All historical fiction authors love the historical figure or time period they are writing about, but some authors truly display a special love and passion through the historical figure's portrayal in the novel. Author Gillian Bagwell shows that adoration of Nell Gwynn in her debut novel, "The Darling Strumpet". Bagwell gives Nell Gwynn a voice and makes her story come to life. It is fitting that Bagwell is writing about such a passionate and vibrant figure as Nell because Bagwell's work is full of passion.
Bagwell grew up in Berkely, California. She majored in theatre at the University of California at Berkely and then attended a year-long British professional acting training program at the Drama Studio London at Berkely. Her career focused on acting, directing, and producing. She founded The Pasadena Shakespeare Company in 1994 which has produced 37 productions over nine seasons.
Bagwell wanted to create a one-woman show on Nell Gwynn, but found through her research that there was too much information and Nell's story needed to be portrayed in a novel. While living in London, Bagwell began to write "The Darling Strumpet", a novel on the life and loves of Nell Gwynn, one of the most infamous mistresses of King Charles II of England. "The Darling Strumpet" became Bagwell's debut novel that has soared to critical acclaim.
Why did you choose Nell Gwynn to be the subject of your first novel?
Bagwell: When I was a wild-eyed and ambitious young actress of 23, just finishing a year-long professional acting training program at The Drama Studio London at Berkeley, one of the teachers, Jim Piddock, a young British actor who had recently come over from England to teach, got an astonishing amount of notice for his performance in a one-man show. In fact, that work catapulted him into a career that has kept him busy ever since.
I thought he had a good strategy, and decided I’d write a show for myself to perform. But what to write about? My father suggested Nell Gwynn. I didn’t know much about her, but as I began researching her life, I fell in love with Nell and her story. She was born into poverty in London in 1650, began working as an orange seller at the brand-new Theatre Royal on Drury Lane 1663, got noticed, and soon became the lover and protégé of Charles Hart, the leading actor of the King’s Company. The newly-opened theatres were popular with the nobility – and the king – and Nell soon caught the eye of Charles Sackville, Lord Buckhurst, later the Earl of Dorset, and became his mistress. It wasn’t long, however, before she rose even higher – to the bed of the king himself.
But what came down clear as a bell through the centuries is how well-loved Nell was. She was smart, unpretentious, witty, good-humored, outrageous, and was enormously likeable.
That all sounded like a great subject for a little show, so I set out to put Nell’s life on stage. I did write the script, but never completed it to my satisfaction. And no wonder – I found it was impossible to cover the richness of Nell’s story – which encompassed not only the dazzling worlds of the theatre and court, but also the devastating plague of 1665 that killed a third of the population of London, and the Great Fire of 1666 that destroyed most of the old City – in such a brief format.
So I put my script aside and embarked on an acting career that encompassed a lot of stage work and some film and TV. Eventually I began directing, and then founded The Pasadena Shakespeare Company, producing 37 shows over nine seasons. There was no time for writing during those years, but Nell stayed in my mind and heart and sometimes at the back of my mind I could hear her whispering “Someday….”
In January 2005, I learned that my mother, living alone in London, was terminally ill, and went over to take care of her. As it turned out, I was in London for almost a year and a half. It was a difficult time, with my own life on hold, halfway around the world from friends and family, and facing my mother’s death. There were also many positive aspects of my life in London. I spent more time with my mother than I had in many years, I made many good friends, and I became very familiar with a city that had enchanted me in so many books and movies all my life. Also, for the first time in my adult life, I had no career demanding my attention and no creative focus.
So I decided that I would finally take up Nell again, and present her life in a way that would do it justice, as a novel.
How much research went in to telling Nell's story?
Bagwell: A lot!! When I began researching Nell many years ago, I read several biographies of her and of Charles II as well as a lot about Restoration theatre and the period in general. In the intervening years, before I decided to write Nell’s life as a novel, she was still with me, and I was always interested in anything I could learn about her life and times. And I’ve always had a strong interest in English history, and especially how people lived their daily lives. However, this book required a really astonishing amount of research on a wide variety of subjects. Of course I read the new biographies of Nell that had come out since I first became interested in her, and more biographies of Charles II and of many of her friends. Samuel Pepys’s diaries are a great resource for first-hand information about what was going on in London at the time. Liza Pickard’s Restoration London is a wonder, as are her books about life in London in other periods of history. If you want to get an idea of what people in various kinds of work earned, how much it cost to buy a meal or keep a household, or know how people did their laundry, or what they did about toilet facilities, or what people did for entertainment, see her books.
To be able to bring Nell’s acting career to life required knowing what shows she was in, who the other actors were, and what was happening on stage and off. One of the most useful books for that was The London Stage, 1660-1800. It’s in sixteen big volumes, and covers London theatre during that time – day by day. Most of the plays that Nell performed in are no longer well known. The William Clark Davis Library, associated with U.C.L.A., and Project Gutenberg were good resources for finding those rare scripts.
What makes Nell such a fascinating figure in history?
Bagwell: She was one of the very first women to act in England, and her career took place during some of the most intriguing and important years in the history of the English theatre. One of the first things that Charles II did upon his restoration to the throne was permit women to act, instead of the boys who had played men’s roles in the old days. Nell’s gamine sex appeal and saucy personality made her an instant hit with London audiences. After the long closure of the theatres under Cromwell, a new generation of playwrights was at work, and Nell and her lover and mentor Charles Hart quickly became the William Powell and Myrna Loy of the 1660s, playing opposite each other as sparring and witty lovers in a series of star vehicles written just for them.
Nell was also interesting in her role as a life-long lover of Charles II. He had many mistresses, but Nell was unique for several reasons. She wasn’t a noble lady, but a child of the gutter, who had risen from poverty on the strength of her wit, charm, determination, and likeable sex appeal. She never put on airs or pretended to be other than she was, and this won her the love of the people. It must have been difficult for her at times. She far outgrew the life she was born into, but could never really be one of the aristocracy. In the book, she thinks to herself that she’s “neither fish nor foul,” and I think that must have been the case. She could move in both worlds but didn’t really completely belong to either one.
Another reason Nell was better liked than some of Charles’s other long-term mistresses was that she was English, unlike the baby-faced Louise de Keroualle, who promoted French interests, cost the royal purse quite a lot of money, and was spoiled and weepy into the bargain. Nell called her the Weeping Willow and Squintabella.
For all these reasons, Nell remains a beloved figure still in England. A friend of mine in the East End referred to her as “my favorite king’s bit on the side.” And of course this is without there being any photos of her, any films of hers for us to watch, or almost anything left in her own words. Even without those reminders, her imprint is indelible.
Nell had many interesting relationships with various men before King Charles II entered her life. Can you describe her relationships with these men?
Bagwell: Nell rose through her association with various men, which was about the only way a woman could rise in those days. But she seems to have remained on friendly terms with just about all of them, which says something about the kind of person she was. In "The Darling Strumpet", her first protector approaches her many years later when he’s fallen on hard times, and she helps him. That is based on contemporary accounts. Charles Hart, the leading actor and one of the managers of the King’s Company, along with John Lacy, another of the old-time actors, did train her as an actress and put her on stage. Even after she left the stage she went to the theatre a lot and maintained her friendships with them and other actors she’d known. One of the hardest aspects of writing their story was ending Nell’s romantic relationship with Hart. I came to love him so much I didn’t want them to break up, but in real life they did, so I had to find a way to make it happen without making either of them unsympathetic. The Earl of Dorset and the Duke of Buckingham, who had guided Nell toward the king’s bed, helped her with her business matters later in her life, and she remained a steadfast friend to them even when they were in trouble with the king and had no power or influence to offer her.
How would you best describe the relationship between King Charles II and Nell?
Bagwell: Nell genuinely cared about Charles for himself, not because he was the king. She didn’t care about politics and didn’t have an agenda, unlike most of his other long-time mistresses. Louise de Keroualle, the Duchess of Portsmouth, was pretty much put into his bed by the French to influence him regarding England’s relationship with France. Barbara Palmer, the Duchess of Cleveland, was always scheming, and succeeded in bringing down Charles’s long-time advisor Edward Clyde.
Another thing that set Nell apart from Charles’s other women was that once Nell became his lover, she was faithful to him until his death. Louise, Barbara, and Hortense Mancini all cuckolded him very publicly.
I think one of the things that Charles must have valued most about Nell was that she gave him a safe and comfortable place where he could relax and be himself. And I think they had a lot in common. Even though they came from wildly different backgrounds, he had been through very hard times during the civil war, when his family was scattered and his father ultimately executed, and he experienced real poverty – not knowing where his next meal would come from or how he could care for his loyal followers – during the years he was in exile before his Restoration, and I think he understood her and her insecurities very well. After he died, Nell wrote to the new King James, Charles’s brother the former Duke of York, “He was my friend, and allowed me to tell him all my griefs, and did like a friend advise me, and told me who was my friend and who was not.” One of the most famous stories involving Nell, Charles saying to his brother on his deathbed “Let not poor Nelly starve,” is true. He knew that of all his mistresses she was the one who would face dire circumstances when he was gone if she didn’t get some help.
Besides Nell, who is your favorite historical figure from that time period?
Bagwell: Well, I can’t help having a great fondness for Samuel Pepys. I’m grateful to him for giving us a record of several of Nell’s performances and some of their encounters. And though he behaved pretty badly quite often, I can relate to him. Also his tremendous energy and intellectual curiosity and sense of humor come through very strongly in his diaries. A friend of mine pointed out that he must have been great fun to be around. He’s always saying that a play or a meal or something was “the best that ever I had in my life.” He was a very enthusiastic partaker of life’s offerings.
You have a blog on your website detailing your trips to England and how they relate to the life Nell lived specifically in London. What are some of your favorite places in London to have visited
Bagwell: London is an amazing place. In much of central London, the layout of the streets is the same as it has been for centuries; even millennia. After the Great Fire in 1666, there were grand plans to create a street design that was more organized and formal, but it didn’t happen, because people couldn’t wait long enough for that to happen – they had to get on with their lives. So they built houses and shops and everything else in exactly the same places they had been, and there they stand now!
So in most of the areas that Nell knew well, where she lived and worked and performed, the footprint is basically unchanged from her time, though of course many of the buildings are gone. This is particularly true in the locations where many of the theatres were. Years ago I was walking near Lincoln’s Inn Fields and felt impelled to turn down a certain street, and felt somehow that the place was very significant. When I looked at my books, I discovered that I’d found my way to the place where the Vere Street Theatre had stood, the place where the King’s Company first performed when they began playing in 1660.
Very close to there, at the northeast corner of Lincoln’s Inn Fields, is Newman’s Row, where Nell’s first house was. Her own house, I mean, that Charles rented for her when she was going to have their first child. Newman’s Row is now little more than a passageway to High Holburn, but the layout of the streets is pretty much unchanged. I stood there and could feel very clearly how it must have been for her to look out over the square, where duels and executions occasionally happened, although it was a very posh area with many noble residents, and that Whetstone Park, a little street running along the top of the square, which was pretty unsavory, must have been noisy and squalid.
Before Nell began acting, the King’s Company and Duke’s Company were both performing in converted tennis courts just off Lincoln’s Inn Fields. The location of the Duke’s Company theatre is at the back of what is now the Royal College of Surgeons, in a space that, at least as of the summer of 2008, was let to the London School of Economics. In fact, oddly, the LSE was occupying several places that were the sites of old theatres.
The current Theatre Royal in Drury Lane is on the same spot as the original theatre, the one that Nell performed in. The original theatre was smaller, and burned down and was replaced, and the current building is the third on the site, I think. But standing there I can feel Nell with me. And so many other places she knew are practically within spitting distance - the places where Charles Hart and John Lacy lived and of course Covent Garden itself. The Cat and Fiddle and Cock and Pie taverns were near the south end of Drury Lane. The Maypole in the Strand stood just about in front of the church of St. Mary Le Strand, which is still there. And it’s only a short walk up to the top of Drury Lane to what is now Macklin Street, the former Lewkenor’s Lane, the site of Madam Ross’s brothel.
The Banqueting House is all that remains of Whitehall Palace, but Nell certainly knew that building. By comparing old maps with contemporary maps and the layout of the ground, I’ve come to the conclusion that Charles II’s bedroom, the site of so much intrigue, was probably right about at the location of the statue that stands behind the Ministry of Defense, just off the river. Nell’s world is still there; you just have to close your eyes and feel it.
I could probably have written the book without tracing Nell’s steps as much as I did, but I don’t know if it would have been quite the same.
Can you tell readers about your upcoming projects?
Bagwell: My next book, "The September Queen", will be coming out in November. It’s about the real-life adventure of a young woman named Jane Lane, who risked her own life when she helped Charles II escape after the disastrous Battle of Worcester in 1651 by disguising him as her servant.
In the course of researching "The Darling Strumpet", I had read a certain amount about the Battle of Worcester in 1651 and Charles’s six-week odyssey trying to get to safety in France. It was an enormously important and formative period for him, and he told the story to anyone who would listen for the rest of his life.
He told the story to Samuel Pepys on board ship in May 1660 when he was coming back to England to take his throne, and Pepys mentions that in his diary. We’re very fortunate that many years later, in 1680, Pepys sat Charles down for two three hour sessions and took down the story in great detail, in his famous shorthand, and went to quite a lot of effort to edit it, collect other contemporary accounts, and bind them all together in one place.
But there just wasn’t a way to get into much depth about these events in "The Darling Strumpet" without slowing the story down, so reluctantly I just had Charles say, “That’s a story for another time.”
One of the books I read while writing "The Darling Strumpet" was "All the King’s Women" by Derek Wilson. He spends about three pages on Jane Lane’s story, and lays out the evidence for his belief that she and Charles were lovers, which I found pretty compelling. When my agent, Kevan Lyon, asked what I was going to write next, I remembered Jane. Kevan loved the idea too, and we were both astonished and delighted to discover that apparently no one had ever written a novel about the really unbelievable story of her journey with Charles.
And now I’m working on the proposal for my next project, and I won’t say more for the moment except that it’s also set in seventeenth century England, and was inspired by people and events I learned about while researching "The September Queen".
What other time periods or areas of history interest you?
Bagwell: I’ve always been a huge Anglophile, so I’m interested in just about all periods of English history, though I probably know most about the mid-sixteenth to late seventeenth centuries. I’m very interested in Scottish history, and a couple of years ago was thrilled to be hired to do some research and writing and production work on bonus features for the Blu-Ray release of “Braveheart.”
Victorian era London intrigues me and I think eventually I’ll write something set during that period. London in general is fascinating. It has such a rich history I don’t think I could ever get tired of finding stories that happened there. I have one story I’d like to write that takes place in sixteenth century London, but it has a male protagonist and my agent tells me to keep to female leads for now.
My ancestry is very diverse, and I’ve thought of writing stories based on some of my ancestors, maybe different stories coming down through the generations. My mother’s paternal grandparents emigrated from Sicily to Chicago in the early 1890s, and it’s amazing to find them in the 1900 census, my grandmother illiterate and not able to speak English. On the other hand, my father’s paternal grandmother, who came from generations of family in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, graduated from Brown University in 1900. What a contrast! My 7 times great grandparents, Leonard Shown and Virginia Barbara Slimp, made the arduous journey from Virginia to the mountains of Tennessee, settling at what became known as Shoun’s Crossroads, which is still there. They had 18 children and were very prominent in what was first Carter County and became Johnson County, but I believe my great-great grandmother was illegitimate. She met her father for the first time when he came back from the Civil War, and took her to basically be brought up in a boarding house in North Carolina. A hard life in a very interesting time.
What other historical fiction authors do you admire or enjoy? What authors from the past and present do you enjoy or have inspired you?
Bagwell: Diana Gabaldon has been a big inspiration to me as a writer. I heard her speak at the Historical Novel Society Conference in 2007, when she talked about writing Outlander as a “practice book”!
I’ve always been fascinated by the sea and naval history. I’m a big fan of Patrick O’Brian’s books, and before long I expect I’ll write something that takes place partly at sea. I tend to like some of the other more male-centered historical fiction – George MacDonald Fraser’s Flashman series and Bernard Cornwell’s Sharpe books.
Some of my favorite works of historical fiction are maybe a little atypical for the genre. "The Crimson Petal and the White" by Michael Faber, "Slammerkin" by Emma Donoghue, "The Mists of Avalon" and the following books by Marion Zimmer Bradley, "The Meaning of Night" by Michael Cox. Books that I read decades ago and have stuck in my mind are "Bless This House" by Norah Lofts, "The Rich are With You" Always by Malcolm Macdonald, "The Masters of Bow Street" by John Creasey, and of course "Gone With the Wind".
I love Mark Twain, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Robertson Davies. I find that when I’m writing historical fiction it’s hard for me to read historical fiction as entertainment. I need something completely different. Ian Rankin is great for that – he has a whole series on John Rebus, a police detective inspector in modern-day Edinburgh.
Lastly, you're an actress, Nell was an actress, if you were casting a movie based on your novel, who would you cast as the pretty witty Nell Gwynn?
Bagwell: Carey Mulligan, who has burst on the scene in such a big way in the past couple of years, has a lot of what would be needed to play Nell. At least in "An Education", she was extremely likeable and combined vulnerability with strength. Her face is right, more cute rather than beautiful. She’s quite tall, I think, and Nell was very little, but there are ways of working around that on film. There’s another English actress, Andrea Riseborough, who I think would also be very good. And you didn’t ask, but Ray Stevenson, who was so fantastic as Titus Pullo in the HBO series "Rome", would be hands down my first pick to play Charles II.
*A huge thanks to Gillian Bagwell for this fascinating and personable interview*
"The September Queen" will be available in November 2012.
For more information on Gillian Bagwell: http://www.gillianbagwell.com/
Gillian Bagwell's Nell Gwynn Travel Blog: http://http://www.gillianbagwell.com/
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