The Pretender's Lady

by Alan Gold

From the author of The Last Testament comes the true love of Bonnie Prince Charlie, her adventures in America and her lasting legacy.

In the page-turning popular genre trail-blazed by Antonia Fraser and Phillippa Gregory, The Pretender’s Lady, Alan Gold’s meticulously researched novel, accurately opens history’s pages on a peerless woman who helped change the course of history and whose legend lives on in Scotland today—Flora MacDonald.

She was the most famous Scotswoman of her day, single handedly saving Bonnie Prince Charlie. This is her fictionalized life story—her relations with the Prince, her flight to America, Ben Franklin’s influence, and her return to Britain to lobby for peace

But what’s hidden from history, revealed now for the first time in Gold’s dazzling new work of fiction, is the result of Flora’s and Charlie’s love: a beautiful and talented boy raised on an American farm. But only she knows his true heritage and his claim to the world’s greatest throne. And only the genius of Ben Franklin understands how to use this naïve boy to change the history of America.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Scotland, Historical, Fiction, 18th Century

376 pages, Hardcover

First published July 21, 2015

About the author

Alan Gold began his career as a journalist, working in the UK, Europe, and Israel. In 1970, he emigrated to Australia with his wife, Eva, and now lives in St. Ives, Sydney, where he divides his time between writing novels and running his award-winning marketing consultancy.

Reviews

[C · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting perspective of the post-Culloden events, particularly Bonnie Prince Charlie's escape and the finality of his efforts, told from the view of Flora McDonald, the highland woman who aided him. Unfortunately, the narrative is probably a bit too favoring to Prince Charlie, portrayed as a generally decent guy who has the potential to be a great leader but is defeated by the circumstances of history.

The last third of the story shifts dramatically to Flora's immigration to America just before the American Revolution, and her last ditch efforts to put a Stuart king on Scotland's thrown and, bizarrely, her proposal to the King of England to establish a Commonwealth?? This curveball of a story degrades what was already a so-so historical fiction/romance story. I was not at all sad when I finally finished it.

[Amy]

As a Scot, there was no way I could pass up the chance to read a novel about Flora MacDonald! As a writer and editor, however, the amateur execution of this tale left much to be desired. Didactic dialogue, "telling" prose, and POV head-hopping were just a few of the technical problems this book suffered from, more than killing any enjoyment I'd hoped to get from this story.

[Phyllis Runyan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the story of Flora McDonald and her role in the escape of bonnie Prince Charlie after the disaster at Culloden Moor in 1746 and what followed in Scotland to the people at the hands of the English soldiers. It follows her life on the Island of Skye and eventually to America and then back to Scotland.

[ladywallingford · Rating 1 out of 5]

The alarm bells started ringing when I saw that this book had no author's note about the research. When writing historical fiction, I feel that's necessary and of interest to the audience, especially if said audience enjoys the book. Plus, it adds legitimacy to the author's research when crafting the story. Looking at the research itself, it's not even really all that well executed. Out of curiosity, I looked at the ODNB entry for Flora MacDonald. The basic life events of Flora are there in the novel but the whole romance and love child with Bonnie Prince Charlie, complete fantasy.

Overall, if the novel had ended with part 2, I may have liked it more. Part 3 really departs from the Scotland story and meets back up with Flora MacDonald on the eve of the American Revolution heading to America with her family to begin a new life, which the real Flora and her family did. I won't ruin the ending for those who still want to read this but again, the events and depiction of the character, totally unbelievable and untrue. The end just dragged. Quite honestly, if you see this on the shelf, I would pass it up. I wish I had.

[Mirella · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Scotland's rich history, Flora MacDonald is revered and remembered to this day as a Jacobite heroine. When Flora was a child, her father died. Back then, bride kidnapping was common, and her mother was soon abducted and married by a man named Hugh MacDonald from Armadaleon the Isle of Skye. In 1746, Flora was 24 years old and the Jacobite Risings was in full swing. After the Battle of Culloden, Bonnie Prince Charlie took refuge on the island of Benbecula where Flora was residing at the time.

Captain Conn O'Neill of The Feeva, County Antrim, Prince Charlie's closest friend and confidant asked for her assistance to help the young royal evade capture when he learned her clan was sympathetic to the Jacobite cause. Legend has it that Flora and the Prince fell deeply in love with each other. She was beautiful and he was a dashing lovable rogue. With the help of her stepfather, Hugh MacDonald, who was the commander of the local militia, the charitable Flora agreed to help the handsome prince escape. Her stepfather provided her with a pass to the mainland for her and her entourage which consisted of a manservant, a maid named Betty Burke, and a boat crew that consisted of 6 men. And who was Betty Burke? None other than Bonnie Prince Charlie himself in disguise.

Soon, they ended up in a town called Kilbride on the Isle of Skye. The prince hid in rocks while Flora went for help. She arranged for him to be taken to Glam on the island of Raasay. However, while she managed the prince's escape, her boatment's loose tongues brought attention. She was arrested for aiding the prince's escape and transported to London where she was under constant supervision by guards. Her part in the escaped gained Flora great fame and popularity. While she languished in jail, Bonnie Prince Charlie fled to France, eventually moving to Rome. Plagued by alcoholism, he suffered through numerous failed relationships until he died in 1788. Fortunately for Flora, the government passed a new law called the Act of Indemnity, so she was released.

Three years later, she married an army captain called Allan MacDonald of Kingsburgh. They settled down on the Isle of Sky where Flora presented her husband with seven children. When her husband;'s father died, the family moved to the family estate at Kingsburgh.

Her husband took the family to North Carolina where he served in the 84th Regiment of Foot for the British Government during the American War of Independence. She encourage and urged the regiment as they headed off to the Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge, only to learn they had faced defeat and her husband had been captured. That's when poor Flora faced numerous hardships. Although she kept a low profile and hid the best she could,American Patriots ravaged her family plantation and stripped them of all their possessions. Meanwhile, her husband had been held prisoner for two years before a prisoner exchange happened and he was sent to Fort Edward in Windsor, Nova Scotia. He sent for Flora and the family was reunited.

In 1779 Flora booked passage on a merchant ship in order to go back home to Scotland. During the crossing, a privateer attacked the ship. While the melee was occuring, in order to protect her, she was told to go below deck where she would be safer. She refused and did her part, but suffered a wound in her arm. Upon her return, she visited and stayed with relatives.
Several years later, her husband returned and they moved back into the family estate at Kingsburgh. She died at Kingsburgh on the Isle of Skye in 1790, at the age of 68 and was buried in the Kilmuir Cemetery on the Isle of Skye. It is greatly rumored that she asked to be buried wraped in Bonnie Prince Charlie's bed sheet.

Author Alan Gold has meticulously researched Flora's life. The story is accurate, lush, and highly compelling. A definite recommendation! Awesome!

Thank you to the author and publisher. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have quite enjoyed this genre of the stories of the wives of famous men of late but this book fell short in a lot of ways. After a promising start and, for what I understand, a fairly accurate account of the escape of Bonnie Prince Charles. From there the author takes a fairly free literary licence to create a life for Flora. I found the second half of this book boring and disjointed. I would have been happy if he'd ended it with the escape.

[Pamela · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love good historical fiction, but unfortunately this one wasn't that great to me. It seemed to be overloaded with details and that made it difficult to stay focused. I sort of got "bogged down" with the details and couldn't get into the real story. The basis of the story was interesting, but it was disappointing.

[Helen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A surprisingly good accounting of Bonnie prince charlie, and is claim to the thrones of England and Scotland. This period in history has always been uppermost in my life. On my honeymoon I stood at glen finnan looking up at the memorial to Charlie’s arrival in Scotland and trudged the bleak battlegrounds at cullodden where every clan has a cairn to the men they lost. However I did not know too much about flora macdonald or the part she played in history. Really interesting and I kept flipping around between the internet and maps to pinpoint facts raised by the author. Enjoyed the book very much.

[Monica Findlayson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I knew this book was a “what if this was true” book and it was brilliant.
Loved the read and how the characters were described. It made me feel I was there. All the twists and turns of Flora’s life showed how history made the heroine she was in getting Prince Charlie away to safety from the grips of the Duke of Cumberland who was a cruel man in trying to crush the Clans of Scotland. Not a good time to live in Scotland.
Made me wonder what if this was a true story, what sort of country would Scotland be like now.

[Rachel Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you’re enthralled by different governmental ideas, then this book might be for you. Part one and two are fine, then part three came and I didn’t understand why it was even part of the book. It tried too much. I should’ve known when the part of the story I was most interested in was already over and I was only 40% of the way done with the book. The end dragged and dragged and for all its detail nothing happens. Also didn’t love that there was no historical detail, or research notes.

[Melinda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my kind of book! For over 20 years I've been reading about Scottish history through the Outlander series. Ms Gabaldon is way overdue on her latest book and to fulfill my desire for Scottish history, I chose The Pretender's Lady. I was not familiar with Flora MacDonald. If she was mentioned in any of the Outlander series, it didn't stay with me.
I truly enjoyed the book - it is well-written and seems to be hoistorically consistent with other books I've read about the time period. This is a romance between the Bonnie Prince and Flora that will leave you wondering if there is a royal lineage remaining.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the story of Flora as it was a part of history I had never heard of before. I think it would have been better to keep the focus on her and her perspective rather than change perspectives throughout the book. In addition, numerous typos and the ending made the book fall flat for me.

[Lorraine Nielsen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too many colourless words conveying not much meaning or feeling.

[Janet · Rating 1 out of 5]

Started out fine but too much detail about the war plans

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good read. The author created interesting characters and dialogue. Will be interesting to see how much it ties in with history if at all.

[Christy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the first half of this book. I couldn't put it down. But, it lost me in the second half (after Flora and Charlie successfully made their escape).

[Kayleigh · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was really excited to read this book but I became a real slog to finish. The editing was terrible, so much of the prose was unnecessary and repetitive. Really disappointed.

[Jennifer · Rating 1 out of 5]

0/5

[Janet · Rating 3 out of 5]

Started out strong with a terrible finish

[wally walter · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very entertaining account of what might have been

[Janey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very engaging and enjoyable book. I would say that some parts were improbable, except they actually happened (if not as told here.)

[Kiwiflora · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Her name will be mentioned in history, and if courage and fidelity be virtues, mentioned with honour." So wrote the famous diarist and biographer James Boswell of his compatriot Flora MacDonald, the never to be forgotten heroine of Scotland for her single handed role in the perilous escape of Bonnie Prince Charlie from the clutches of the rampaging English.

What a woman - born 1722 in the Scottish Hebrides, her life is well documented. Her passion for a Scotland free from the iron grip of the English led her into many adventures and many troubles - not just risking her life to save the Prince, but also spending time locked up in the Tower of London on a charge of treason. In the 1770s she lived for a time in North Carolina with her husband and children, only to be caught up in the War of Independence, and then surviving a raid by pirates on the return journey to Scotland. By any account she was an extraordinary woman, and her legendary place in Scottish history is well deserved. And hardly surprising either that there is a mystique and aura about her, that continually fuels the fires of independence, resilience and fierceness so part of the the Scottish identity.

In this novel, the Australian author has taken the bones of Flora's life and created a rollicking good read that will appeal to a wide variety of readers, and not just those of Scottish descent or can lay claim to being descended from a MacDonald of the island of South Uist of the Outer Hebrides. She will be forever known as the saviour of Prince Charles Edward Stuart, aka the Young Pretender, and this is the central narrative of the story. Plus what would a good historical novel be without a bit of romance and bodice ripping in the Scottish highlands surrounded by heather and blustery winds? The background to all this however is just as important to the story. The author has thoroughly researched the history of the time - King George II, his son the Duke of Cumberland whose army famously defeated Charlie at Culloden in 1846 and later known as the Butcher Cumberland for his murderous treatment of the Scottish after this uprising, Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Johnson, the American War of Independence - all in very rich and exciting detail.

Comparisons of the author's style of writing have been made with Phillippa Gregory (The Other Boleyn Girl) and Alison Weir who both write historical novels from the view point of key characters. As a result, fact is used as the starter for the story, but is not necessarily 100% factual in its content. The key word here, emblazoned on the front cover of such books is 'a novel'. A great starting point for further research and reading. For me, the key point of such historical novels, is that we learn so much about stuff - these books are page turners, they draw us in, real people and real events become vivid in our imaginations, such writers make history come alive. How clever is that! And more importantly, provide background to the nature of the world we live in now. For example, why did thousands leave Scotland from the mid-18th century onwards for the greener pastures of unknown lands in America, Canada, and New Zealand? Aside from the weather...

This is a terrific story, well told, great characters both good and bad, and in the light of the referendum that took place last year for Scottish independence very timely. The relationship between the two nations may be cordial now, but it has not always been so, in fact many times over the centuries completely the opposite. Such a story makes me very proud of my Scottish heritage, and has sparked a wish to go to the Hebrides. My only criticism? Some pictures of Flora and Charlie would not have gone amiss, and a couple of maps would also have helped greatly in conjuring up images of the intrepid journey Flora and her prince made.

[John Carpenter · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The Pretender’s Lady” seems at first glance to be set in the historical past, but the people and events are so vividly and forcefully presented they are transformed into the present. The narration is one of the most remarkable features of the novel: everything is concrete and experienced, felt, seen, and heard.
The landing of Charles Stuart (“Edward Louis John Casimir Sylvester Maria Stuart, Bonnie Prince Charlie”) in the Outer Hebrides Islands is described in this way: “It was all his. By birth. All of it. The Prince of Scotland braced his body against the ebb and flow of the waves as the small rowboat plied a path between the underwater banks of kelp and seaweed…”
Many readers are acquainted with the great Protestant-Catholic conflict in Europe in the eighteenth century. This was the time of the Catholic--“Stuart” or Jacobite-- challenge to the British crown and to Protestant England, also the time of “Bonnie Prince Charlie” or “the Pretender.” It was a time of a civil and cultural conflict sometimes presented by historians as a war of “us” versus “them,” of native English-speakers resisting foreign intrusions. The Georges—“the Hanovers in London”—were much more German than English. Jacobite dislike of London was intense, a rival court was created at Leicester House. One of the Georges hardly spoke English at all, another went insane for several years. Governance, especially in Scotland in Ireland, was largely military, as if these were occupied countries. Widespread massacres were carried out by Lord Cumberland and Lord North. According to Alan Gold, author of “The Pretender’s Lady,” a plan even existed to recolonize Scotland with the English. Gold is very good at describing the widespread disaffection, the arrogance of London and Parliament. This was also the time of the Stamp Act and the Tea Tax that led to the revolt of the American colonies.
The young man, Prince Charles Stuart, is woefully naïve. He has no army, that was initially promised by the French. His hopes of a spontaneous uprising against the British are dashed. (The Scottish clans are, as usual, divided.) One day a man appears on a distant hilltop playing “The Gathering of the Clans” on his bagpipes. It is the first step of an uprising, joined by more clans. Slowly the uprising gathers numbers.
The central character in the book is a young Scottish woman, Flora Macdonald; she is instrumental in saving the life of Prince Charles, she also bears him a child. Flora and her child eventually emigrate to America. Later they return to the British isles in hopes of inciting an uprising. Once again this results in failure.
Anglophile readers might cringe or squirm at the version of events in Alan Gold’s “The Pretender’s Lady.” It turns most of our conventional notions upside-down. Of course many of these are self-serving or self-comforting, nationalist or anachronistic. This book is fiction. It is, however, very well-researched. Cameo appearances of Ben Franklin, of Henry Fielding, Samuel Richardson and David Hume, surely imagined, are extremely well done. The book is a great pleasure to read.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a story of a woman who helped Bonnie Prince Charlie Escape Scotland after his disastrous bid to reclaim his birthright.

Written in much the same style as The Other Boyln Girl, The White Queen, and other novels which tell historical events from first person narratives.

I found the book to be engaging and eye opening. I have recently become enamored of Scottish history and have been seeking out stories about this time period in particular.

I was far from disappointed. The main character, Flora MacDonald, really existed and was a woman out of time. Getting involved in politics and political thinking long before it was acceptable, her strong mindedness, helped bring Charlie and army and then helped scurry him away when he was soundly defeated at Culledon Moor.

Later she flees Scotland and heads to America where she raises her son. The unknown son of Bonnie Prince Charlie.

[BookAddict · Rating 2 out of 5]

This started out so well and up until Flora's immigration to America it hangs together but the whole thing gets rather silly when Flora decides to try and convince England that her idea of a commonwealth could give England and Scotland what they want, then I couldn't wait for this book to end. Apparently there is a sequel which I won't be reading.

[Nicole · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love a good historical fiction, but unfortunately this one seemed so bogged down in details I was bored, and preferred flipping around the radio stations in my car to listening to this. The meat of the story still sounds interesting, we just never seemed to get there.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were parts of this book that I absolutely loved, but it didn't sustain my interest consistently. I am still trying to put my finger on why that is. I thought the writing lacked something that I can't explain right now

[BJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this book about Flora MacDonald and her adventures with saving Bonnie Prince Charlie. There was a lot of history of goings on in England, and France and then in America and the colonies. She was taken to the Tower of London and held captive for awhile.

[Brittany Wouters · Rating 1 out of 5]

From the beginning Gold delighted in telling, not showing, and his excessively detailed exposition in the first chapter is jarring and ruins the storytelling. I am also curious as to why he did not include an author's note at the end or a page denoting his consulted sources.

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

I remember learning the Skye Boat song in grade one, and only as an adult have a learnt a small piece of Scottish history, and the story of Flora McDonald. 'The Pretenders Lady' was a historical and fictional account of her life which I found to be quite an interesting perspective.