Norah Lofts

Norah Lofts was born in England in 1904 and was a very prolific novelist.  Like Jean Plaidy - she wrote numerous historical novels, often about royal women.  She also wrote many novels set in Norfolk, where she was born.  She was interested in rural history, in farming and in the lives of the rich and the poor.  Some of her works are about the history of a particular house, about the families that occupied it over centuries. Her biographical novel about Anne Boleyn (The Concubine) was narrated by a fictional servant, Emma Arnett... whose life is intertwined with Anne’s and who introduces her to the Protestant faith.

Norah was happily married and died in 1983.  She also wrote murder mysteries and “spooky “fiction under different pseudonyms. 

One of my favourite Lofts novels is “Lovers all Untrue”, which is a novel based loosely on the Victorian Madeleine Smith, who is reputed to have murdered her lover and escaped the gallows. Lofts uses her story to create a horrible controlling Victorian “Papa”, Mr Draper – a middle class business man who is possessive and domineering over his wife and two daughters, Marion and Ellen.  His wife has long since retreated into invalidism.  Mr Draper is probably harsher than most Victorian fathers, but Lofts was clearly horrified at the restrictions such a man could place on his womenfolk and how narrow and stifling were their lives. Marion, like Madeline Smith, is rebellious and intelligent and unable to bear her life, she tries to escape by taking a lover.  But things go awry and she becomes pregnant.

Some of her novels have been filmed, including Jassy.  The Concubine is another favourite of mine, and Lofts had also written a short biography of Anne Boleyn.

I haven’t been able to find out much about Lofts as there does not seem to be a biography of her, which is a shame.  I’ve found her works very interesting and well written