THE BEAST CATCHER
My inspiration for 'The Beast Catcher'
A common theme that runs through my books is the main character suffering abuse or a loveless childhood and then going on to overcome their terrible start in life by and then making something out of nothing. This mirrors my own experience in life, but in 'The Beast Catcher', I touched on another dismal obstacle that I had to endure throughout my childhood, and that was being constantly left on my own for long periods of time from a very young age.
I had to fend for myself as both my parents worked long hours, and both my brother and sister, who were a lot older than me, were out at work. You grow up a lot quicker than other kids and you become very independent, resilient, and tough which, I suppose, stood me in good stead for being able to stand on my own two feet as an adult. But, having said that, it was a very lonely and soul-destroying experience, and I would have preferred parents who were loving and caring than being able to rewire the electrics in my house, or tile a bathroom!
Even when my parents were at home, they weren't very nice people to be around and I would do all I could to avoid them, which meant spending long periods of time outside.
This wasn't so bad as back in the 1970's kids spent most of their time outside playing with the other kids in the street, so I would have friends to play with but there were times when it rained, or there was no one about so I had to occupy myself as best I could. Anything than go home and be in the company of my unpleasant, disagreeable, and thoroughly vile parents.
This inspired the back-story of 'The Beast Catcher' about a feral girl, later called Flora, who is living wild in the woods and has to fend for herself from about the age of 12, which is much older than I was. Although, I didn't have to survive in a forest as I grew up in South West London.
When Flora is 'caught' by Harry Delavelle, he attempts to humanise her and she has to learn how to be a a human and live in the human world, much as I did after I'd escaped the abusive prison that was my parents' house. Harry is, at first, successful in transitioning Flora from a feral child into a human, but she has never experienced a loving and healthy relationship before, and their marriage was doomed from the start. She finally runs off back into the forest to the only life she has ever known, one of loneliness and misery.
I now know that the failed and abusive relationships I've had as an adult were due to both my toxic and abusive childhood and abandonment issues, caused by being neglected and left on my own from a very young age. It's not all doom and gloom, though, as I live with my two beautiful sons who I love very much, and I'm now in a happier place than I've ever been in my life.
After Harry's death, the estate and title are inherited by his distant cousin, a closet gay who lives with his man-servant, hiding the fact that they are both in a relationship. Of course, homosexuality was illegal at the time. He dies childless and of alcoholism and the estate is eventually sold to William Armytage, an industrialist and arms manufacturer. I took my inspiration from William Armstrong, the owner of Armstrong Whitworth who was most famous for inventing the Armstrong gun, a type of small but lethal cannon. He commissioned Richard Norman Shaw to build Cragside in Northumberland, an enormous neo-Gothic stately home similar to Delavelle Towers.
Armytage is obsessed with establishing his dynasty, with the vulgar and ostentatious Delavelle Towers as its base, but his dreams are thwarted when his grandson is killed in the First World War.
His two granddaughters live out their days in the dilapidated house as it slowly crumbles around them. Unable to afford the upkeep of the enormous house and estate, the sisters are reduced to living in a small room in the kitchen, with no electricity and little heat.
I was inspired by the true-life story of Hazel Ratclyffe-Dolling. She was the last heir of the Staples family who had lived in Lissan House in Northern Ireland for 400-years. She too was living in a small room in the former kitchens with no heat or electricity. A relict of a bygone era who appeared on the BBC TV show, Restoration, begging for funding to restore the once mighty and opulent house and estate. Hazel died in 2006 and the estate was sold to property developers who completely renovated it and it is now a luxury hotel.
Delavelle Towers isn't so lucky. It was also bought by property developers but was pulled down to make way for a exclusive gated-community, only for the builders to unwittingly uncover its darkest secret.
Background: Gracechurch Street, 1820's.
Oak tree in Bentley Woods, Hampshire.