Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York’s ancestor sparked new novel

Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York (in any other case often called Fergie), is not any stranger to the world of e book publishing: She’s written two historic nonfiction books: “Victoria and Albert: Life at Osborne House” and “Travels with Queen Victoria,” two memoirs: “My Story” and “Finding Sarah,” and plenty of kids’s books, together with the Little Crimson sequence, Budgie the Little Helicopter sequence, “Ballerina Rosie,” “Tea for Ruby” and “The Serving to Hand” sequence. 

Lately, she’s tried her hand at historic fiction with a private twist: “Her Heart for a Compass,” (William & Morrow), out Aug. 3, which she co-wrote with historic creator Marguerite Kaye. The inspiration struck whereas trying up details about her personal namesake and great-great-aunt, Girl Margaret Montagu Douglas Scott. 

“It began with researching my ancestry,” the duchess has defined. “Digging into the historical past of the Montagu Douglas Scotts, I first got here throughout Girl Margaret, who intrigued me as a result of she shared considered one of my given names. However though her dad and mom, the Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch, have been shut associates with Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, I used to be unable to find a lot about my namesake’s youth, and so was born the concept which grew to become ‘Her Coronary heart for a Compass.’ ” 

The novel is a richly detailed have a look at Victorian England within the aftermath of Prince Albert’s demise, specializing in the non-public journey of Girl Margaret, a highborn but free-spirited girl who decides to observe her coronary heart and particular person goal fairly than merely present within the mould that had been set out for her at start. The journey takes her to Eire, America and again to Britain. 

And if all of it sounds greater than a bit like Ferguson herself, that’s not by chance. 

“I invented a historical past for her that integrated actual folks and occasions, together with a few of my different ancestors,” Ferguson has mentioned. “I created a friendship between my heroine and Princess Louise, Queen Victoria’s sixth youngster, and I drew on many parallels from my life for Girl Margaret’s journey.”