London Belle ( a snippet) by Nadine Sutton

Mary Crawford’s new riding habit, with gold epaulettes on rich dark blue cloth, was attracting a lot of attention in the Park.  She smiled to herself as she trotted along on her new mare, a gift from Henry.  He had sent the horse on her last birthday, but had not visited her. Because of the scandal, she had been parted from the person she loved most.  The business of his affair with Maria Rushworth had affected her, as well as the two lovers involved.

Soon after the public scandal, she had moved to the home of an elderly cousin.  Cousin Deborah was not an ideal chaperone. The old lady did not enjoy going into society, but she was extremely respectable; her father had been a judge.

She was an elderly bible- quoting spinster, and Henry had always disliked her. 

Mary had begged him to visit her privately, but he rarely called, and had never been a very frequent letter writer. 

She loved her brother dearly, but he was selfish.  

She did not blame him for the affair with Maria; she felt that it had been Mrs Rushworth’s own fault.  Yet Henry had seemed to use the liaison as an excuse to avoid any social duties or even family duties that he didn’t enjoy. 

Mary's horse was fresh and required her to pay attention, in the first part of her ride.  Black Bess was a frisky mare, who hadn’t been out for a few days.  

When she had become quieter, Mary noticed her friend Emily, who was in her first season, out walking in the park with her governess.  The younger girl hurried over to the riding path, and called out to her….

“Miss Crawford... Mary ! How well you look...”

Mary drew rein, and leaned down to give the girl her hand.

“Why Emily.  I haven’t seen you for a week. Will you be at the duchess’s ball tonight?”
“We are invited.  My aunt Cecilia is a friend of the Duchess.  It will be a sad crush though.”

She smiled down at the pretty blonde, amused at how the girl was learning the “sophisticated attitude” of a bored society lady… But Emily was only just seventeen, and was not  jaded.  She had great admiration for Mary.

“What will you be wearing, Emily, my love?  White, I suppose?”

“Oh yes.  A white muslin gown, with a contrasting pale pink bodice.  And lace of course.”

“Will you be wearing your pearl necklace?”

Emily nodded.  She was looking forward to wearing “real” jewels at last.

“Oh yes.  My pearls and a bracelet that papa has given to me...  My gown has a lace flounce around the hem...  I hope you will like it, Mary, I think it’s beautiful…”

Mary resumed her staid ride, wishing that she could go out to Richmond – where she could have a gallop.  One could not gallop ventre a terre In the London parks.

  She had only taken up horse riding in the last few years, but she loved it.  When life was difficult, it was enjoyable to exercise her horse. She had always preferred city life to the country but nowadays, there were times she wished that she had her own country house. She felt the need of a place where she could go out driving and riding, without the problems of doing so in a town. In London, there was all the business of sending for one’s horse, taking a groom, and finding a place that one could ride freely…

Damon Runyon

Damon Runyon was born in Kansas in 1880… his father was a newspaper man, which profession attracted his son.  In 1898, he enlisted in the US army to fight in the Spanish American war.   He then became a sports writer and moved to New York in 1910.  His first name was Alfred, and he dropped this when he started writing in New York, and he was known by the racy and unusual Damon.

 He wrote about sports, for the Hearst Press, and this involvement in sports led him into gambling.   He was also a heavy drinker but quit because of his first wife’s dislike of his drinking habit.

He began to write short stories set in the underworld of New York, about “guys and dolls” who are involved in show business, gambling and gangsterism. Like O Henry, many of his stories have a twist…

His writing style usually involves only using the present tense, and never using contractions such as “can’t” or “wont”.

Sylvia's Lovers Part I

Sylvia’s Lovers is one of the later novels of Elizabeth Gaskell.  It was published 2 years before her death, after which she started to write her masterpiece, Wives and Daughters.   It is a historical novel, set in the era of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars.   Mrs Gaskell visited Yorkshire and researched the area of Whitby, where the novel is set, and studied the history of the time.  The plot involves the work of the Press Gangs which took men to serve in the Navy, during the Wars…

Gaskell described it as the “saddest story” she ever wrote.  It is perhaps the most Bronte- like and tragically emotional of all her novels.  Some literary critics have felt that it is melodramatic and that this weakens it as a novel.

 It is also set among simpler working people, rather than either the upper classes or the Mancunian working class.  Sylvia’s father is a farmer, a man of little education... and she herself is not very clever.  Like her father, she is barely literate and her passionate emotions rule her, more than her brains.

 She is 17, when the novel starts, and her cousin, Philip Hepburn, a Quaker who works in a shop, is in love with her and wants to marry her.  Sylvia finds him dull and prosy… something of an Edgar Linton.   She herself enjoys her work as a farmer’s daughter, of spinning, housework, and helping to tend the animals.  She rarely dresses up or even wears shoes. 

She is irritated when Philip who is better educated and eager to set up his own business, persuades her mother that he should teach Sylvia a bit more about books. She falls in love with Charlie Kinraid, who works on a whaling ship.  He is adventurous, passionate, wild and fond of women, and Philip is furiously jealous of his new rival.

Beds and Blue Jeans on Amazon By Nadine Sutton

A story of beds, music and learning to get along.... Sam and Pattie move in together have a baby and grow to love each other...
 http://www.amazon.com/Beds-Blue-Jeans-everyday-mayhem-ebook/dp/B01370SMFO/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1443265304&sr=8-2&keywords=nadine+sutton

Marie Louise, Part III

Marie Louise seemed attached to her husband and spoke well of him to her father… and he seemed very fond of her.  It’s rumoured that he still had occasional mistresses... but he was getting older and he had over extended his Empire.  His invasion of Russia was of course a great mistake, which resulted in military disaster.  In Spain, Wellington was gradually winning the war with Napoleon’s marshals.

Napoleon arranged for Josephine to “accidentally” meet his son when out with the child’s nurse, one day.  She was delighted to see the baby. 
But by then, the end of the Empire was getting closer.  Napoleon invaded Russia and was forced to retreat, losing a large part of his army.  In his weakened position, he was then attacked by Prussia, Russia and Great Britain and Austria joined in the war, against him.  Marie Louise was appointed Regent but it was a nominal position.  When the Allied army was on the verge of entering Paris, she wanted to stay there with her son but Napoleon wanted her to flee from his enemies. Napoleon abdicated in April, 1814, and Marie Louise was given several Italian Duchies, which were to be inherited by her son.

Initially she wanted to re-join her husband but was dissuaded by her Austrian advisers.  She returned to Vienna, divided between wishing to support her husband who was the father of her child, and doing what the Austrians wanted. Napoleon, exiled to Elba, hoped for a visit from her, but by the summer of 1814, she had fallen in love with Adam Von Neipperg, a middle aged married soldier.  It was hoped that he would distract Marie Louise from wanting to visit her husband.  She was soon involved in an affair with Neipperg and asked for an amicable separation from Napoleon.  In 1816, she went to Parma, to live in her Duchy there. Neipperg accompanied her, but she had to leave her son behind, and he was cut out from the succession to the Duchy.

Neipperg was the virtual ruler of Parma, as Marie Louise left public affairs to him.  She was sorry to leave her son but seems to have accepted it.  Soon she had children by Neipperg whose wife had died and was preoccupied with them. 
However she had to wait till Napoleon’s death in 1821 to be able to marry her lover, morganatically.

She had 3 children with him, a daughter who died young, and another daughter and son who survived her.  She was preoccupied with private life and left her husband to run the Duchy, under instructions from the Austrian chief minister. 

The King of Rome, now known by the German name of Franz and titled the Duke of Reichstatdt grew up at the Austrian court and grew alienated from his mother.  He felt that she had abandoned him and his father…and he spoke well of Josephine believing that she would have been a more loyal wife.

Marie Louise has been criticised by Bonapartists for her leaving Napoleon and letting her son by him grow up in Austria... and the way she rapidly fell in love with a married man and became his mistress.

However, she had not wished to marry Napoleon, and had tried to be loyal to him, up to a point... But while she had been fond of him, once he was banished from Europe, she regarded their relationship as at an end…It had been a political alliance... rather than any kind of love match.

In 1829 Neipperg died and she was devastated.  She was grieved at the death of her eldest son, who died young of TB.  In the early 1830s, another Austrian courtier was sent to Parma, Charles-René de Bombelles, and within 6 months, Louise married him morganatically.  He proved a loyal husband and remained close to her until her death in 1847, when she was taken ill and died of pleurisy.  She was later buried in Austria.  Her children married into the Austrian nobility….

Napoleon had been hurt by her indifference and even more so by the separation from his son and the fact that the boy was going to be brought up as an Austrian prince.  He did however speak kindly of his second wife and said that he had respected her much more than he did Josephine.  Josephine had been unfaithful and insanely extravagant and their marriage had had its storms in the earlier days… whereas Marie Louise had been a loyal wife while they were together and had always been careful with money. 

However Josephine had grown to genuinely love him, though at the beginning of her marriage, she had not cared deeply for him.  After his downfall, she had tried to use her position and her personal charm and magnetism to help him, as well as to help her son and daughter and their children.  She had remained loyal to Napoleon in spite of receiving the Russian Tsar… who had protected Hortense.

Marie Louise had grown fond of her husband and learned to get on with him, and had been grateful for his kindness.  However it had been a political marriage and she is probably not to be blamed for not wanting to remain married to him in any real sense, when he was no longer Emperor…but she does come across as a rather shallow woman, who was very much led by others.

Marie Louise Part II

Marie Louise was sent to France in 1810, soon after Napoleon’s divorce and was escorted on the long journey by Caroline Murat, her new sister in law to be.  The three Bonaparte sisters, Caroline, Pauline and Elisa, were not very happy with the idea of a new empress, though they had been delighted to get rid of Josephine.  Now their brother was bringing in a new wife, who was of the highest imperial blood, and none of them liked the idea of her taking precedence over them.

As they neared Paris, Napoleon rode out to meet his bride, and intercepted the carriage.  Marie Louise was startled at his sudden appearance. 

 When they broke their journey to rest for the night, Napoleon asked his uncle, Cardinal Fesch, if he and Louise were legally married.  He then proceeded to spend the night with her.   Marie Louise was completely naïve and inexperienced, but she seems to have been willing to accept her husband’s advances.  Although she had not been happy at the idea of marrying the “monster” Napoleon, she found him much more agreeable in person, than she had expected.  He claimed that after their first lovemaking, she asked him to “do it again”….He was very pleased with her, and she seems to have been quite happy with the marriage and the sexual side of it. 

 Soon she became pregnant and Napoleon was delighted.  He had remained in touch with Josephine because he still cared for her.... but he had insisted that she should leave Paris at the time of the wedding.  
He found that his new wife was rather jealous of hearing anything about his first wife... Josephine, although much older and never a beauty, had always been charming, elegant and attractive.

Marie Louise was considered rather heavy and dull, and overly stiff and formal, in her court manners.  She lacked Josephine’s easy charming way with people.

Many of the old soldiers too regarded Josephine as a good luck charm and believed that Napoleon would lose his military luck, if he got rid of his wife. Marie Louise was not that popular with the troops or the public, because of her Austrian birth and her being the great niece of Marie Antoinette. 

In 1811, she gave birth to her son by Napoleon, who was given the title King of Rome.  He was delighted that he finally had a legitimate son.  He had been distressed by Louise’s pains at the birth and when there were some difficulties, he said that he wanted to save the mother, rather than the child

Empress Marie Louise (Part I)

Marie Louise of Austria was the second wife of Napoleon I.  She was never as popular or as well-known as his first wife Josephine.  It is hard to get a clear idea of her character…

Josephine was well known for being extremely extravagant... we’d now call her a shopaholic. She was terrible with money and always in debt.  Marie Louise was much more sensible, in many ways, but never loved  by the French public, as Josephine was.

She was born Maria Ludovica and was the daughter of Francis II, the last Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.  Born in 1791, Marie Ludovica came from a very fertile family.   Her father married 3 times and had several children.  Her mother had borne 12.

Francis II was considered a reactionary, and his wars with the French ended in defeat.   

By 1809, Napoleon was considering divorcing Josephine, since he had had proof that he was capable of fathering a son.  He made peace with Francis II.  However the price of peace was the Austrians having to cede territory to the French empire and providing a bride for Napoleon.

He had been trying to find a new wife, and he was eager now to ally himself with one of the great dynasties of Europe, who would have to recognise him as a man who had made himself royal, by his military and other achievements.  He was also keen to find a wife from a prolific family, as his main reason for marrying was to have a male heir...  He tried to marry one of the Czar's sisters but was not successful.  
However,  Francis agreed to give his daughter to the man who had defeated him, even though she had been brought up to regard Napoleon as a monster.

She was reared to be obedient, though and accepted the marriage.  She had been brought up in a very narrow world; her reading was censored, her education limited.  She had never even been permitted to possess a male animal.

She was to be renamed Marie Louise, in the French fashion….

Winifred Gerin and John Locke

Winifred and John Locke settled in Haworth, in a house they called Gimmerton....and they both worked very hard, though they enjoyed the natural beauty of Haworth and took long walks around the countryside.  They also joined the Bronte Society which was based there,  and got involved in various controversies about how the Parsonage Museum was being run.  Winifred was a kindly and generous woman but she had a sharp tongue and was opinionated! 

She worked on her biographies and branched out later into other biographies of women writers or literary figures.  She got some criticism from more rigorous historians, that she was inclined to favour her own ideas and to allow her emotions to govern what she said in her writings. She also used literary evidence from the Bronte novels to colour the information in her biographies.   This was why she had not liked studying history at University, as a girl... because she tended to prefer the romantic stories and legends, rather than get involved in the heavier more rigorous research that was necessary to study history.

However, her books did spark off more critical and popular interest in the Brontes and while they are somewhat romanticised, they are not lightweight.   

She popularised the story that Branwell Bronte had been to London to apply for a place at Art School, but had not made the application.. that he had instead spent his time and money drinking, because he lost his nerve.  But this is taken from a story he wrote, rather than form any hard evidence.  It is now believed by most Bronte experts that he never did make the trip to London but had just written to the Art school to make enquiries.

However, her information was based on what was known or believed at the time…

Her husband was absorbed in his work on the biography of Patrick Bronte.  He had not had much experience of writing, so it was hard work for him.. but he and Winifred were both passionate about their subject.  They loved Yorkshire and enjoyed living there.

however, about 10 years after their marriage, John confessed to Winifred that he had fallen in love with another woman, and she and he quietly separated.   There was a large age difference between them and Winifred had been John’s first love.. but it faded.

There was no serious estrangement, and Winifred did not publicise the separation.  She told friends that he was remaining in Yorkshire to work and she moved back to London to live with her sister Nell, who had been a close friend in her youth.

Winifred Gerin, working life

Winifred and Eugene were unhappy with being trapped in France, but they finally managed to get away and go back to England, where they were eager to do their bit for the War.  Eugene was cut off from his family in Belgium.  He and Winifred went to work for one of the secret service departments; he was working preparing supportive pro Allied propaganda to broadcast to Belgium, using his local knowledge and linguistic skills.   Winifred got a job as an assistant to one of the other staff, and both were very dedicated to their war work.

But in the later stages of the War, Eugene, who had been working very hard, died suddenly, he was quite a young man.

Winifred was devastated.  He had been the great love and passion of her life.   However, she was a strong woman and did her best to find something to replace her dedication to Eugene.  She found it in her work.  She had been writing before and during her marriage, but had not found her medium as yet.  When the war was over, she visited Belgium and kept in touch with Eugene’s family, especially her godson… but she became absorbed in writing plays.

She wrote a play based on the life of Jane Austen, and also one (called Juniper Hall) on Fanny Burney.  She may have felt some identification with Fanny, she was a writer, and had married a foreigner.  Fanny Burney had married a French refugee, General D’Arblay.. and had spent many years as a widow.  Winifred has some of the plays produced, though there was criticism that they were a bit too wordy…

In the post War years, she was occupied with her work, but in the early 50s, she took a holiday with her sister, in Yorkshire.  She had always loved the Brontes and felt that one needed to see Haworth, to understand them.. the moors and the natural beauty and isolation in which they lived.  During the trip, she met John Locke, a young man with literary ambitions who was about 20 years her junior.  She was in her early 50s and he was in his thirties.  John was a shy man who wanted to write, but had been occupied with the War and with a routine job.  Meeting Winifred, he fell in love and they decided that their mutual passion for the Brontes and Yorkshire would be the basis for their marriage.

 They bought a house in Haworth and both decided to settle into a writing project.  John collaborated with the local clergyman on a biography of Patrick Bronte.. who had been the curate at Haworth.. Winifred started to write a biography of Anne Bronte.  She also wrote an in depth biography of Charlotte, and a play about Charlotte’s love for her “master”, the Belgian teacher, M Heger.

Mickey Gilley, cousin to Jerry Lee

Mickey Gilley is a country singer, and the cousin of both Jerry Lee Lewis and the evangelist Jimmy Swaggart.  Born in Mississippi in 1936, Mickey, like his cousins loved music.  Jerry Lee used to sneak into black clubs, as a kid, to hear what was then called “race music” i.e. African American styles of music like R&B.  He played piano, with a wild style, and great technical ability.  Mickey also learned to play piano from his cousin.  When Jerry Lee began to have massive success, Mickey started his country music career in the later 50s.    He was a very talented pianist, though not  as good as Jerry Lee….

 He had some hits and opened a club in Pasadena Texas, where country music was played and there was a mechanical bull to give his customers something of the rodeo experience.  He was doing well and over the 70s, he like other country artists began to sing crossover and pop country songs.  One of his best known hits was “The Girls all get prettier at Closing Time”, a song he performs in Dukes of Hazzard…other hits included a cover of the Song “Stand by Me” and “A room full of Roses.”

 In 1980, his club was featured in the Travolta film Urban Cowboy, where John Travolta played a young working class man who works in an oil refinery by day and dreams of going back home to the land.

The film brought a lot of publicity to his club, and Mickey’s singing career continued successfully in the 1980s.  However in the later 80s, his stream of hits dried up, and he had some financial problems.   His club in Pasadena had to close, but he later opened a theater in Branson Missouri.   In 2009, he suffered an accident in moving furniture which left him paralysed for a time, but with determination and physical therapy, he recovered, though he wasn’t able to play piano…

He is still working, and has been married twice, having 4 children.

Ernest Tubbs 1914-84 and Lucky Tubbs

Ernest Tubbs was born in Texas in 1914. Hs father was the manager of a cotton farm and the family moved around.  His parents divorced when he was about 12.  He stayed with his very religious Mother who loved music.  He worked on farms.   As a teenager he was influenced by Jimmie Rodgers and began to sing.   In the late 1930s, he took several jobs, such as driving trucks, to support himself while trying to get a start in the singing business.  A tonsillectomy in 1939 affected his singing style – he lost the ability to yodel - so he turned to song writing. 

His voice was twangy and often flat, and sounded “western” –the sound of a cowboy out on the trail…

However he had excellent musicians in his band, the Texas Troubadours and he joked about his singing style.  In the 1940s he returned to singing and then had a hit with the song “Walking the Floor over you”…  He had his own radio show and sang at the Opry… and had a very loyal following.

He also had the Ernest Tubbs record shop, on the Broadway in Nashville which is still there…

He married twice and had children and one of his sons, Justin became a successful song writer as well. 
Ernest’s great nephew, Lucky Tubbs is a successful country singer and has worked with Hank Williams III... he has a good voice, also.  He has a  rather  ‘twangy” western sounding voice and he has performed some of his great uncle’s hits.

In later years, Ernest’s hits dried up but he continued to perform at the Opry.   He worked hard and continued to tour, but his health was giving problems. He had developed emphysema in the 1960s and by the 70’s he had to carry oxygen around with him.  Like Jimmy Rodgers, he had to rest between shows…

He died in 1984 and is buried in Nashville….

Rough Music a Novella

A “band” story set in the US, in the late 1970s.   This isn’t a romantic love story and does not have a happy ending. It’s more of a work story, about music and the life of an up and coming band.  I’ve based it on what I’ve read about country singers in the days when touring was a constant part of their lives.  It was hard work and took its toll on the marriages of many singers.   But I love the music of the 1960s and 70’s.  I love country pop, people like Glen Campbell... and I also love the Williamses… especially Hank Junior.  I enjoy Lynrd Skynrd.  So my story is all about that sort of life… 
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rough-Music-Nadine-Sutton-ebook/dp/B01AEQS0G0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1452977780&sr=8-1&keywords=nadine+sutton

Somerville and Ross Part i

Edith Somerville was an Anglo Irish writer, who wrote several novels and stories, in collaboration with her cousin and good friend, Violet Martin…

Even after Violet’s death, Edith continued to write using her partner’s name because she believed that her cousin was still influencing her writing. She believed in spiritualism and tried to contact her by séances.

 They wrote as “Somerville and Ross”. 
Edith was born in 1858, in Corfu, where her father, a member of the Anglo Irish gentry was stationed on military service...
They moved back to Cork, in Ireland, and settled there, in one of the “big Houses.”  She was highly intelligent and her family allowed her to have a good education and to go abroad to study art.

She loved the country and riding and outdoor life. While by today’s standards she was “snobbish”, she did love the Irish people and felt that she understood them… She had a warm relationship with her work people and the tenants... She was very interested in the way that the Irish spoke English - and the amusing expressions and ability to talk well that most Irish people possessed.

 She met Violet Martin, whom she had not known before, in 1886... and they became close friends.   Violet was more conservative than her cousin, and was a strong Unionist, whereas Edith was increasingly sympathetic to the Irish Nationalist cause.  Both women however were suffragists and believed that women should have the vote and that they were capable of leading independent lives.  Both were keen horsewomen and loved hunting. In later life Edith managed the family property as well as writing and being involved in women’s politics.

Violet’s family came from Galway, from a landed estate, but they lost it due to various financial problems.  The Great Famine bankrupted many landlords and the Martins were caring landlords and tried to help their tenants, so they eventually found that their financial  problems had resulted in the loss of the estate.  They moved to Dublin. Living in genteel poverty in Dublin gave her a certain knowledge and breadth of experience which helped her with her writing. 
Francie, one of the leading characters in their best novel, the Real Charlotte, comes from an impoverished but Protestant background... who lived in genteel poverty in Dublin and nearby Bray…Violet was probably the better writer of the two, and she could not have created Francie, and given a picture of  middle class not so well off Protestants, without her having lived in Dublin.

End of Part I

Beds and Blue Jeans Story on Amazon

Beds and Blue Jeans –is a fun story.. a realistic romance about a contemporary couple in America, a young man and woman who find they have to get to know each other, after they have got together and produced a baby.     Sam and Pattie come to learn that love is about learning to compromise, working out the best way to do things and growing to love each other.

http://www.amazon.com/Beds-Blue-Jeans-everyday-mayhem-ebook/dp/B01370SMFO/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1443265304&sr=8-2&keywords=nadine+sutton

Roger Miller, King of The Road

Roger Miller  (1936-92) was a singer and song writer and another of those country singers who comes from Texas.  Hs family were very poor and after his father’s death, his mother sent him to relatives in Oklahoma…As a boy he liked to listen to the Grand Old Opry, on the radio…  He enlisted in the US Army at the age of 17 or so, and spent a few years in the service.  He played in a band, towards the end of his time, when serving in Georgia.

After his army time, he decided to try his luck in Nashville, in the music business, but it took him some time to get work. He worked in a hotel, and met George Jones and Minnie Pearl, who hired him to play in her band.  However he gave up the music business when he became a father, and worked in Texas in the fire service.  He returned to Nashville after a time and tried to get work as a writer, ending up working for Tree Publishing.  He was very talented but not very disciplined...   He had some success as a performer and writer, but then ended up getting a divorce and living a partying lifestyle.

 He toyed with the idea of becoming an actor, but in 1964 he penned King of the Road, which became his greatest hit...  It was a number 1 hit and netted him a lot of money and was a succesful crossover in the Pop charts.
  He recorded songs by other artists as well, including Little Green Apples. 

In the 1970s, he wrote less, though he had some success writing songs for a Robin Hood film for children and a musical version of Huckleberry Finn... In which he himself played “Pap”, Huck’s drunken father.

He married three times and had several children, including two who were adopted.  Like many country singers, he had bouts of depression and drug abuse.  He was so very talented it might be said that he transcended country, but he was undoubtedly a country singer…

He was a heavy smoker, and died tragically young at the age of 56, of lung cancer….

Kid Rock an eclectic Musician

Kid Rock was born as Robert Ritchie in Michigan, in 1971.  His father owned several car dealerships.  In the 1980s, he got into rap and began to teach himself to play various instruments… He became a DJ and a rapper and had a following of “white kids” who enjoyed listening to rap….  He moved more into rock, and gradually, towards country music….

He had a reputation as a partier, who used drugs and alcohol, but he was also a hardworking, hard-nosed businessman who was determined to be a success.

In 2001, he was supported by David Allan Coe, a country singer and song writer... and began to identify with Southern music and lifestyle and with country music.  His style of music has shifted over the years, including rap, hip hop, rock and outlaw country... but it’s easy to see that his heart is drawn towards country.  

  He displayed a Confederate flag at his concerts.   He defended the use of the flag by saying it was a symbol to him of southern rock and rebellion, not of racism or hatred. He claimed that he loved America and was not a racist and had never flown the flag with hatred in his heart.

 He also played with Lynyrd Skynyrd performing the band’s great hit Sweet Home Alabama, at a benefit for Hurricane Katrina.  He has performed with Jerry Lee Lewis and formed a close working relationship and friendship with Hank Williams Junior.  The 2 of them performed in the Memorial concert after the death of Johnny Cash... He and Hank have a great chemistry as singers and performers, and Hank has called him his “rebel son”…

 Kid has a son by one of his girlfriends, whom he has raised as a single dad... and he was married for a short time to Pamela Anderson. He is now a grandfather and he is engaged to his long term girlfriend Audrey Berry.

He is also a philanthropist and has a charitable foundation; one of the causes he particularly supports is helping the military and veterans.

Jim Reeves

Jim Reeves, nicknamed “Gentleman Jim” was one of the singers I loved as a kid...  Like many country singers he hailed form Texas, and was born there in 1923. His life was short.  He died in a plane crash in 1964 at the age of 40.

He was renowned for his gentle charming manner and his sweet mellifluous voice.   He considered a career in baseball but then got a job as a radio announcer in a Louisiana radio station.  He got work on the Louisiana Hayride, a rival to the Grand Old Opry.

In the 50s’ he began to have hits with singles Like “I love you because” and “Bimbo”...  He adopted a soft gentle low singing style, which went well with the lush background arrangements of the new Nashville Sound.  Later that sound began to lose favour with some artists.  There was a reaction to it, form the Outlaw movement... because they felt that it was too soft, too overly commercial, and too close to pop… or crooning.

But it suited Jim’s voice and personality.   In the late 50s and early 60s’ he became very popular abroad, including countries like South Africa, and also Britain and Ireland. One of his most popular songs in Ireland was the famous “He’ll have to go…”

He had other hits with Distant Drums and “I can’t stop loving you.” 

In 1964, he was piloting a small private plane form Arkansas to Nashville, when he hit bad weather close to Nashville’s airport. There was a storm with heavy rain and it seems as if he became disorientated and lost control of the plane.  The plane crashed. And he was killed.

After his death, Mary, his widow released various recordings of his… and future generations were able to hear his sweet voice and songs….

Rough Music a story available on Amazon

  This is a “band” story set in the US, in the late 1970s.  I wanted to write about this era as I remember it as a kid and I love the music from it.  My favourite country singers date from that era.  I like country pop, to an extent and the Southern Rock movement, which had the wonderful Charlie Daniels and also Hank Williams II. (Bocephus).  So I wrote a novella, about a country rock band and its 2 lead singers and how they cope with life on the road.  It’s is a story about life in the music business, about trying to get on in that world, without compromising one’s ideals about music, and about friendship, as much as about marriage.  

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rough-Music-Nadine-Sutton-ebook/dp/B01AEQS0G0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1452977780&sr=8-1&keywords=nadine+sutton

Winifred Gerin Part III

Winfred’s father died in his sixties... and then her mother went to France, to have a holiday and recover from her grief, taking her daughter with her…  It was during a holiday there that she met Eugene Gerin, a Belgian cellist. They fell in love. 

Her mother was worried about her marrying a foreigner with a somewhat uncertain profession such as a musician.  But Winifred was in love and determined to marry him.  They wed and moved to France to live, and for several years, she was a devoted and happy wife, following her husband to engagements.  Eugene was devoted to her, as well.  Their one sadness was that they had no children but they often visited Eugene’s family in Belgium… and his brother Maurice had a son, Paul.  Winifred was the boy’s godmother and was very fond of him.  His parents had to work, so he was cared for mostly by his grandmother, Eugene’s widowed mother.  Winifred also helped with her godson… and he was something of a consolation for the children she had not had, herself.  She and Eugene also adored animals and usually had pets.  As the 1930s progressed, however, there was the fear that War would come, and when it did, and France fell and Belgum, the Gerins made their way to the South of France, to try and get back to England. 

They lived for 2 years in Nice, unable to get away to do something for the War Effort, and living on short rations.  Winifred still mostly gave her meat ration to her beloved cat.  Jewish people moved to the South of France, also trying to escape from Europe and the Gerins were among those who made heroic efforts to help them get away.

Winifred Gerin Part II

Winifred was intelligent and loved literature and history, and she became a student at Cambridge….

Her brother Roger was considered more intelligent and academic minded.  Still,  she was keen to have a university education, which was still very rare for girls of any class.  However when she started to study history at Cambridge, she found it more difficult than she had anticipated. 

She was romantic minded and loved history for its thrilling stories.  When she found herself expected to study dull aspects of constitutional history, it was a struggle for her.  She was not able to put aside personal likes and dislikes, and achieve an impartial viewpoint. 

She persuaded her father to let her change from history, to studying French.  Frederick Bourne was concerned about his finances and he wanted his children all to be able to earn a living.   Although he was comfortably off, he worried particularly about the care of Roger, who would need a trust fund to maintain him in a good and well run mental hospital.   Winifred talked about getting a job as a teacher... However, when her college career was over, she stayed home and did not look for a paid job. 

The job she really cared about was writing, and she was determined if possible to achieve a career was a writer. 

She was never interested in writing novels, saying that she could not think of plots. So she concentrated on poetry and plays, and spent a few years, going on with her reading of literature, and starting to write…learning her trade.

She wrote a play about Fanny Burney, who was a contemporary of Jane Austen- and a novelist.   She loved Austen and the Brontes….

Winifred Gerin Part I

Winifred Gerin was born in Hamburg, Germany in 1901, but she was English and her family moved back to England when she was a child.  They grew up in a London suburb which was virtually the country.   Her father was Frederick Bourne... When she became a writer, Winifred wrote under the name of her first Husband Eugene Gerin, a Belgian.

Frederick Bourne was from a “good” family, with connections to the gentry.  He had been working in Germany as a manager for a chemical business.

Winifred is best known for her historical biographies, and particularly her biographies of the Bronte family. I love the Bronte legend, and hope someday to write a biographical novel about them, particularly Emily.

So I was interested to find that there was now a biography of Gerin herself.  She and her second husband, John Lock moved to Haworth in the 1950s and immersed themselves in Bronte history.  They were very active in the Bronte Society, and Gerin wrote biographies of all four Brontes, Charlotte, Emily, Anne and Branwell.  She also wrote a biography of Horatia, Nelson’s daughter, another of Mrs Gaskell, Charlotte Bronte’s biographer and one of Anne, Thackeray’s daughter.

I have just started reading Gerin’s life, and will blog more about her later, but I was intrigued to find that she had tragedies in her early life which may have drawn her towards an interest in the Brontes.  One of her brothers died when she was young... just as 2 of the Bronte daughters died…

In addition, her brother Roger’s life was tragic.  He was a highly intelligent young man, and was expected to do well at college.  However, he was also both shy and arrogant, and did not fit in well, though he was academically capable.   

He began to act erratically, falling in love with a girl whom he hardly knew and claiming that he was going to marry her. Certainly there were some echoes here of Branwell Bronte... who was also intelligent but awkward and clumsy in his social relations, especially with women. Roger had a severe and catastrophic breakdown and was unable to continue with his education.  He was taken to a mental hospital where he spent the rest of his long life, never speaking after the first year or so.  He was suicidal, had delusions and believed that he had done something terrible.

So these are issues that may have made Winifred feel a kinship to the Bronte sisters.   It is well known that the Bronte children created  imaginary worlds, writing down and acting out fiction, which was their chief leisure activity as children.  The Bourne children also had a vivid imaginary life, making up plays which they acted out, based on Dickens and historical events.

I hope to write some more about Winifred later…..

Beds and Blue Jeans

Beds and Blue Jeans is set in present day America.  It is about a love affair between a young couple - Sam.. a singer and Patti, his girlfriend....who drift into living together and having a baby, and how they make things work.  Its some time since I wrote a novella, but this is a favourite of mine.  Its realistic, but light and I hope is heart warming....

http://www.amazon.com/Beds-Blue-Jeans-everyday-mayhem-ebook/dp/B01370SMFO/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1443265304&sr=8-2&keywords=nadine+sutton

Louise De Keroualle Part II

Louise kept her virtue for a time until she was sure that she had fascinated Charles and that he had very strong feelings for her.  Then she yielded, possibly after a “mock marriage”.  Her son by him was born in 1672... Charles Lennox, later Duke of Richmond. 

Louise got a lot of support from the French ambassador as she was seen as Charles’s chief mistress and having influence over him.  The French King and Ambassador hoped to use her to promote French interests with Charles, now that Minette was dead.   Charles persuaded Louis XIV to grant her a French title, Duchesse D’Aubigny… in 1673. 

Louise in spite of Charles' love for her, does not come across as very likable.  Barbara Castlemaine was not a particularly lovable woman, either… She was greedy, had a violent temper and was arrogant and unpleasant.  However, she had more personality than “Weeping Willow’ Louise who seems to have been a very cool self regarding woman. 

Charles loved her, but her feelings towards him were probably simply gratitude for his generosity... She was loyal to French interests, and keen to amass a fortune.   She had a strong hold over her royal lover, in spite of her unpopularity in England as a whole.  Nell Gwynne mocked her; the people saw her as a French spy and whore…

She had some protection from Catherine of Braganza, who was grateful to her for her being polite and showing her some respect.   She survived the Popish Plot, and maintained her hold on Charles’ affections.  When he was dying, however she was not allowed to go to him… but she worked behind the scenes to get a priest to come to him so that he could at last declare himself a Catholic. Charles said that he died loving her and she was in his thoughts at the end, though he did also ask his brother to make sure that his other mistress, “Poor Nelly” did not starve.

James II ensured she had her pension, but Louise had no real protection in England and returned to France.  She visited England only once or twice, turning up for the coronation of George I.   She lost her money from Charles at the time of the 1688 Revolution. She did however receive a pension from the King of France…. and died there in 1734….

Louise De Keroualle Royal Mistress Part I

Louise de Keroualle was one of Charles II’s most famous mistresses.  At the end of his life, he was involved still with Nell Gwynne, who had been his lover for some years…  He was still friendly with old mistresses like Barbara Castlemaine and Hortense Mazarin and he was probably involved with other occasional women but Louise was the one he deeply loved.  However, she was not liked in England, because of her Catholicism, her being French and the suspicion that she was a French spy.   She certainly was involved in pushing Charles to favour French interests, and acted as a conduit between him and the French King.

Nell mocked Louise, being sharp tongued and witty, calling her “Squintabella” (she had a slight squint) and the “Weeping Willow”, because Louise acted in a “little girlish” way at times and tried to get her way with fits of tears.  Louise was haughty and  disliked the actress because of her low origins and her skill at repartee.  Nell was popular with the London people, as one of their own.   Louise was higher born and better educated but she lacked Nell's quick wit. 

 She was born in 1649 in Brittany to a noble family, and got a post as a lady in waiting to Henrietta Anne, Duchess of Orleans, Charles’ beloved sister whom he called Minette.  When Henrietta paid a visit to England, to negotiate a secret treaty between Louis and Charles, Louise was part of her entourage.   Charles was attracted to her and is reputed to have asked Minette to let her stay with him but she refused, since Louise was very young and she was responsible for her. 
After his sister’s death however, Charles got his wish, and Louise came to court as lady in waiting to Queen Catherine.  Unlike Barbara Castlemaine, she was polite and respectful to her mistress and Catherine was pleased to have her at court, since both were Catholics.

The French were pleased to see that a French Catholic had attracted Charles’ interest… They were eager to push her into becoming the King’s Mistress.  Louise held out for a time, protesting that she was too well born and virtuous to become anyone’s mistress, even a king's -.

George Strait

George Strait was born in Texas, on a ranch and has remained true to his roots.    He is one of the most popular and successful of current country artists, and was a pioneer of the neo traditionalist style.   He emphasises his connection with the older artists like Hank Williams, Ernest Tubbs, and Kitty Wells etc. and deprecated the trend towards ‘pop country” and the blandness of much of Nashville’s output at times.  He usually dresses in the old fashioned “cowboy gear” of earlier country singers.

In 2000, he and Alan Jackson recorded a song called Murder on Music Row, about the death or murder of traditional country which is the “real thing”… which is being destroyed by the executives in the music business.

 He grew to love country music as a boy, and played in bands.  In 1971, he married his high school sweet-heart Norma.  He then did a stint in the Army, but on his discharge in 1975, he went to college to do a degree in agriculture. 

He retained a connection with the family ranch, but began to play in a country band.  He kept on trying, playing and looking for a recording deal in Nashville… but with no success at first. But in 1981, he recorded his first song and his conservative traditionalist style was noted and liked.  In the 80s he began to climb towards success.   One of his best known songs is the wittily titled “All my Exes live In Texas”…

Kenny Rogers.. the Gambler

Kenny Rogers was born in Houston Texas in 1938 and has had a long career, as a singer and musician.  A year or so ago, he did his Farewell Tour... I was unable to attend his concerts in the UK….which I regret very much….

His family were not very well off, and he grew up in a poor community.  Like many country singers, he showed early talent and played music as a boy.  After school, he began to sing with a jazz band.  In the early 60s he sang with the folk singing New Christy Minstrels, and after a few years, ended up in Kenny Rogers and the First Edition, which sang a mixture of soft rock, pop and country.   This band was very popular in the early 1970s, and Kenny had a big hit with “Ruby Don’t take your Love to Town”, written by Mel Tillis.   Kenny’s laid back style and charm sometimes obscures the fact that some of his songs cover very edgy material.  “Ruby” is about a wheelchair bound veteran, angrily and sadly begging his wife not to be unfaithful to him.

The First Edition began to lose popularity in the mid-70s, but Kenny did not let it stop him working. He married again to a girl from the country show Hee Haw… Kenny’s love life has been turbulent at times... and he has been married several times and had several children.

In 1977, he had another massive hit with Lucille which was an immensely popular song, and sold over 4 million copies.  Again, it is about a tragic situation... a hard working impoverished farmer trying to persuade his wife to return to him, when she has gone off with another man, because she “finally quit living on dreams…”

After that, he teamed up with his good friend, singer Dottie West, for several duets, which were also big sellers, including “Every time 2 fools collide.”

In the early 80s, he duetted with Dolly Parton – one of their songs was Islands in the Stream, and the 2 of them had great chemistry…as singing partners… His other big hits included the Gambler and Coward of the County.    He also used the character of the Gambler in 4 TV Movies. He has now had a good deal of fame as an actor, like many singers.  Another of his songs that was used as the story for a movie was Coward of the County. 

Kenny’s interests have extended beyond singing and acting and producing records... He also has a passion for photography, and what was a hobby has also become part of his working life, with the publication of books of his photographs.   He has also become a business man, with a chain of fast food restaurants and a line of western type clothing.  Now he is 80, with some health problems and is resting on his laurels…

Eugene de Beauharnais Duke of Leuchtenberg Part II

On Napoleon’s return to France from Egypt, he was determined to divorce Josephine for her infidelity.  He came home with Eugene and headed for Paris...

He had hoped that Mme  Pauline Foures might give him a son, during their affair, but she did not become pregnant.  Napoleon was uneasy about his lack of children.  As an old fashioned “male chauvinist” Corsican and a man with ambitions to rule in France, he hoped for male heirs.  And he wanted a family for his own sake… he had eagerly believed Josephine when she told him she was pregnant soon after their wedding.

But the pregnancy proved a mistake or a lie on her part... and since his wife was 6 years his senior, it began to seem unlikely that she would provide him with a brood of children.  However, Pauline Foures also did not become pregnant and he remarked that the “little fool didn’t know how to have a child…” a remark that probably betrayed his uneasiness about whether he could father children.

Josephine was aware of his anger, and that he wanted a divorce, and she hoped to charm him back to their marriage.  However though she tried to catch him before he met with his relatives, who would press him to get rid of her... He was heading towards Paris; she missed him on the road.  Eventually she got to Malmaison to find that her husband was refusing to see her.  Luckily Hortense and Eugene were there and both of them spent hours outside his locked bedroom door, crying and talking and trying to beg him to see Josephine. 

Napoleon had grown to love both step children in the years of the marriage and they both cared for him.  He found Eugene more loyal and supportive as a step-son than his own brothers often were.

The children loved their mother dearly, and wanted to save the marriage… for her sake.  And they also loved their stepfather.   Under their persuasion, he finally opened the door and let his wife in, to talk.

The following morning, Joseph Bonaparte arrived, gleefully hoping that his brother was now about to throw out his wife and divorce her, as the family still held onto their hostility towards Josephine.  However, to his angry amazement, he found the couple in bed together.

Josephine had saved her marriage, though it was never quite the same.  Napoleon still loved her but not in the wild passionate adoring way that he had done before.  He was frequently unfaithful to her… and harsh with her when she complained.

However, she remained devoted to him, and to her children…

Eugene benefited from his step father’s patronage in his army career and he was a good soldier.  Napoleon remarked that the step children were more loyal and affectionate than his own siblings and that (later when Hortense had married Louis) he would go out of a meeting to see Madame Louis if she asked for him, when he might not for his sisters…

When Napoleon became Emperor, the marriage was under strain again, because in this position, he needed male heirs.  He knew by then that Josephine would not give him children, but she pointed out to him that he might not be fertile, since she had had 2 children
.However, the marriage survived... and Eugene benefitted by being adopted by the Emperor, made an official member of the Imperial family, and given the job of Viceroy of Italy.   He continued to prosper in his military career and in 1806; he married Augusta of Bavaria, a royal wife.  The marriage was arranged by Napoleon, but Eugene agreed to it and he and Augusta grew to love each other.  They had a happy and stable marriage.   They were to have 7 children in all, 5 daughters (one of whom died in infancy) and 2 sons. 

Eugene was considered a good soldier, and an able administrator, unlike some of Napoleons family who were placed on thrones as subordinate rulers for the Emperor.   He was also a cheerful good natured man, and was loved by his mother and was always popular as a visitor to her household.  When the couple divorced, he and Hortense were willing to retire into the background, believing that it might be better for their mother to end the marriage, and not torment herself over Napoleon’s infidelities and her fear that she was going to be put aside…. And they felt that their first loyalty must be to their beloved mother.

But Napoleon persuaded his stepson and daughter to remain in their positions and to retain a close relationship with him, as well as to Josephine.   She retained the title of Empress and was given a handsome income, though she still got into debt.  Her children remained close to her, but Eugene retained his public roles until the empire finally collapsed. 

Then in 1817, after his mother’s death and Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo, Eugene was given the title of Duke of Leuchtenberg, by his father in law, Maximillian of Bavaria and was treated as a member of the family.  He and Augusta lived together quietly, until Eugene died at the early age of 42, in 1824. 

Their children were Josephine, Eugenie, Amelie, Theodolinde and Caroline Clotilde, and the 2 sons Maximilian and Auguste. All of the children, (except Caroline who died as a baby) made marriages into the royal families of Europe.  Josephine became Queen of Sweden, and Amelie married the Emperor of Brazil...  August married the Queen of Portugal, Maria II but died only 2 months after the wedding.  His brother Maximilian married a Russian Grand Duchess.

 So as the son of 2 French aristocrats, Eugene managed to attain a position where he married a Princess and his children's blood was passed on in many other Royal families....

Kathleen Winsor Part II

In the 20s and 30s, historical novels had become more popular, among women readers. During the Depression, they were an escape from the dullness and hardship of day to day modern life.  Gone with the Wind was probably especially popular because its heroine was unusually feisty and independent.  The book was racist, in many ways, but I think that women readers liked it because Scarlett’s struggle to keep her family home and to survive during a war – was an inspiration to people trying to survive the Depression.

Publishers were interested in Winsor’s lengthy draft of Forever Amber, because they were hoping for a new Gone with the Wind.  However, it needed editing and re writing, and took time to prepare.  But they realised that Winsor had produced a best seller.  It was published in 1944, and was a runaway success.

It was much more “sexy” than the earlier novel, with Amber taking numerous lovers, becoming pregnant by Bruce (who returns to London periodically) while married to another man.   Unlike Scarlett O’Hara, who does work in her own businesses to achieve success, the only job that Amber ever does is acting – which she uses as a way of attracting richer lovers.

Also, the book references abortions and “perversion”, and Amber is often unfaithful to her various husbands.  She seduces Philip, the son of her third husband. This husband is an elderly and impoverished Earl, who has come to dislike her and to be determined that she is not going to cuckold him.  He removes her from London to his country estate.  Bored, Amber starts an affair with Philip, and remarks that “adultery isn’t a crime, but an amusement.” 

This scandalous story aroused plenty of horrified opposition in 1944 America, from the churches and conservative commentators.   It was banned in many states as “pornographic”… Of course this only increased sales, as the public were aware that this was a “naughty” book and fun to read.  Winsor had done a lot of research, and while it was by the standards of the day a raunchy read, she did create a reasonable accurate picture of Restoration London, its court and its impoverished citizens…She wrote in events like the outbreak of Plague, the Great Fire of London, and the intrigues of Court life…

 Winsor’s first marriage broke down, and she then married Artie Shaw, the band leader.  Ironically, he had scolded his previous wife, Ava Gardner, for reading such a “trashy” book as Amber…

 However, her marriage to Shaw didn’t last long, and she ended up marrying her divorce lawyer.  She continued to write, but she never achieved the wild success of Forever Amber again.  Her next novel was based on her experience of becoming a bestselling novelist.  But the public wanted “more Amber”...  and none of her other novels achieved the same massive success. She had peaked too early...

She made a fourth marriage which was happy and lasted till her husband’s death, and went on with her writing…

Kathleen Winsor and Forever Amber Part I

Kathleen Winsor - famous as the author of the “bonk buster” novel Forever Amber - was born in Minnesota in 1919.  Her father was a real estate dealer and she went to college….

She married young, to a football star, Robert Herwig, and during her marriage to him, she worked as a sports reporter for a newspaper.  Herwig was at college, and Kathleen, bored one day, picked up one of his books about Restoration England.  She became interested in the period, and began to research it.  Herwig was soon away at World War 2, and during that time, Kathleen continued to read about Charles II’s England...  Reputedly, she read over 300 books on the era…though she had never travelled outside the USA.

She had always wanted to write, and during her husband’s absence, she wrote several drafts of the novel Amber... 

She was working on it, soon after the runaway success of Gone with the Wind.  Mitchell’s novel was probably an inspiration.. it also had a historical background, was set during torrid times of war and disaster and had a feisty independent glamorous heroine.  Amber is much more scandalous than Scarlett O’Hara...and rises from poverty to affluence and high status, mainly by the use of her physical charms.  She becomes eventually the mistress of Charles II.   Scarlett, on the other hand, is never very sexual. She does fascinate men, and is willing to flirt to get ahead, but never goes further than that.  She makes her way in the world through business smarts, willingness to work hard even picking cotton, and being good with handling money…. Although she does marry three times.

Amber is the illegitimate daughter of Royalist gentry, but her parents had died and she was taken in by a decent but not very rich farming family.  Amber’s beauty attracts Bruce Carlyon, a Royalist lord who is trying to rebuild his life after the Civil Wars.  He seduces her and takes her with him to London, but he dislikes court life and wants to go adventuring abroad… Amber, however, is fascinated by the world of the rich, and London.  Some of the novel was clearly inspired by Moll Flanders, by Defoe.  Amber is left poor when Bruce leaves her, and she marries a con man, to get a father for her unborn baby…  She ends up in jail, and becomes a thief and the mistress of a thief…