Author finds intrigue in 20th-century royals
During World War II, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor — Edward and Wallis Simpson, the woman for whom the duke abdicated the English crown — served in Nassau as the governor and first lady of the Bahamas.
American author Beatriz Williams, who specializes in historical fiction, merged this bit of history with an invented plot for her ninth novel, “The Golden Hour,” published this month.
The author — whose previous books include “The Summer Wives,” “The Wicked City” and “Along the Infinite Sea” — will include central Ohio on her book tour, appearing Wednesday in Bexley.
Williams, 46, who lives with her husband and four children in Connecticut, spoke recently with The Dispatch.
Q: What got you interested in using the time that the Duke and Duchess of Windsor spent in the Bahamas as a setting for “The Golden Hour?”
A: It was actually my editor. My husband and I — we have four kids — planned a just-the-two-of-us getaway. I told my editor we were headed for the Bahamas and she said, ‘You know, I’ve always had this idea that it would be a great (novel) setting during the time the duke and duchess were there.’ So I promised to look into it. It turned out there were the usual shenanigans with the duke and duchess, but there was also one of the most notorious, unsolved murders of the century. It was just too juicy a real-life event to leave alone.
Q: Your fictional plot in “The Golden Hour” stars Lulu, an American journalist who becomes close to and writes a column about the royal couple. Other than Edward and Wallis, are there other characters in your book who were real?
A: A number of the minor characters: (Wealthy American businessman) Harry Oakes (who was murdered); his wife and daughter; Alfred de Marigny; his sonin-law suspected of the murder; and Miss Drewes, secretary to the duke and duchess. There’s very little written about Edward and Wallis in the Bahamas.
Miss Drewes (who later married a British officer) wrote a memoir that was published by her son. … Having access to a personal account from someone (who liked) the duke and duchess was really valuable.
Q: The British royals today are different from the royals of the early 20th century. Do you think Edward would have had to abdicate today in order to marry the twice-divorced Wallis Simpson?
A: Good question. In many ways, Edward was the modernizing monarch, but it’s more complex than that. He liked the privileges of being king but he didn’t really want the duties. Wallis didn’t really want to be married; she • “The Golden Hour” (William Morrow, 480 pages, $19.28) by Beatriz Williams
wanted to be his mistress. Edward wanted the marriage, and I wonder if he didn’t like her more because she was unsuitable and it was his way out of the kingship.
Q: Who do you think killed Harry Oakes?
A: Well, you don’t want to level accusations at people who are dead. But the thing is, people in the Bahamas who were trying to get to the bottom of it had a habit of turning up dead. … (Oakes’ business partner) Harold Christie … had motive, he was right there and never seriously questioned. Gosh, Duke of Windsor, why wasn’t Harold Christie ever questioned?
Q: In “The Golden Hour,” your second plot concerns Elfriede, a character from an earlier era, who suffers terrible postpartum depression. Was there much known about this condition in the early 1900s when Elfriede was dealing with it?
A: No. Freud was really the first to take women’s postpartum and anxiety issues seriously. Psychology itself was slowly becoming a more respected field. I did do some research for that period of time, but also for the present day. To have that month-after-month despair that you can’t shake is debilitating. … As a mother of four — and I’ve never had postpartum depression, just the baby blues — I’m conscious of how tough motherhood is and how perfect strangers seem to have the right to judge you. Especially back then, motherhood was idealized and postpartum depression not understood or sympathized. I wanted to explore that.
Q: What’s your next book?
A: I’ve always been intrigued by the history of the missing Amelia Earhart. She lived in an era when women were breaking out. I used that as the trigger, the starting point for a composite character of a fictional aviator whose plane disappears. Fifteen years later, a female journalist wants to write a biography of not her, but the man whose career was entwined with hers — like the real (publisher) G.P. Putnam was entwined with (and married to) Earhart.
Q: What draws you to historical fiction?
A: I’ve always been passionate about history. In college, I took a class on turn-of-thecentury Europe and the whole idea of social transformation captured my imagination. That’s why my books are largely written about the time period from 1900 to 1960.
Q: What do you talk about in your appearances?
A: I never read from my book unless someone actually demands it. The audiobook narrators are so much better than me. My goal is to convey how I came to write the book and the history behind it and the larger question: What is it about this period of history — that first half of the 20th century — and why is it important for us to understand it on a human level? Bringing history into people’s lives and connecting them with the past gets me excited.
Q: One last question. Why is your first name spelled with a “z”?
A: I’m named for Beatrice in Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing,” but I still haven’t gotten a straight answer from my parents as to the Spanish spelling of my name.