|
AUTHOR INFORMATION
All miscreants and ill-thinkers, keep out! The Lady Grace Mysteries come from the most privy and secret daybookes of Lady Grace Cavendish, Maid of Honour to Her Gracious Majesty, Queen Elizabeth I of that name. The author lives in Whitehall Palace, Middlesex, in God's Own Chosen Kingdom of England.
INTERVIEW
October 2004
Kidsreads.com contributing writer Shannon McKenna traveled back in time to the year 1569 to speak with Lady Grace Cavendish, Maid of Honour to Queen Elizabeth I. Lady Grace talks about life at the Queen's court, what she likes best about being Her Majesty's Lady Pursuivant, and why she would never be able to conduct her investigations without the help of her two friends, Ellie and Masou.
Kidsreads.com: It is the year of Our Lord 1569 and of Her Most Gracious Majesty Elizabeth's reign, the eleventh year. If anyone should read your daybookes hundreds of years from now, what do you think will surprise them most about your life as a Maid of Honour?
Lady Grace Cavendish: How dull it is! You have no idea how I suffer, sitting on my bum on a cushion in Her Majesty's Presence Chamber, winding wool round my hands for Lady Hoby while dull, fat ambassadors prose on about the Queen's beauty and wisdom. If it were not for my secret office as the Queen's own most privy Pursuivant, I should go wood mad for boredom.
KRC: You have a reputation at Court for finding the answers to riddles and puzzles, and the like. Do you find your investigations to be like solving riddles?
LGC: Ay, of a certainty. A riddle has little hints to the answer --- and when there is a mystery to be solved for the Queen, there are always clues here and there. The trick for both is to find an answer that binds up all the clues together.
KRC: Tell us about your good friends, Ellie and Masou. Would you be able to conduct your investigations without their help?
LGC: No, never --- and I would be most sad without them as well. Ellie may only be an orphan and must still work from before sunrise to after sunset at the laundry (until I can prevail on the Queen to make her my tiring woman to help me dress), but she is full of good sense and sharp wits. Masou is sharp-witted too, and tells wonderful tales of the far lands of the south where he comes from, where the sun baked his skin as brown as old oak. And he is brave and nimble, for he is the best boy-tumbler at Court!
KRC: Masou's friend Kersey (ASSASSIN) was captivated by the Queen during a brief encounter he had with her. What is it like for you to be so close to the Queen every day?
LGC: She is like the best elder sister anyone ever had --- and there again, she is the Queen of England, you know, and most magnificent and wise. Though sometimes she is bad-tempered. All of us Maids of Honour are very good at ducking the slippers and cushions she throws if an ambassador has been tactless.
KRC: When you boarded Sir Francis Drake's ship to search for Lady Sarah (BETRAYAL), you dressed as a boy and found that it's a very different life from being a Maid of Honour. What are the biggest differences between life as a girl (especially as a member of the Court) and life as a boy?
LGC: Too many to count and, besides, some too scandalous to tell you! Strangest of all was the fighting, for no one thinks it amiss if boys fight and get in mischief. Yet if Lady Sarah and Lady Jane quarrel and pull each other's hair, you would think the sky was falling for the fuss Mrs. Champernowne makes of it. And it was such a relief, not having to worry about my clothes!
KRC: You suspect that the Queen was informed of your adventure at sea by Captain Drake (BETRAYAL). Why do you think the Queen chose not to say anything to you about it?
LGC: If you do not understand the difference between what the Queen knows officially as the Queen and what she knows unofficially as a person and a friend, this space is too small to tell you. There are many good books upon the arts political, such as Machiavelli's THE PRINCE, which the Queen delighted in when she read it. Perhaps that might help you.
KRC: Mrs. Champernowne gave you the daybooke you used as your first journal. What would she say if she knew you were really recording your adventures and not prayers and meditations?
LGC: "Oh fie, my Lady, what do you think you are doing having adventures at all, look you, when all you should be troubling yourself about is keeping your petticoats clean and finding a good man to be marrying and WHEN will your ladyship learn to walk gracefully like Lady Sarah, bless her..." Well, you can imagine the rest.
KRC: You decided to continue to clear Lord Robert of murder charges (ASSASSIN) even after you found the letter he wrote to his mother concerning you. Also, you came to the aid of Lady Sarah (BETRAYAL) even though she is not always the nicest person. What makes you want to help people, even those who might not fully deserve it?
LGC: People cannot help the way God made them, and if Lord Robert is a fool and Lady Sarah a complete ninnyhammer, that is no reason not to help them. And in any case, I enjoy solving mysteries.
KRC: Does the danger that comes with being a Lady Pursuivant concern you?
LGC: Danger? I suppose there is, but you see, I never expect danger. It's only that sometimes my schemes go wrong and things become a little...tense and exciting before all is set right.
KRC: What do you like best about being Her Majesty's Lady Pursuivant?
LGC: Unravelling the mystery so all is made clear. And, of course, Her Majesty's kindness and her most gracious thanks for the trouble I save her and the injustice I prevent. And besides, ANYTHING would be better than winding wool for Lady Hoby. As long as there are mysteries at Court that need to be solved, I am Her Majesty's most loyal and active Lady Pursuivant!
Back to top.
|
