By Louise Sapphira.
Exploring the prosperity of women in history and the current day through portraits that remain with us.
The concept of beauty as a form of currency to create prosperity in society is explored in Lauren Chater’s historical fiction novel The Beauties. The narrative discovers women taking advantage of their talents, wit, and courage while becoming independent. These themes are woven into the narrative of The Beauties through the commissioning of paintings, now known as The Windsor Beauties from the seventeenth century. When I interviewed Lauren we talked about the history behind The Beauties and how the novel resonates with people today.
Lauren initially discussed how the idea for the novel came alive. She read an article about ‘the Windsor of Beauties on the Atlas Obscura website, a virtual curiosity cabinet of all different sorts of interesting stories from history.’ Lauren added, ‘They were the King’s mistresses, [but also] like the Victoria’s Secret models of their time.’ She thought it would be ‘interesting to explore what it was like to use your beauty as currency because that is still something that women do and are forced to do.’ This included the impact of this on women as they age, as well as the compromises they made to prosper in society. Lauren also read an article written by supermodel, Emily Ratajkowski, who had her naked image used ‘without her permission.’ Lauren said Emily ‘had to raise all this money to try and buy one back, there was this sort of symbolism of owning, reclaiming her image.’ She added, ‘Those two ideas together put me in the mind of writing this book.’
The research involved Lauren visiting Hampton Court Palace where she saw the paintings. She said, ‘It was very surreal…they’re in this smaller gallery that people don’t often visit, so it felt to me very haunted.’ Lauren explained how four hundred years have passed, and ‘It’s interesting how they would never in real life be in a room together, but as portraits, they are destined to stare at each other.’
To further explore how the narrative behind The Beauties unfolded, we discussed the two main protagonists, Emilia Lennox and Anne Hyde. Lauren said, ‘Emilia was inspired by one of the real models for the series, her name was Frances Stewart’ who was pursued by the King to be one of his mistresses. This is King Charles II, ‘he loved women, he loved fun…and she held off his advances for so long, for a lifetime really.’ Anne Hyde, the second protagonist, was a real person, ‘quite an unknown figure in royal history…who commissioned the portrait series of the Windsor of Beauties.’ Lauren wanted to understand why Anne commissioned the portrait series because, ‘Art was considered another domain that men knew best about, and of course art is currency as well. It’s power. It’s propaganda…It’s prosperity.’ Lauren asked herself why she chose these women, ‘Was she endorsing them and offering them power? Or was she trying to advance her own agenda?’ Anne ‘endured a lot of scandal from’ people known as the ‘Anne Haters’ who spread gossip about her because ‘she’s a commoner and a lot of the royal courtiers and royals hated that…someone from this sort of lower rank would dare have the audacity to try and be at the same level.’ There was little truth to the rumours, and Anne managed to find her way to continue her path and create a fragment of history that stays with us today.
The love stories of Emilia Lennox and Anne Hyde are also portrayed in the novel. One of the characters that is dominant in Emilia’s story is Henry Greenhill. Henry Greenhill worked for Peter Lely in the art studio that was commissioned to paint The Windsor Beauties and was also inspired by a real person called John Greenhill. Lauren said, ‘He eventually…opened up his own studio, but his downfall was he loved to party a little bit too much, and one night he was coming home from the Tavern…and he was drunk fell down a ditch in Holborn and drowned.’ However there is more to the character Henry, and this is evident in the novel.
Lauren said, ‘I wanted to give Henry a happier ending than poor John Greenhill, but also Henry has a lot of me.’ Henry is an artist, something Lauren is also interested in, and how ‘Artists reconcile their interior world, their exterior world and their commercial need to make money so they can live but stay true to their art.’ Lauren said about her novel, ‘There are a lot of passages about art that actually could be about writing.’ A connection between the two is something Lauren has explored for some time. She added, ‘I have always loved art and visiting art galleries with my dad and [being] interested in symbolism.’ Lauren explained, ‘We go to art galleries and we see the paintings, but there are hundreds of years of history behind it…and I want to bring that into the collective consciousness for contemporary readers.’
The novel also explores making choices and decision-making. Lauren explained that in The Beauties the idea of having choices is about ‘that class system [that] really limits to what you can do and what you can have.’ She discussed how during this period there were restrictions on who you could marry and what profession you had and when we initially met Emilia it appeared her choices were limited. However, ‘Through her self-discovery, of art and her skills and meeting Henry, she does realise that she has more options than she originally thought she did, and it’s through the exploration of those choices and possibilities that she eventually gains her kind of happy ending.’ The audience is given a glimpse of this anticipation early in the novel when Emilia is in London:
‘Reunited with her childhood friend, in a city where she once dreamed of living, anything seems possible.’
To reach this happy ending, the reader is engaged in the narrative through a structure that involves two stories within two timeframes gradually overlapping. Lauren said she ‘always had this idea that the story would be told alongside Emilia and Henry’s [because] Anne’s voice was the one that I heard first.’ Lauren added, ‘When you’re telling a story like that, you want there to be a common thread in each section, that links to the next section.’ However, Lauren sees structure as more than a crafting tool but rather ‘how the reader is going to put this information together…because they’re the missing link between the writer and how that story is created.’
Lauren discussed the journey to becoming a best-selling author, and said ‘I always loved reading and writing.’ Lauren’s parents gave her the option to participate in a creative writing club each week after school. She said, ‘I loved it so much, it was just my happy place.’ However, Lauren started writing seriously when she became a mother. She said, ‘I felt like I had something to say…I felt like I could write about human experience with a little more authority.’ Lauren then started to enter writing competitions. She added, ‘It was picked up by Simon and Schuster and they offered me a three-book contract.’ From this, Lauren’s first book The Lace Weaver was submitted and published.
Lauren’s current writing project is called Rue and said, ‘as in sorrow, regret,’ about the Macbeth witches. Lauren added, ‘It will be all about sisterhood and prophecy and again women making choices and there will be a sixteenth-century timeline.’ To draw on writing historical fiction and how Lauren’s novels connect with the current day, in the context of The Beauties, Lauren said ‘we can still relate…Things aren’t perfect…[However] I hope that people read the story and see those little acts of resistance in there, and take courage from that.’ What illuminates when reading The Beauties, is the empowerment of women. A theme that is also coming through in Lauren’s current writing projects. Inspiring the audience to be proud of the journey of women in society.
Lauren Chater is a Sydney-based author. Her books include The Lace Weaver, Gulliver’s Wife and The Winter Dress which was longlisted for the ARA historical prize. Her latest book The Beauties was released in April 2024.