I write, I read, and I spend way too much time on Twitter and Instagram. Tell us about Veronica Speedwell. Veronica is an intrepid young woman making her way in the world as a lepidopterist. By traveling the globe in search of butterflies, she is able to provide for herself financially as well as satisfy her wanderlust—and her taste for discreet love affairs. Veronica is loosely inspired by Margaret Fountaine, a butterfly hunter who traveled the world for decades, enjoying a robust series of love affairs as well as a successful career well into her 70s.
They are set on the trail of a cunning murderer at the behest of a very demanding woman who is not quite what she seems…. What draws you to that time period and setting?
Late Victorian England has far more in common with modern times than most people realize. It was a period of enormous technological change, and those innovations caused repercussions in every area of life—how people dressed, how they ate, how information was communicated, who was permitted to own property, how status was determined.
Nationalism was on the rise; women were demanding the vote; science was developing new theories that upended the status quo. Everything Victorians thought they knew about the world was being questioned or changed, and ultimately people had to, quite simply, adapt or die. I heard you speak at Bouchercon, talking about the female travelers of the 19 th century.
Would you talk a little about them now? My degree is in English and history, so I quite naturally gravitated towards the writings of the Victorian travelers. They were tireless recordkeepers, writing memoirs or travelogues, keeping journals, penning letters. They noted everything—geography, customs, languages, natural history, their own experiences—so the material makes for fascinating reading, and I was particularly intrigued to discover how intrepid these women were. We tend to think of Victorian women as sitting quietly in the parlor, sharing tea and sympathy with the vicar, but the fact is that there were a host of ladies who packed up their parasols and petticoats and set off to see the world.
