Teddington-based author Molly Gartland, who moved to the town from Michigan 20 years ago, will publish a new historical novel inspired by the remarkable history of Bushy House and its royal residents later this month.

The Queen of Bushy House reimagines the extraordinary true story of Princess Adelaide – later Queen Adelaide – and Dorothea Jordan, the celebrated actress who made Bushy House her home for fifteen years with the Duke of Clarence, later King William IV.

The manuscript was shortlisted for the Historical Novel Society First Chapters Competition 2024.

Set at Bushy House on the edge of Bushy Park, the novel explores love, loss, duty and legacy against the backdrop of Regency England, bringing to life a fascinating chapter of local history that many visitors pass every day without realising.

In an exclusive interview with Nub News, Gartland explained that she moved to Teddington from the US after she met her husband, who is from Twickenham, while they were abroad.

"I love Teddington and have no plans to leave," she said.

The author explained that she always wrote as a kid, but did not write her first novel until she had completed her Creative Writing Master's at St Mary's University, where she learned how to write a novel. She was teaching English as a foreign language at West Thames College before that.

The Queen of Bushy House is Gartland's second novel. Her first, The Girl from the Hermitage, was set in Russia, which she published in 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Speaking about her first novel, Gartland said: "I spent six years in Russia, and many years later that book was inspired by a portrait that I had bought while I was there.

"I had just finished my MA and thought 'Why not write a book about the portrait?', especially as I love historical fiction that takes you to a time and place that you haven't considered before."

The author said she is inspired by writers such as Tracy Chevalier and Maggie O'Farrell.

She explained that she went on to write a second book after publishing the first but ended up abandoning the manuscript.

"The writing process was like a journey, so I abandoned one manuscript that I was working on and then I came on to this local story, so I decided to pursue that instead," she said.

Gartland first learnt about Dorothea Jordan's time living at Bushy House with the Duke of Clarence during an open day at the site back in 2023

She said: "They had boards up about Dorothea, and then Queen Adelaide later, and I just found this story really, really interesting, so I read a biography about Dorothea Jordan by Claire Tomlin - a local author based in Richmond.

"It was just a brilliant biography of Dorothea Jordan, and it was interesting because there's very little published about Queen Adelaide.

"She was a very nice woman, and in general nice women are not written about. She had a very different story to Dorothea, but it was a story worth telling, and although the two women never met, I was hoping to bring their stories together. And so that's what I set out to do in this book."

Gartland explained that it was her mother who urged her to write the book.

She said: "My mother was visiting from America a few months after I first heard the story, and we were walking around the park and I was probably complaining that I had nothing to write about and then I told her the story of Dorothea and Adelaide as we walked past Bushy house, and she said 'why don't you write about them?' And I agreed.

"Sadly, she passed away earlier this year, so she didn't actually see the book in her hand, but she did read earlier drafts. She was very much the person who encouraged me to pursue it."

While there is a lot of information about Dorothea Jordan, Gartland said she struggled to find much on Queen Adelaide.

"There is a very old biography that wasn't great, and there were some letters and other documents she had to be pieced together, but not much," she said.

Gartland added: "But that's what I love about historical fiction - you're taking these acts of people and thinking, ' What happened behind those closed doors?' 'What happened in this conversation that nobody has heard or nobody knows about?' And then you create that dynamic between characters."

Speaking about what readers can expect from The Queen of Bushy House, the author told Nub News: "Well, it's definitely a story that moves along at a pacey rate, and there's a little bit of humour. There's a little bit of sadness too, but it also explores motherhood and loss as well as the responsibilities that women have.

"And what's remarkable is how many of the things they're grappling with, e.g. the challenges they were grappling with so long ago, remain today.

"So for Dorothea, she was a very, very successful actress, but was also juggling a family of ten children with her very prominent acting career. That made her successful in her own right before she got involved with the Duke of Clarence.

"And then with Adelaide, she's coming in to be a stepmother to these illegitimate children, and she's only three years older than the eldest son, and it's strikingly modern- I find that those aspects of the story make it interesting.

"Adelaide was half the age of the Duke of Clarence and only three years older than his eldest son. Imagine being a young foreign bride arriving at Bushy House, expected to replace a woman who had once captivated London. That's where my novel begins.

"So, it's interesting to see how some things seem so modern in their story."

The Queen of Bushy House will be published on 23 September and can be bought in paperback and e-book versions.

Gartland said that readers can purchase a signed copy from her website here, from The Landmark Arts Centre gift shop in Teddington, or can ask local shops to pre-order it.

She added that The Open Book in Richmond and Parade's End Books in Ham will stock the novel "because much of the story takes place in Richmond as well, with links to Petersham Lodge, Richmond Theatre and Kew Palace".