for Duchess By Night I had help dreaming up Fonthill, the wonderful concoction that is Jem’s home in Duchess by Night. My imagination was caught by an English gentleman named William Thomas Beckford. Beckford was a Georgian rake in the extreme sense: one of the richest men in England, he built a fantasy estate (Fonthill), complete with a leaning tower and a Cabinet Room, full of curiosities such as those I describe in the book. After William’s wife Margaret died in childbirth, he never remarried – a sad little footnote that I remedied in this book.
This is Eloisa's Egg #12 - "collect" them all!  |
