#Aye. Ken it wis like this...with Renee Dahlia

series image: Dunkeld Cathedral

It's Friday again, and time for another addition to my historical background series. 

I’m delighted to welcome Renee Dahlia to the blog to discuss her historical romance, The Heart of a Bluestocking. Set in 1888, in Victorian London, the novel is based on a real life horse racing mystery. 

I must admit to having read more recent novels set in the racing world, like those of Jilly Cooper, but none that I remember which went back to a Victorian setting. And none which had such a novel, intriguing mystery.... 

Hello Renee! Please tell us more of the Victorian London setting in The Heart of a Bluestocking, Book 3 of your 'Bluestocking' series which will be launched on 20th October 2018. 

Horse racing has over three hundred years of official history in England, with Weatherbys Stud Book dating back to 1770, although informal horse racing took place for centuries before this. As horse racing became more developed the rules have evolved to ensure fairness for punters – however, this wasn’t always the case, and many fascinating tales of the turf come from the pre-computing era of horse racing. One of these happened on the Bank Monday holiday in August of 1898, when an entire race meeting was invented by an unknown punter in order to scam the city bookmakers of some serious coin. In the weeks leading up to the August bank holiday, the Sportsman newspaper received a series of communications from a member of the Trodmore Hunt Club notifying them of their upcoming meeting. The Sportsman published the fields for the meeting, later saying the quality of their communications with the club was of such a high standard, it seemed obvious the club was real.

The Encyclopaedia of Sport  - Wikimedia Commons 

The Sportsman couldn’t commit a journalist to cover the raceday, as they were busy with the nearby Newton Abbot meeting, but noted that if one of the stewards would be obliged to send the result, that would be appreciated. Enter Mr Martin. He agreed to cover the event for the Sportsman for the fee of one guinea, with full results wired at the end of the meeting. As this day was one of the few public holidays in 1898, it was a huge day for the races, and very busy with bookies. The bookies did a roaring trade on Trodmore, bigger than expected for a minor meeting but not completely unexpected for a holiday.

The evening papers published the results from the major meetings held that day but didn’t publish the Trodmore results until the next day. As a side note, the telegraph first came into use in 1837, and by 1845, the Electric Telegraph Company had formed and the technology was about to take off. Australia became connected to the world in October 1872, and the telegraph across the Pacific was finally completed in 1902 to encircle the whole world. Therefore, by 1898, the idea that race results could be sent quickly to newspapers was old news!

Mr Martin wrote an effusive letter about the success of the meeting, and the Trodmore results were published in the Sportsman. Punters will notice an important feature of the results.

First race – Jim 5/4

Second race – Rosy 5/1

Third race – Spur 2/1

Fourth race – Reaper 5/1

Fifth race – Curfew 6/4

Sixth race – Fairy Bells 7/4

Every winner won at low odds with nothing dramatic for the bookies to pay attention to. So how did anyone find out that the whole meeting didn’t exist? The Sporting Life didn’t print the results (remember, they hadn’t printed the racecard either), and bookies asked them to confirm the odds, refusing to pay out until such time. Mr Martin contacted The Sporting Life, as the journalist who had represented the Sportsman at the meeting and agreed to write an article for The Sporting Life. However, he couldn’t send it through until the following afternoon. With the bookies furiously wanting to confirm the results, The Sporting Life decided to copy the results from the Sportsman to save time. The printer, perhaps tired or hungover, erroneously made a typo, putting Reaper as having won at 5/2. Now the bookies were really paying attention – which newspaper was right? And where was Trodmore anyway? 

The Sportsman’s editor telegraphed Mr Martin and received no response. The addresses on the original letters were traced, and no place called Trodmore existed. The matter was handed over to police, and the Sportsman printed an apology note. The scam took thousands of pounds from bookmakers, and the punter who set up the scam was never caught. One theory is that only someone with journalism skills and a strong racing background had the working understanding of both the papers and horse racing to be able to pull off such an idea.

In The Heart of a Bluestocking, Claire and Ravi must solve a mystery based on the Trodmore Hunt Scam. The Trodmore Hunt Scam is a simple scam, but for characters who have no knowledge of horse racing, it creates tension as they try to understand racing, the scam, and save their families from the consequences. In The Heart of a Bluestocking, the fictional scam occurs in 1888, and there are some alterations to the scam to keep the reader guessing (as well as the characters solving the crime).

When an uncommon lawyer meets an unusual doctor, their story must be extraordinary...

The Heart of a Bluestocking

September 1888: Dr Claire Carlingford owns the bluestocking label. Her tycoon father encouraged her to study, and with the support of her two best friends, she took it further than anyone could imagine, graduating as a doctor and running her own medical practice. But it's not enough for her father. He wants her to take over the business, so he can retire. Then his sudden arrest throws the family into chaos and his business into peril.

Mr James Ravi Howick, second son of Lord Dalhinge, wants to use his position as a lawyer to improve conditions for his mother's family in India. When an opportunity arises to work for Carlingford Enterprises, one of the richest companies in the world, Ravi leaps at the chance to open his own legal practise. But his employment becomes personal as he spends more time with Claire and she learns the secret that could destroy his family.

Both Ravi and Claire are used to being outsiders and alone. But as they work together to save their respective families from disaster, it becomes clear that these two misfits might just fit together perfectly.

Out: 20 October 2018

https://www.harpercollins.com.au/9781489264626/
http://books2read.com/u/3yD16v
http://www.reneedahlia.com/books/bluestockings/

See Renee's Amazon page HERE for more details.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_encyclopaedia_of_sport_(1897)_(14784057655).jpg

Thank you for visiting today, Renee, and for bringing such an interesting concept for your novel. My very best wishes for The Heart of a Bluestocking when it launches next month.  I can see my kindle pile increasing again, and since I always like to start a new series at the beginning I might just have enough time to squeeze in Books 1 & 2 first...