The Lighthouse Keeper's Daughter, page 28
And finally, thank you to you, my amazing readers, for your incredible support. You are the reason I do what I do, and I am more grateful than you can know. If you enjoyed the book, please tell me. It really does help while I’m writing the next one!
P.S. Insights, Interviews & More . . .*
About the Author
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Meet Hazel Gaynor
About the Book
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Author’s Note
The Creation of a Heroine
Reading Group Discussion Questions
About the Author
Meet Hazel Gaynor
HAZEL GAYNOR is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of A Memory of Violets, The Girl Who Came Home, The Girl from The Savoy, and The Cottingley Secret, and cowrote, with Heather Webb, Last Christmas in Paris. Her work has been translated into several languages. She lives in Ireland with her husband and two children.
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About the Book
Author’s Note
The idea to write a novel about Grace Darling first came to me a number of years ago, but as with every idea it needed time to percolate while I figured out how to tell her story and if, indeed, I should be the one to write it.
The answer to that particular question came in the summer of 2016 while visiting my sister in Northumberland. She took me to Barter Books, an enormous and very wonderful secondhand bookshop in Alnwick. Because Grace had lived in the area, I wondered if I might find something about her there, but where to even begin looking in the biggest secondhand bookshop in Europe? As I turned to a shelf to my right just inside the door, I saw a small green book, the title so faded I could barely read it. I picked it up. Why? Who knows? The book was called Grace Darling—The Heroine of the Farne Isles, published in 1875. I always say the story finds the writer, and this, surely, was a sign. That ancient little book was the start of The Lighthouse Keeper’s Daughter.
I’ve always believed that historical novelists have a responsibility to not only portray the historical facts authentically, but to do justice to the people they choose to write about. To add emotion, words, and color to often emotionless black-and-white facts recorded in history books and biographies is both a challenge and a privilege, and I especially felt this responsibility in writing Grace’s story. Although Grace was written about very widely at the time of her famous rescue, the more I read about her, the more I felt that we only saw a one-dimensional version of her: that of the classic Victorian heroine. As a novelist, I wanted to dig deeper to know who Grace really was. I wanted to walk in her shoes and live her days in the confined spaces of her lighthouse home. I wanted to know what she thought about in the privacy of her bedroom because Grace wasn’t just a heroine, she was a young woman with thoughts and feelings and desires. When I discovered a tantalizing suggestion that she had formed a romantic relationship with a young man from the area, possibly one of the artists who visited her at Longstone to paint her portrait, I was intrigued. Grace Darling in love? Now there was a story to tell.
As always, research was very important to me, not just to understand the events of 1838 to 1842, but to understand who Grace was before the Forfarshire disaster, and who she was behind the scrutiny of the public’s gaze. My research and writing often take me away from my family in one way or another, but I also try to take them with me on my journey of discovery. This particular book saw the four of us become temporary lighthouse keepers during a weekend stay at Wicklow Head lighthouse in Ireland. We also traveled to the Farne Islands. To step inside Grace’s lighthouse on Longstone Island, stand in her bedroom, climb the steps to the lantern, and walk along the rocks and beaches where she spent her life was very emotional. A trip to Bamburgh to see the wonderful Grace Darling Museum, her monument at St. Aidan’s church, and Horsley Cottage, where Grace died, was also a wonderful source of fact, inspiration, and connection to this extraordinary woman.
But Grace was not alone. I was intrigued when I discovered another female light keeper, Ida Lewis, who became known as America’s Grace Darling. It was this connection between the two women that led to part of The Lighthouse Keeper’s Daughter taking place in Newport, Rhode Island, and to me reading more widely about the generations of women who kept the lights in America. Their stories are absolutely fascinating and inspired the character of Harriet Flaherty.
Some of the place names referred to in the book are now spelled differently, or known by a different name, particularly Harker’s Rock (now known as Big Harcar) and North Sunderland (now known as Seahouses). Where possible, I have remained faithful to the known events of the time line of the Forfarshire disaster and the aftermath, and to the locations Grace visited. Any historical errors are entirely my own.
Sarah Dawson and her children were actual passengers on the Forfarshire, the children tragically lost as described in the book. However, Sarah’s story following the rescue, and that of her fictional brother, George Emmerson, are a product of my imagination. It is believed that there was a George who had a romantic connection with Grace, and George Emmerson appears in a footnote of the book Grace Darling by Hugh Cunningham. It was too intriguing a connection to ignore! All the characters in the 1938 narrative are entirely fictitious (apart from Ida Lewis), and although Rose Island lighthouse does exist in Newport, Rhode Island, I have imagined the people and events there. The devastating hurricane of 1938 which hit the area without warning on September 21, 1938, did happen as written, with huge loss of life.
I hope that this book might inspire readers to learn more about Grace Darling, Ida Lewis, and the history of female light keepers. The following books were invaluable to me during my research, and may be of interest: Grace Darling: Victorian Heroine by Hugh Cunningham; Women Who Kept the Lights: An Illustrated History of Female Lighthouse Keepers by Mary Louise Clifford and J. Candace Clifford; Grace Had an English Heart: The Story of Grace Darling, Heroine and Victorian Superstar by Jessica Mitford; and The Lighthouse Keeper’s Daughter: The Remarkable True Story of American Heroine Ida Lewis by Lenore Skomal. Grace Darling, Her True Story written by Thomasin Darling was another fascinating and invaluable source of research and insight into Grace’s life. I also drew from Britain’s Working Coast in Victorian and Edwardian Times by John Hannavy and the fascinating How to Read Water: Clues and Patterns from Puddles to the Sea by Tristan Gooley.
The Creation of a Heroine
Given the point in history when the Forfarshire disaster occurred, news about the dramatic rescue undertaken by Grace and her father spread with surprising speed. But the journalists’ eye for a good story was already at work. Even the earliest reports exaggerated Grace’s part in the rescue, almost entirely eliminating her father from the episode, and adding sentiment where the facts had given none. Descriptions of Grace hearing the screams of the survivors from Harker’s Rock, for example, are rather dramatic since it would have been virtually impossible for Grace to hear these given the distance and the raging storm. The myth and fiction of Grace’s story was already at play. The sensationalizing of news events and the desire to create heroines and heroes from tragedies is clearly nothing new.
Grace was perfectly placed to fulfil the desire among Victorian society for romance and heroines. She was, by all accounts, a pleasant young woman in looks and demeanor. That she lived such an isolated life and wasn’t easily accessible to the public or the journalists keen to tell her story only seems to have increased the desire for people to know more. Her name undoubtedly fed the more romantic narrative of her story. As I wrote The Lighthouse Keeper’s Daughter I often thought that I would have been accused of overreaching if I’d given a fictitious heroine the name Grace Darling. Fact, once again, proves stranger than fiction.
As much as Grace is known for her courageous rescue, she is also known for her reluctance in accepting the fame that followed. It must certainly have been alarming for such a private woman to find herself under the public’s gaze with the boat trips and the artists sent to paint her, not to mention the correspondence that was sent to her—similar to the paparazzi and their prying lenses who we see tormenting modern celebrities. From the portraits created by the artists who visited Longstone, Grace’s image was easily transferred onto pottery and kitchenware, which, when mass-produced, found its way into homes across the country, ensuring that her name, her image, her story, and her fame continued to spread. The imagination of poets and writers filled the gaps in her story, romanticizing her time and again in plays, poems, and ballads. Even William Wordsworth penned his own tribute to her.
To many at the time, Grace really was an angel without wings. She offered the perfect vision of domesticity, a role model for the age. Outwardly, she was a devoted daughter, dedicated to spending her life with her parents at Longstone. But surely there was more to Grace. A woman who would set out in such a violent storm, and who saw death and tragedy, was clearly not the typical Victorian lady, prone to fainting. Grace had some gumption about her. And she was, after all, only human. So what of her feelings; her flaws? Surely there were people in her acquaintance who she didn’t care for. Surely her parents and siblings sometimes frustrated her. Where was the Grace the reporters didn’t write about, the capable young woman struggling to escape from the conventional role assigned to her, the passionate young woman in love? Those were the questions I wanted to answer in writing this fictionalized account of her life.
It certainly seems that fame did not sit well on Grace’s shoulders and one can only wonder if the unwanted attention had some sort of psychological impact on her. Stress was not a word used by the Victorians, but could it have been that which led to her physical weakening and, eventually, to the consumption (or tuberculosis, as we would call it now) that killed her? What we can be certain of is that her death so soon after the events of the Forfarshire disaster, at age twenty-six, only fanned the flames of adulation as Grace Darling the heroine became something of a saint. Had she lived a longer life, married, and drifted back into domestic obscurity, perhaps we wouldn’t know as much about her. As with Marilyn Monroe, Grace Kelly, or Princess Diana, the tragic death of a young woman in her prime only leaves us wanting more. Like the unfinished portrait in the story, Grace’s story was, in many ways, incomplete.
Grace Darling was not only a heroine of her time, but someone who people of a certain generation will remember learning about at school. Whether through the Grace Darling song or the dramatic childhood tales of this classic Victorian heroine, Grace’s story has been told many times in the 180 years since she first came to our attention. I hope we will continue to share her story with younger generations and ensure that we remember women like Grace, forgotten heroines whose stories are confined to the shelves of secondhand bookshops and the records of the newspapermen who captured their stories.
After all, at a time when women still fight for equality, we all need our heroines. Perhaps now more than ever.
Reading Group Discussion Questions
What was your response to the opening scenes of the storm and the rescue, especially when Sarah Dawson left her children behind?
Despite her undoubted bravery and her part in the rescue of the Forfarshire’s survivors, Grace Darling was a reluctant heroine. What surprised you the most about her reaction to her fame?
Reading a novel based on real events can affect readers in different ways. Had you heard of Grace Darling before you read the novel? What is your reaction to her story?
Duty versus desire is one of the themes of the book. How did you respond when reading the scenes with Grace and George Emmerson? Do you feel Grace was right to deny her heart in order to devote her life to her family?
Sarah Dawson is the generational link between Grace and Matilda Emmerson. How did you respond to Sarah as a character in the novel?
The book touches on themes of separation, loss, and finding your place in life. In what ways did you relate to the various characters and their struggles?
The unique bond between parent and child, particularly mothers and daughters, is also explored through several of the characters in the book. Which relationships particularly resonated with you and why?
Do you enjoy reading books written in a dual narrative? Did you have a preference for one time line over the other? If so, why?
Matilda’s story reflects that of many unmarried pregnant girls in Ireland in the 1930s. What was your response to her journey from disgraced daughter to determined young mother?
As the final scenes in the hurricane unfolded, who were you rooting for and why?
Have you ever visited a lighthouse, or would you like to? What is it about lighthouses that fascinates us so much?
In many ways, this book is a celebration of women. Who is the most courageous woman you know and why?
Praise for the Works of Hazel Gaynor
The Lighthouse Keeper’s Daughter
“A mesmerizing tale set in two lighthouses, an ocean apart. Drawing upon a real-life heroine who battled not only the elements, but also the deleterious effects of fame, Gaynor’s storytelling soars. This is historical fiction at its finest.”
—Fiona Davis, nationally bestselling author of The Masterpiece
“Hazel Gaynor shines a brilliant light on female courage and endurance in the face of storms both internal and external. . . . A splendid read—The Lighthouse Keeper’s Daughter is not to be missed!”
—Kate Quinn, New York Times bestselling author of The Alice Network
“Hazel Gaynor’s skillful artistry as a storyteller glitters like the sun in The Lighthouse Keeper’s Daughter. A beautifully rendered novel that is moving and memorable from the first page to the last.”
—Susan Meissner, bestselling author of As Bright as Heaven
“The Lighthouse Keeper’s Daughter is a beautifully rendered tale of Britain’s most famous lighthouse keeper, Grace Darling, and an American keeper in Newport, one hundred years later whose lives are linked by history and tragedy. An affecting and gorgeous book, I relished every page.”
—Heather Webb, internationally bestselling author of Last Christmas in Paris
The Cottingley Secret
“The Cottingley Secret tells the tale of two girls who somehow convince the world that magic exists. An artful weaving of old legends with new realities, this tale invites the reader to wonder: could it be true?”
—Kate Alcott, New York Times bestselling author of The Dressmaker
“Reading this novel is akin to finding hidden treasure—each character, a friend; each chapter, a revelation.”
—Ami McKay, author of The Witches of New York
“I adored The Cottingley Secret. . . . Gaynor has penned in majestic prose an enchanting and enthralling tale of childhood magic, forgotten dreams, and finding the parts of ourselves we thought were lost forever.”
—Pam Jenoff, New York Times bestselling author of The Orphan’s Tale
“A mystery, a love story, and an enchanting and surprising journey of self-discovery, The Cottingley Secret unwraps the true story behind one of the great hoaxes of the nineteenth century while still allowing the possibility of the magical.”
—Kate Forsyth, author of Bitter Greens
“Beautifully written and expertly researched, Gaynor’s latest is a look at one of history’s most intriguing mysteries and an important reminder of the power of belief.”
—Booklist (starred review)
“Gaynor creates a lovely meditation on the power of belief and hope.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“There is real magic in these pages. And beauty. And heart.”
—Nicole Mary Kelby, author of The Pink Suit
“In The Cottingley Secret, Gaynor asks us the question we all have buried somewhere in our hearts—is believing in ourselves, perhaps, the most important magic of all?”
—Heather Webb, author of Rodin’s Lover
The Girl from The Savoy
“Hazel Gaynor’s tale of divided sisters conjures a bygone era with a poignancy so exquisite one can almost smell the violets.”
—Kate Beaufoy, author of Liberty Silk and Another Heartbeat in the House
“A beautifully imagined novel rich in historic detail and with authentic, engaging characters—I loved this book. Hazel Gaynor is an exciting new voice in historical fiction.”
—Kate Kerrigan, author of Ellis Island and City of Hope
“Hazel Gaynor’s artistry as a storyteller shimmers like satin in The Girl from The Savoy. Evocative, transportive and redemptive, this is an enchanting gem of story.”
—Susan Meissner, author of As Bright as Heaven
“This story of loss and longing and of the power of ambition and dreams to carry us forward is filled with rich period details and unforgettable characters.”
—Booklist
“A disarmingly charming story of a young woman determined to make her dreams a reality. The Girl from The Savoy is as sweet as a love song, as energetic as a tap dance and full of dazzling details about life in London after the disasters of the Great War. I won’t soon forget Dolly Lane, and her rise from loneliness and hardship to the glitter of stardom.”
—Jeanne Mackin, author of The Beautiful American
“Hazel Gaynor captures both the heartache and hope of England between the Wars in this richly imagined novel peopled with unforgettable characters, impossible ambitions and unexpected twists of fate. Once begun, I dare you to put it down.”
—Kathleen Tessaro, New York Times bestselling author
A Memory of Violets
“Gaynor once again brings history to life. With intriguing characters and a deeply absorbing story, her latest is a fascinating examination of one city’s rich history and the often forgotten people who lived in it.”
