Nadine's Music notes: 2018

Saturday, 29 December 2018

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…

Tuesday, 25 December 2018

Damon Runyon

Damon Runyon was born in Kansas in 1880… his father was a newspaper man, and he was attracted to that profession. 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 off 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 the “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”.

Saturday, 17 November 2018

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. She then started to write her masterpiece, "Wives and Daughters". It is a historical novel, set in the era of 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. 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… a little like 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.

Sunday, 4 November 2018

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

Thursday, 25 October 2018

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 walking 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 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 MarieLouise 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. 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 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.

Sunday, 21 October 2018

Marie Louise Part II

Saturday, 20 October 2018

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 an enormous family. Her mother had borne 12.

Friday, 12 October 2018

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 from 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. But 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. They announced 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. Eugene was cut off from his family in Belgium. He and Winifred went to work for one of the secret service departments; he was 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 desperately saddened. He had been the great love of her life.< However, she was a strong woman and did her best to find something 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. he 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.

Saturday, 6 October 2018

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 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, 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 man who works in an oil refinery by day and dreams of going back home to the land. The film brought 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.

Friday, 5 October 2018

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. He had a tonsillectomy in 1939 that affected his singing style – he lost the ability to yodel. 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 ‘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 went on touring, 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

Wednesday, 3 October 2018

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. One of their most popular works was the set of short stories called Experiences of an Irish RM. They are comic stories, set in the countryside, about an English Resident Magistrate who takes up a post in Ireland, and gets married. He mingles with the upper classes and also with the Catholic poor and middle class. His landlord is Mr Florence (Flurry) Knox, a Protestant who has a small estate and who is "always ready to sell a horse". Flurry gets into scrapes, loves hunting and shooting and breeding hounds, and has a running battle with his elderly Grandmother Old Mrs Knox, who owns a bigger estate. Major Yeates the RM, ends up in embarrassing and ridiculous situations, usually owing to Flurry or his Irish servants trying to put one over on him.

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

Sunday, 30 September 2018

Roger Miller, King of The Road

Roger Miller (1936-92) was a singer and song writer 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.

Saturday, 29 September 2018

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 type 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 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. 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 from 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, from 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 60’s he became 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 from 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. 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.

Sunday, 16 September 2018

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

Friday, 7 September 2018

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.

Wednesday, 5 September 2018

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 academic minded. 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. Mr 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…She wrote a play about Fanny Burney, who was a contemporary of Jane Austen- and a novelist.

Saturday, 1 September 2018

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. 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, 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 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 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.

Friday, 31 August 2018

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

Thursday, 30 August 2018

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 let Charles seduce her, 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….

Monday, 27 August 2018

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 not very likable, and she 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.

Sunday, 26 August 2018

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 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 80's he began to have some success. One of his best known songs is the wittily titled “All my Exes live In Texas”…

Sunday, 19 August 2018

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. 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 made into 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…

Saturday, 18 August 2018

Eugene de Beauharnais Duke of Leuchtenberg Part II

On Napoleon’s return to France from Egypt, he was determined to divorce his wife for her infidelity. 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... 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. 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 do so for his own 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....

Sunday, 12 August 2018

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 forcibly removes her from London to his country house. 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…

Saturday, 11 August 2018

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. In fact, she is almost frigid until Rhett forces her to have sex and it excites her. 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…Her husband cheats her out of the money Bruce left her, and she ends up in jail, and becomes a thief and the mistress of a thief… She becomes an actress and then marries a well to do elderly businessman.

Friday, 3 August 2018

Eugene De Beauharnais

Eugene De Beauharnais was the brother of Hortense (later Queen of Holland) and the stepson of Napoleon I. Born in 1781, he was the only son of Alexandre de Beauharnais, by his wife Marie Josephe Rose Tascher de la Pagerie, a Creole aristocrat. His father was a liberal aristocrat who was sympathetic to the Revolution, but was later executed for military failures…during the Reign of Terror…< Eugene’s parents separated when he was a child. Their marriage was unhappy, and he was given into his father’s custody, while Josephine (then called Rose) had Hortense. Josephine was a devoted mother, and her children adored her. But they often had to undertake the parental role as she was flighty and extravagant. She and her husband achieved a certain friendly relationship in their last few years, but she was imprisoned and only escaped the guillotine by luck… After her release from prison, she had her two children to support. She became the mistress and hostess for Paul Barras, who was one of the Directorate, which was the ruling council of France. Josephine was only moderately pretty but she was elegant and very charming. Napoleon on the other hand was shy and awkward with women. According to some reports, Eugene met Napoleon when there was a directive to hand in weapons, and his father’s sword was to be handed in to the authorities. Eugene, out of loyalty to his father, wanted to keep the sword and Napoleon permitted this Josephine called to thank him and a romance began between her and the young General…The boy soon grew to love his stepfather though Hortense did not like him so much at first. He wanted to be a soldier, so he joined the army and when Napoleon went to Egypt, he served as his aide de camp. While in Egypt, Napoleon discovered that his wife was having an affair back in Paris with Hippolyte Charles... a Hussar captain. At the time, her feelings for Napoleon had been lukewarm; she had married him for security... while he was passionately in love. When rumours of the affair, which had been going on for some time, reached him, Napoleon was enraged and crazy with jealousy. He determined to find a mistress himself, and swore that he would divorce his wife once he returned to Paris. He started an affair with Pauline Foures, a young Frenchwoman who had accompanied her husband to Egypt, and who was bored and flattered by his attentions. Eugene was unhappy about the affair - and protested to his stepfather about having to escort Madame Foures in her drives around town... Napoleon excused him from this duty but he still intended to get a divorce….Eugene was torn between loyalty to his mother, whom he loved dearly, and to his step father.

Sunday, 29 July 2018

Pauline Bonaparte Part IV 1814-1825

Pauline was now over 30 and her brother’s empire was approaching its twilight years. He now had a male heir, but he had over-stretched himself. He was still a military genus, but in invading Russia, he had gone a step too far. His despotic rule over much of Europe had won him enemies, and in Spain, an Anglo Irish general, Arthur Wellesley, was beginning to defeat his marshals who were fighting there. In France, his wars were much less popular than they had once been, because he was now calling up young boys, to feed his army’s need for soldiers. Pauline took little interest in politics, except in terms of generally supporting her brother. It was almost the only thing that she and Camillo agreed on. Mostly her lovers were artists, she seemed fond of musicians. She was also said to have had an affair with the famous Parisian actor Talma. Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow, and the defeats in Spain were the beginng of the end, and in 1814, he was forced to abdicate. He fled south and met with his sister – who refused to kiss him because he was wearing a foreign uniform, being in fear of his life from the mob. He had become so unpopular with the French people. Pauline’s best qualities were brought out by her brother’s’ fall. He had been generous to his family, albeit dictatorial.. However he had showered gifts and kingdoms on them, yet when the empire collapsed, most of them were mainly involved with saving their own skins. Josephine and her 2 children were more loyal to him than his own siblings were… Pauline and Letizia remained loyal and devoted. They moved to Elba when he was allowed to live there as its sovereign..and tried to comfort him for the loss of his title and powers. Letizia was not displeased by Elban exile.. It was an Island and she had never lost her affection for her native Corsica… Napoleon hoped to have his Austrian wife come and visit him, with their son, but MarieLouise soon lost interest in the husband she had been forced to wed – she began an affair with an Austrian nobleman, Adam von Neipperg. Napoleon relied on his Mother and sister for support and for a time busied himself with making various reforms in Elba. Pauline saw her brother leave the island however in early 1815, for his attempt to win back his empire... but it ended in failure and disaster at Waterloo. She had sold her Paris home, the Hotel de Charost, to the British government, and it was used by the Duke of Wellington. She then moved back to Italy, and devoted much of her time to trying to make Napoleon’s exile to St Helena more bearable. She settled in Rome, under the protection of the Pope, who was clearly fond of her. Her Mother also settled in Rome, and since the Bonaparte clan was banned from living in France, many of them chose to live in Italy. Pauline’s husband Camillo, moved away, to distance himself from her and he began an affair with a cousin of his. Pauline was still attractive but she was getting older and her health was worse. She had a few affairs, but much of her interest in life was trying to help her brother. She received many English visitors in her home, trying to use her charms to persuade the Whig aristocrats who were travelers in Italy, to make Napoleon’s life in St Helena more comfortable. Many for them had sympathized with his cause and did not want him to be too harshly treated. Her mother fell under the influence of a bogus mystic, who told her that Napoleon had escaped from St Helena and that the British were keeping this a secret. As a result, when the old lady had a chance to send a doctor and a cook to the far away island, she took no interest in whether the doctor was qualified…. because she believed he wasn’t actually there. Pauline fell out with her mother over this issue, and was angry that her brother did not have a good doctor….In 1821, Napoleon died, far from his family and France. Pauline was broken hearted. She had probably loved him more than anyone else in her life. She was fond of some of her many nieces and nephews and spent time with them, since she had no children of her own. Gradually, her health got worse….and she began to think about reconciliation with her husband. The Pope persuaded Camillo to return to his wife, in her last months. Camillo was reluctant but he saw the rightness of leaving his mistress to care for his wife and for her to die reconciled to him… She moved in with him. Their relationship was not unfriendly, and within 3 months Pauline died. She left a reputation as a scandalous but beautiful and charming woman…

Saturday, 28 July 2018

Pauline Bonaparte Part III

Some of Pauline’s lovers were said to be nervous that if they attracted Napoleon’s attention, they would end up being sent on a military posting, to get them out of her way. She was seen as attractive, but selfish and shockingly promiscuous. She was often the one who made advances towards men, and that was considered scandalous and unfeminine.
Napoleon tried to get her to settle down as Camillo’s wife and a Roman society hostess, but Pauline disliked Rome… she increasingly disliked her husband. She was not especially clever, though she had a sharp tongue and a good deal of common sense… but Camillo was indeed a stupid man. She sneered at him, for his lack of intelligence or manly drive. She did have health problems, though she didn’t let them get in the way of her pleasure seeking. Flora Fraser her biographer notes that when she was in “spa” mode, she did dedicate herself to a quiet life, seeking rest and recuperation. Fraser also says that it is probably that she had gynecological problems after the birth of her son, when she was very young and that this may have left her with pelvic pain… which made her need to rest and not walk very far.. She probsbly had infections resulting from her sexual encounters… But Pauline was thoughtless and selfish in her treatment of many of her staff, showing an utter lack of concern for their dignity. Her exploits could be amusing, but she clearly considered that her desire for comfort, must take precedence over any inconvenience she caused to others. However she loved Napoleon dearly, and was close to him, even though there were at times issues and quarrels between them. Pauline like the rest of the Bonaparte clan was unkindly pleased when Napoleon finally decided that he had to divorce Josephine, to get an heir. She and the family had always hated the charming, beloved sweet natured Empress, who was much more popular with the people than they were. In the period before the divorce, Pauline was especially close to Napoleon at this stage (leading to rumors that he and she were actually lovers). She provided him with a mistress from one of her ladies, Christine de Mathis, and supported him, when he made plans to put his wife aside. However, she was ambivalent about Marie Louise, Josephine’s replacement.The new empress was not pretty but very young and fresh and Napoleon was very much attracted to her, though he still cared for his first wife. Pauline was not taken with her new sister in law, who was a Hapsburg Princess, descended from even grander ancestors than the Creole aristocrat Josephine. So this caused tension again between brother and sister…

Saturday, 21 July 2018

Pauline Bonaparte Part II

Pauline Bonaparte Part I

Sunday, 15 July 2018

Rough Music story on Amazon

Rough Music 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. It was a time when country was very exciting, still and when Southern Rock was going strong...

It is the story of a country rock band and its 2 lead singers and how they cope with life on the road. It’s not a conventional love story, but more a life story, about marriage, life in the music world and life in the later 1970’s. the 2 lead singers are friends, who are starting to find that life on the road is getting harder as they get older and that increasing success is making it difficult for them to decide how far they compromise their desire to write good music, with the demands of success and fame...

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

Friday, 13 July 2018

Jimmie Rodgers, the “Singing Brakeman

Jimmie Rodgers, the “Singing Brakeman”, was born in the south, in 1897, probably In Mississippi. His family was poor, and his mother died when he was a small child. At the age of 13, his father got him a job on the railway, as a water boy. He met with rail workers and hoboes, some of them African American, and listened to their working songs.

There was TB in the family, which had caused his mother’s death, and in time Jimmy found that his health was failing and the strenuous life on the railroads was making him very ill. He gave up the railroad work and became an entertainer again in 1924, organising a travelling road show. He tried railroad work again, but his health was very poor. By 1927, he had a wife and child and he moved to Tennessee, to try his luck with singing again. He recorded a few songs, and began to work at song writing with his sister in law, Elsie McWilliams... who co-wrote many songs with him.

His career as a singer and song writer began to blossom, but his TB was not cured. His constant touring and working made it less and less likely that he would ever recover from the illness. He was making good money, enough to buy a house for his wife and family in Texas….

But in 1932, at the age of 35, he was getting sicker and had to lie down, in the recording studio, to rest between sessions. He died of a hemorrhage in his hotel….

His influence on country music was enormous, rather like Hank Williams, who also died young. Most of the great country singers acknowledge him, and have covered some of his songs, or tried to imitate his style of yodeling. One of his most famous songs is “IN the Jailhouse now…” and another was T for Texas. He also influenced many blues artists….

Story on Amazon

Beds and Blue Jeans is set in present day America. It is about a love affair between a young couple who drift into living together and having a baby, and how they make things work. It is a realistic story, and not a happy ever after romance

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

Saturday, 30 June 2018

Hortense De Beauharnais Part III

Napoleonic upper class society, like its counterparts in England and generally in Europe, was relatively lenient in matters of sexual conduct. Napoleon himself disapproved of this. He had affaires himself, with many different women, but he insisted that Josephine led a blameless life, in the latter years of their marriage. Coming from a Corsican background, he did not approve of the way that women took part in political life, in Paris, and the way they often led separate lives to their husbands...As a young man he had been a intrigued by the manners of the Parisian elite but later, Napoleon had put an end to the easy divorce laws of the Republic. His Napoleonic Legal code centred on preserving family life, and women had few rights under it. However, 2 of his 3 sisters were very much involved in politics and were more intelligent and active than their husbands, in ruling their kingdoms. And all three took lovers. Pauline, his favourite sister, was notoriously promiscuous, and she was not interested in politics.-Her life was centred on nursing her “ill-health”, taking an interest in the arts and in finding lovers. Napoleon was fond of Hortense and may have overlooked her affair with De Flahaut, as she had generally been a loyal wife to Louis and he knew that Louis was a difficult and neurotic man and almost impossible to be married to. However, Hortense knew she would have to cover up the fact that she had had an illegitimate baby, and could not rear the child herself. Afterwards, her affair with De Flahaut fizzled out and he later married an English heiress, Miss Mercer Elphinstone. Hortense may have had other romances but it is not clear. She was devoted to her sons and in the last year or two of Napoleon’s empire; she was in dispute with Louis about them. She was close to her mother but also managed to get on quite well with Marie Louise. She took little interest in politics but when the Empire fell, she remained loyal to her step-father. However Josephine, who was divorced form Napoleon and as such not banned from France, was willing to use her looks and charm to entertain the foreign conquerors, including the Czar Alexander of Russia. He grew fond of her and acted as a protector to her and Hortense. She accepted this protection as she was trying to keep her children and because as a Bonaparte she would have been persona non grata in France. But Josephine died soon after Napoleon’s fall. Hortense and Eugene were with her and were deeply grieved. Hortense stayed in Paris to welcome her step father back when he escaped from Elba. She was there to help him when he lost at Waterloo, and surrendered to the British… Her life after Napoleon had gone to St Helena was mainly devoted to her sons. She had to live in exile...since her actions in supporting her step father on his return to France had allied her with the Bonaparte cause , and the French authorities would not permit her to live in France. She remained officially married to Louis, and shared in decisions about the education of their 2 sons. She was allowed to live in Switzerland, and had a small household… She continued to enjoy taking an interest in the arts... and some of her music became famous, including the song “Partant pour La Syrie”. She had many friends and although she missed her French life, she was busy and fulfilled… Her sons were partly educated in Italy and became ardent supporters of Italian independence... and were involved in the various revolutionary societies and uprisings that sprang up in the 1820s and 30s. She encouraged her sons to marry; Napoleon Louis married his cousin Charlotte, the daughter of Joseph Bonaparte. Louis Napoleon travelled to England and America…but Napoleon Louis died of measles leaving no children of his marriage. Hortense’s health declined and she died in 1837, in her 50s. She had managed to lead a comfortable life, after the fall of the Empire, and to bring up her sons to carry on the Bonaparte name and legend... And eventually her third son would become the Emperor of France…

Thursday, 28 June 2018

Hortense Part II

Hortense did not want to go to Holland, with Louis, but her stepfather insisted. She was happier there than she expected but her husband’s difficult personality made life impossible for her. Their first son Napoleon Charles died of a childhood illness. Her third son Louis Napoleon would later become Napoleon III. Hortense was popular in Holland, but she managed to get away from it, back to Paris, after her son’s death. She loved Paris and enjoyed artistic pursuits such as painting and music. In 1810, her mother was divorced by Napoleon who then married Marie Louise of Austria… Hortense remained loyal to him and part of the court.. Eugene also remained loyal to his stepfather, though he knew that the divorce was very painful for his mother. Both of his step children were closer to him than his difficult and rebellious siblings. Around this time, Louis was removed from the Dutch throne and Hortense was able to return to life in France, separated from her husband. She was one of the godmothers of Napoleon’s legitimate son, the King of Rome... but by the time of his baptism, she had been having an affair with a man she loved, Charles de Flahaut... and was pregnant by him. She retired from court for a time, on the excuse of ill health and went to Switzerland, and there she secretly had her son…Charles Auguste Du Morny. The child was reared by his paternal grandmother Adelaide de Flahaut

Tuesday, 26 June 2018

Hortense de Beauharnais Part I

Hortense de Beauharnais was the step daughter of Napoleon I, and an interesting figure in French society history. Her father was Alexandre De Beauharnais, a French aristocrat who like many people supported the ideal of the French Revolution. Her mother was Josephine Tascher de la Pagerie, a Creole aristocrat from Martinique. Josephine came from her island home, to France as a teenager, to marry Alexandre. She was not educated or sophisticated at the time and he found his new bride gauche and uninteresting... and soon neglected her for mistresses.The marriage proved unhappy. They had one son Eugene, and then in 1783, Hortense was born.< Josephine was then called Rose, and she did learn about society and became more stylish and sophisticated. She was not a beauty, but she was an elegant dresser and a pleasant and charming woman. Alexandre accused her, probably unfairly, of infidelity and was generally unkind to her. He never gave her credit for transforming herself from provincial schoolgirl to an elegant Parisienne...When they separated, he had custody of their son Eugene and Josephine had the care of Hortense. During the Revolution, both of them adopted Revolutionary principles but Alexandre was executed, during the Terror. Rose was imprisoned but the Terror ended before she might have faced the guillotine...Afterwards, she became a well-known figure in the society of the Directorate. She didn’t have much money and had her 2 children to support, so she acted as hostess and mistress to Paul Barras one of the prominent figures in the Directorate. >Hortense went to school at Mme Campan’s a famous school for girls of the “new” upper class… and received a good education. She was clever and pretty... and enjoyed writing music. Another pupil at the school was Caroline Bonaparte, Napoleon’s youngest sister. Hortense was not happy when her mother met the young General Bonaparte, and became his mistress and then agreed to marry him, but she grew to love and admire her stepfather. On leaving school, Napoleon wanted her to marry his younger brother Louis... who was a hypochondriac and a neurotic difficult young man. Hortense was in love with Duroc, one of her stepfather’s aides. However she was persuaded by her mother to choose Louis. Josephine was worrying because she had not managed to give her second husband a son, and feared that he might abandon her, for a wife who could do so. Selfishly, she put pressure on her daughter and Hortense, loving her mother, agreed. The marriage was far from happy…. Louis was arrogant and difficult. He was jealous of his wife. And he was also at odds with his brother. He didn’t like the fact that he owed his career advancement to his ambitious and clever brother. And when he was appointed King of Holland, he wanted to be independent of Napoleon’s influence…His sons by Hortense were heirs presumptive to Napoleon’s honours and titles, since the emperor had no children and Joseph, his elder brother had only daughters.

Monday, 28 May 2018

Bobbie Gentry

Bobbie Gentry was born in 1944, in Mississippi, as Roberta Streeter... She won fame in the country genre, as one of the first women to write much of her own material…It was a step forward for a woman to be a song writer… She was raised on her grandparents’ farm in Chickasaw county, after her parents got divorced. At 13 she moved to live with her mother in California. But she returned to her country Southern roots. In 1960, she graduated High school and began to sing in small country clubs. She went to university and found temporary clerical jobs, but her heart was in singing and song writing. She was a very lovely girl, who also found some work as a model….which helped her eke out a living..She used the stage name Gentry, from a film called Ruby Gentry… In 1967, she wrote her most famous song, “Ode to Billy Joe”, which is a Southern Gothic tale about a girl mourning the death of Billy Joe... who “jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge”. The song is a mystery... we never know why Billy committed suicide, or what he and the girl were doing. It’s about grief and non-communication. It was a chart-topper, but her second album didn’t do so well. However in the late 60’s she had success in the UK and had a TV show. She also performed in Las Vegas… In the 70s, Max Baer directed a film based on Ode to Billy Joe. However in the later 70s, after a successful career and 3 short lived marriages, Bobbie decided to retire from performing. She has business interests, but now lives a private life in Memphis…