniac tendencies and the fact that George VI was called ‘Bat Lugs’ at naval college (big ears).
Were there any challenges you faced while writing?
It’s a huge story which takes in some of the most seismic events of twentieth century British history, so one challenge was deciding what not to put in. Crawfie met everyone and saw everything, she had a ringside seat at the greatest show on earth. But her story ended terribly sadly and that was quite hard to write. She was cast out by the royal family after a perceived betrayal and none of them ever spoke to her again. It was so unfair and she never got over it.
Without spoiling too much, is there a favourite moment that was really fun to write?
The first meeting between Crawfie and the six-year-old Princess Elizabeth was fantastic fun to write. Crawfie was a twenty-three-year old student teacher who had no interest in royalty. She was persuaded against her will to come for a trial month and arrived feeling sure that she’d hate the lot of them. Princess Elizabeth had waited up for her and Crawfie, exhausted after the long journey, stomped reluctantly into the royal nursery. It was love at first sight for them both and the start of a relationship that changed the monarchy and helped make the Queen what she is today.
Do you have a favourite book series, television series, and/or movie featuring royalty?
Like everyone else, I love The Crown and also like everyone else, I love Hilary Mantel’s Cromwell trilogy. The Tudors and the Windsors have a lot in common because they are the two most famous and fascinating of all the English royal houses.
Lastly, what are you currently reading and do you have any book recommendations for our readers?
I’m researching my next novel which is about Wallis Simpson, and so I’m immersed in books about London in the 1920s and 30s. Cecil Beaton’s Bright Young Things by Robin Muir is amazing; full of crazy society types who cross-dressed, bent genders and behaved in the most extravagant manner imaginable. Also on my nightstand is The Diver and the Lover by Jeremy Vine, who’s a well-known British journalist. It’s his first historical novel and as The Governess is my first one as well, I’m keen to see how he got on.
