Historical Fiction and Novels with Royal Characters


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:welcome:
I think it sounds pretty interesting. Coincidentally, I'm currently reading "Gin O'Clock" which is pretty hilarious.
Best of luck!
 
Thank you Duchess Mary. I think the Gin O'Clock tweeter, who makes an appearance in my book, is pretty funny but MRS QUEEN does not.
 
William Kuhn said:
Hi, my name is Bill Kuhn and I've written a novel called MRS QUEEN TAKES THE TRAIN.

It's about the current Queen of England, who is beginning to feel her age and a little melancholy sometimes. She is given a chance opportunity to leave the palace unrecognized one day when a girl from the Mews loans her a hoodie to keep the rain off. The Queen is surprised when, wearing the hoodie, the guards don't acknowledge her. She decides to slip off to visit one of her "happy places," the royal yacht Britannia moored in Scotland. She boards a public train incognita at Kings Cross. A ragtag group of courtiers discover her missing and decide to go after her before MI5 and the tabloids find out. Romance and mischief ensue.

My previous works are non-fiction, mainly on the Victorian monarchy, including one on two courtiers who worked for Queen Victoria, Henry and Mary Ponsonby.

If there were any interest, I might post an excerpt from it.

It's published in October in the USA by HarperCollins and in November by Allen & Unwin in Australia.

If you've got this far, thank you for reading! :)
Click to expand...

I'd like to read an excerpt
 
I liked it. Very interesting. I enjoyed reading the excerpt. Unless a royal actually came out and objected to someone writing about them in a fiction novel, I see nothing wrong with it as long as respectful of the person. Of course that's my opinion which may or may not be the same as others.

I've wroten short stories for fanfiction criminal minds and fanfiction nascar about royalty. None of these individuals are real people (the characters I made up, most of the countries are ficitious and the countries that I used in story lines currently don't have royalty). I've always put a disclaimer stating that these particular events to my knowledge didn't occur.






Interesting enough you don't see a lot of novels written about royalty but there are lot of historical books or family history books about them.
 
Thank you nascarlucy! What is fan fiction? An online blogger has written a review of the book and and I thought she used fan fiction in a critical way. However, I am happy to have all responses to what I write, both pro and con.
 
William Kuhn said:
Thank you nascarlucy! What is fan fiction? An online blogger has written a review of the book and and I thought she used fan fiction in a critical way. However, I am happy to have all responses to what I write, both pro and con.
Click to expand...

Fan fiction is fiction written by the fans of a particular author or series. Generally it uses the characters and world of the original work. For instance, someone might write a story where Harry Potter has an adventure, using all of J.K. Rowling's original materials (characters, settings, rules, etc.) but with a new plot.

Some writers, notably Anne Rice, have disallowed fan fiction, feeling it cheapens the original work.

A few, very few, writers of fan fiction have gone on to publish books by a mainstream publisher - books with their own characters and settings, etc. To my knowledge no fan fiction itself has ever been properly published.

Some writers, Rowling as an example, claim to love fan fiction and read it regularly.

Fan fiction is, generally speaking, written by non professional writers and is, generally speaking, not very good. There are exceptions, of course and I have read some very compelling fan fiction as part of my professional life (I am a writer by trade).

Fan fiction has a HUGE internet presence with many readers and writers and all sorts of categories and its own interesting nomenclature. It has fans and detractors. You might not find anything approaching literature in it, but you can likely be entertained and humoured, if nothing else :)
 
Well, I did not set out to write fan fiction in MRS QUEEN though I am a huge fan of Alan Bennett's UNCOMMON READER. Did any of you like that?
 
I enjoyed reading the excerpt. You have obviously done a lot of research to weave into the story.
 
I write fanfiction for NASCAR , Criminal Minds and CSI Miami.The nice thing about it is anyone can write for it (you don't have to be a published author or even a good writer to do so). As Catherine J stated, there are some good writers. Most are probably average and would never get a book or novel published. The fact that someone others than family or friends read it is great, even if it's not that great.

When I first saw the NASCAR fan fiction I was surprised that you were allowed to use the actual names of the drivers in the story because they are real people. I assume that they got legal advice when the website was put up. To my knowledge, none of the drivers have ever sued the website for the content that has been written on this website.

When I've written in this forum I've been respectful of the drivers that I've written about them. Nothing explicit or graphic about them. Sometimes I added events that had happened to them or things about the driver that was known and things that were true (hearing it coming out of their mouth for example) if this had something to do with the story or I put it into the story. In the preview I would mention this as well as saying that to my knowledge other things in the story didn't occur.

The fan fiction Criminal Minds and CSI Miami are written about the characters on the show, not the actors themselves. You also have fan fiction for TV shows, novels and other such things.

When I first started writing for fan fiction, I looked to see if they had any fanfiction royalty. They didn't. I would have been surprised if they did.

I wish you the best of luck William Kuhn and look forward to reading your're book.
 
William Kuhn said:
I think to write fiction you must like to live intensely in the imagined life of your character, and that person may either be a living person or someone who is completely invented. MRS QUEEN has both.
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My personal opinion is that an author that can spin a tale about a personage that is quite well known to the general public, has his work cut out for him much more than creating a fictional character. This book of yours sounds like a total winner to me. Its a whimsical "what if... " situation and HM's escape into the world of the unknown and being unknown.

Be sure to mail a copy when it is published to Buck House (or Windsor Castle for that matter). For some reason I think the person that would get the most joy out of this story would be HM herself. It makes me wonder just how often it has crossed her mind that she'd really like to chuck it all to the wind and just take off on a spree. :D
 
Mrs Queen Takes the Train

Queen Elizabeth II boards a public train incognita in this new novel published by HarperCollins on October 16, 2012. Australian publication in November by Allen & Unwin.

You can find out more about it here:

Home - William Kuhn including an excerpt.

Some of the pictures in the books are here:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.478940222135526.120795.167401936622691&type=3

With apologies for posting incorrectly in some other threads,

Bill

Do let me know what you think. Thanks. bk
 
Mrs. Queen Takes The Train

I really have to thank my lucky stars that we're retired and for the most part, my time is my own to do as I please with it.

After glancing at the clock on my computer last night and noticing it was just going on 10 PM, I figured "what the heck.... I'll read a little bit more.". Next thing I knew, I was closing Mrs. Queen Takes The Train and the world around me had changed into another morning. This book is definitely one that will grab your interests and keep you enthralled throughout the story. I just couldn't put it down until I finished it.

This story centers around HM Queen Elizabeth II taking the public transportation train from London's King's Cross to see Brittania moored in Leith, Scotland. Simple enough of a plot one would think but this book has more depth to it than your ordinary fiction. The more I read, the more I realized that discussions on the various aspects of this adventure would fit nicely into any one of the threads here on the British Royal Family and how the monarchy works. Its London 2012 and as in real life, this book reflects the pulse of the people be they a reflective Queen, a veteran of Iraq working in the Royal Household, a poet working his gap year in a cheese store or a woman more comfortable with horses than she is with humans.

I would definitely state that this book is a must read. I'm also enclosing a link to an article I'd posted on the board a while back ago and it was this image that I pictured HM as on her grand adventure. HM in a hoodie? You betcha!!

Thanks Bill so much for one of the most enjoyable books I've read in a long time!


Queen Elizabeth II Wears A Hoodie While Driving A Range Rover (PHOTO)
 
thank you

[Blushing] Thank you for posting about Mrs Queen as well as for giving it a sympathetic summary and endorsement Osipi. Bill K
 
Queen Elizabeth II in fiction

Hi all
I just finished reading Jeffrey Archer's 'First Among Equals', and was delighted to see Queen was covered pretty well.The State Opening Of Parliament was mentioned in detail. I have two aspects for discussion..

1.But by the end the Queen discretely seeks 'some advice' from PM and Leaders of Her Parties and Speaker.Then in the final chapter, Prince Charles is shown as King Charles III.SO was she abdicating? was the consultation about that?

2.I was pretty unamused Archer viewed that prospect of Queen abdicating, given his depth in British politics. I dont think anyone doubts how serious the Queen is about going on till the end..So why did he imagine such a thing..and it hardly affects the plot..

And also in another Jeffrey Archer novel, I guess A Prisoner of Birth, in the end the protagonists's lawyer is able to save him by observing that the registration stamps were fake, on basis that the Queen's face appeared younger on the stamps, whereas by that date, stamps bearing older (aged) version of Queen's face were already issued.
I like such references of Queen in fiction.
Anyone else have come across such things in any novels? Would you like to share them?
 
I love the idea of this thread and wish I had something to contribute. Thanks for starting it.
 
:greatidea:I have to admit... I am the author of 1 finished and 4 'works in progress' Harry Potter Fan Fictions... lol. The thing about my Fan Fics, is even for the HP world, four of them are quite 'out there' in terms of the main couples and very 'AU'. But I wouldn't trade any of them for the world. I haven't been able to update the WIP's in a while... because thanks to them, I've started hard work on several Original novels :)

One of which... is about a fictional Royal Prince :bow:

Fan Fiction is awesome in that you get to exercise your writing muscles, connect with others who share your interest in continuing and expanding stories that are over.

Though I've been hard at work (during NaNoWriMo as well) on my original fics, I still work or at least take notes and write snippets of chapters that will be updated when I can. I am a huge believer in not leaving people hanging... but sometimes you got to roll with the punches a bit and my original novels have had plot bunnies galore! :wave:
 
New book on British royal family tree?

New book on Prince William's modern family tree?

There is a new book out by Brewin Books, England, written by Shirley Thompson, entitled "Unlocking the Gates" which is presented as "fiction", but the central characters bear a remarkable resemblance to some of those who are leading figures in Prince William's modern day family. For example, could "Princess Maria" be the late Princess Diana? etc., etc., etc.

I recommend you read "Gates" and see what you think..... I am a royals watcher, and this is spot intriguing. I may be wrong, but this seems more than coincidental...... http://www.brewinbooks.comn
 
vkrish said:
Hi all
..

And also in another Jeffrey Archer novel, I guess A Prisoner of Birth, in the end the protagonists's lawyer is able to save him by observing that the registration stamps were fake, on basis that the Queen's face appeared younger on the stamps, whereas by that date, stamps bearing older (aged) version of Queen's face were already issued.
I like such references of Queen in fiction.
Anyone else have come across such things in any novels? Would you like to share them?
Click to expand...

There's a book, "In the Wet", by Neville Shute, which you might enjoy. It was published in 1953, but some of the book is set in the future. I won't describe it at length, but the Queen and the DoE have prominent parts, and it will make you think.
 
For middle grade books, the Royal Diaries series is a great read about the lives of young (real) Royal women. Alison Weir has written a bunch of both Non Fiction and Fiction books based on multiple royal families, and Juliet Grey has a series based on Marie Antoinette. In the terms of fantasy, there's the A Song of Fire and Ice series by George RR Martin, the Fire & Thorns series by Rae Carson, and the Selection series by Kiera Cass.

Especially concerning fantasy, there's usually at least ONE royal character, so books with some influx of royalty aren't that hard to find!
 
Princess Elizabeth's Spy

This is a very 'slight' book, nonetheless enjoyable, by Susan Elia MacNeal. Its conceit is that a brilliant American mathematician, Maggie Hope, formerly Churchill's secretary, is dispatched to Windsor Castle to serve as Princess Elizabeth's maths tutor. Of course, she is also supposed to snoop a bit, which she is quite good at, and has to protect the Princess from enemy kidnappers.

The descriptions of Windsor are interesting, and of course the depiction of the young Elizabeth is irresistible. I enjoyed it, but it was like eating cotton candy-sweet but insubstantial.
 
Stories about fictional royalty

I thought this would make for a fun thread because there are so many stories out there about made-up royals. Putting aside Meg Cabot, as I think we're all familiar with the Princess Diaries (very fun books, but lame movies, imo) we could still be here all day listing books that fit in this category. There's Danielle Steel's HRH, a book about a Liechtenstein princess. Steel explains why her princess of Liechtenstein is an HRH instead of an HSH by putting forth the notion of Christiana inheriting her mother's HRH status. Improbable, but ok. When I read it years ago, I was able to suspend disbelief and deal with it. :lol: I recently found a weird little book called Burbank Story: About a lot of things that, strange as it may seem, contains some royal characters. Two of the characters are the sons of a distant cousin of the Queen of Great Britain. And then there is another family of characters who are Finnish nobility. The ignorant characters living in California (Burbank ;)) keep referring to these Finnish nobles as royalty, so that's fun. The story is about an old Finnish fishmonger who by a strange turn of events ends up living in Burbank and creating a Museum of Finnish Culture. The author has an odd sense of humor, which I like mostly. A lot things in it are outlandish, but honestly, I couldn't put it down, and it was a very quick read. There's no "ending" either. At the "end," it says "to be continued," so I'm assuming the author has another installment in the works!
:wacko:
 
This is a fun idea for a thread as there are good books out there that take royal persons and put them into fictional settings. I can think of two books right off the top of my head for this thread.

The first one is "Mrs. Queen Takes the Train" by William Kuhn. A delightful story of the adventures of HM, Queen Elizabeth when one day she gets the bright idea that she would like to see her yacht, The Britannia, once again. HM slips away into the world dressed in a hoodie and goes on an adventure. Panic ensues when HM is discovered missing and the entire book is just a joy to read. I actually learned about the book here on The Royal Forums from the author himself and was sent a copy of the book from him. From Goodreads:

An absolute delight of a debut novel by William Kuhn—author of Reading Jackie: Her Autobiography in Books—Mrs Queen Takes the Train wittily imagines the kerfuffle that transpires when a bored Queen Elizabeth strolls out of the palace in search of a little fun, leaving behind a desperate team of courtiers who must find the missing Windsor before a national scandal erupts. Reminiscent of Alan Bennett’s The Uncommon Reader, this lively, wonderfully inventive romp takes readers into the mind of the grand matriarch of Britain’s Royal Family, bringing us an endearing runaway Queen Elizabeth on the town—and leading us behind the Buckingham Palace walls and into the upstairs/downstairs spaces of England’s monarchy.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13571784-mrs-queen-takes-the-train

The second book is "Royal Secret" by John Bentley. It reads kind of like a historical puzzle similar to "The DaVinci Code" by Dan Brown. From Goodreads:

Following the death of an American bio-billionaire a thrilling exposé of mystery and intrigue links the power politics of today directly to the bisexual spy rings of Queen Elizabeth 1st. Through the eyes of a women seeking to uncover the truth of the death of the man she loves, The Royal Secret reveals the story of one of the world’s best known men whose rightful claim to the thrones of England and America has been concealed until this day.

From Washington to London to Paris and the castles of the Templars, Mrs G has only weeks in which to decrypt clues from the distant past of the Kaballah and the bloodline of Christ himself. As she delves into a world of mysticism she exposes modern science to criticism in its suppression of a superior occult intelligence known only to those who have ruled the world down the Centuries, as they still do today.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25692674-the-royal-secret

I'll be back when I think of more books. Thanks for starting this thread. :D
 
Archipel des Passions by Charlotte Casiraghi and Robert Maggiori

The Professor and the Student, founders of Les Rencontres Philosophiques de Monaco (philomonaco.com) have written this ebook and published through Editions du Seuil, for kindle only so far, and in French.

Here they talk about it:

You can buy it on Amazon or directly at the publisher:
Archipel des passions, Charlotte Casiraghi, Documents - Seuil | Editions Seuil

Or through Fnac in France.

The book is dedicated to Robert's brother Joseph and Charlotte's father "Stephano" (sic) who are both deceased.

Here are some quotes translated into English: https://thecrownhistorian.tumblr.com/tagged/archipel-des-passions
 
Last edited:
:previous: Thank you for this info and especially the translations tatianacressida, much appreciated! ;)
 
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