The scene is London, 1699. Anastasia Ashby de la Zouche, Baroness Penge, Countess of Clapham, is an aristocrat on her uppers. Cast into the notorious Fleet Prison by the bum-bailiffs, she is forced to turn to journalism. Her new occupation unfortunately leads to her implication in a murder.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
A boisterous, bawdy romp through Restoration England, Unnatural Fire introduces a pair of unlikely heroines and sets them on a merry chase through London just before the dawn of the 18th century. The Countess Ashby de la Zouche has lost her place in society with the death of Charles II, her former paramour, and the subsequent disappearance of her husband, a swindler who's gone to America to seek his fortune. Languishing in debtor's prison, she's soon rediscovered by her erstwhile maid Alpiew, whose circumstances aren't much better than her former employer's. But the two women swiftly discover how to turn their shared fondness for gossip into a tidy livelihood as stringers for an infamous scandal sheet. Hired by a wealthy matron to get the goods on her philandering husband, they stumble on a murder that sets this fast-paced, funny story in motion. The mystery mixes royal intrigue, theatrical shenanigans, cross-dressing strangers, and secret formulas into a delicious potion brewed by an actor and playwright who specializes in Restoration comedy. Author Fidelis Morgan's thorough familiarity with the period informs every paragraph of this delightful historical romp. --Jane Adams
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
British actress and playwright Morgan's (Hangover Square) love of Restoration comedy fires her first novel, a bawdy romp featuring a pair of unlikely female sleuths: the intrepid 60-year-old Lady Anastasia Ashby de la Zouche, who was once Charles II's mistress, and her former personal maid, the buxom, alluring Alpiew. Desperate for money, the countess and Alpiew join forces to write articles for a London scandal sheet, but get sidetracked following a well-to-do merchant, Beau Wilson, at the behest of his worried wife, who is suspicious of his long, unexplained absences from home. As they trail Beau around London's seedier districts, the countess and Alpiew attend a play or two as well as a lecture on the eclipse of the sun (due later that year of 1699), comment wittily on the state of the theater and scientific learning and eventually stumble on their quarry, his throat cut from ear to ear, one night in Covent Garden. Like a comic Restoration play, the action proceeds pell-mell, replete with bad puns and knockabout farce. The discovery of a secret "elaboratory" where Beau dabbled in the "hermetic arts" (alchemy), a fishing outing to the country, the murder of the Wilsons' loyal servant, Betty, and a cipher in alchemical symbols all lead in the end to a surprising plot involving King William himself. Fans of light historical mysteries are sure to be amused. (Mar. 16)Forecast: The BBC and Channel 4 are adapting Unnatural Fire for a TV movie; A&E and PBS are both interested in U.S. rights. Adaptation by either of the latter will boost sales of the book down the road.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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More About the Author
Fidelis Morgan was born in a red gypsy caravan, Kiomi Romani, in an orchard at the corner of the grounds of the ancient Amesbury Abbey, halfway between Stonehenge and Woodhenge.
Her parents, Liverpool Catholics, believed in education in the widest sense, and enjoyed picking up waifs and strays. Once the family moved to a house it was not only crammed with animals (cats, dogs, chickens, geese, goats and foxes) but an endless stream of eccentric characters: boisterous painters who picked up women in the street to pose nude in the living room, musicians who battered away on milk bottles, the disgraced son of a local Earl, an Irish builder who had won and lost a million three times over and a bearded man who wore her mother's underwear and did the cleaning while Mae West records played. There was even a famous cat-burglar, who was proudly paraded at school sports day.
Fidelis survived school, despite being jeered at for her northern accent, and being expelled a number of times.
During her school holidays she spent a lot of time living in Paris where her mother sometimes worked as a painter on the Butte, Montmartre. Fidelis regularly earned enough money painting clowns, playing the guitar and giving Americans guided tours in a cod French accent ("Don't you talk good English, little girl. Here's a dollar.") to buy supper for them both.
She gained an honours degree at Birmingham University. Her finals papers were on Restoration London and the world of the 17th century theatre. Which led to her ground-breaking book THE FEMALE WITS, which rediscovered the long lost women playwrights of the Restoration. She followed up with numerous anthologies and biographies set in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, including A WOMAN OF NO CHARACTER, and The WELL-KNOWN TROUBLEMAKER.
She works as a professional actor. Her screen appearances include Jeeves and Wooster, As Time Goes By, Mr Majeika, Dead Gorgeous, Big Women and Never Let Me Go.
Fidelis has played leading roles by Brecht, Chekhov, Wilde, Coward, Lorca, Orton, Shaw, Genet, Goldoni, Massinger & Schiller, in companies like West Yorkshire Playhouse, Nottingham Playhouse, Liverpool Everyman, Paines Plough and particularly the Glasgow Citizens, where her work won her a Best Actress nomination in The Observer.
She has played opposite Rupert Everett, Glenda Jackson, Dame Judi Dench, Ciaran Hinds, Gary Oldman, Helena Bonham Carter and Alan Rickman.
As a playwright, her adaptation of Samuel Richardson's PAMELA won her a nomination as Most Promising Playwright, and was described in the Guardian as "a new eighteenth century play". The Morgan/Benedict play Fragments From the Life of Marie Antoinette won the LIPA award for large cast play 1997, while her adaptation of Patrick Hamilton's HANGOVER SQUARE played for an extended run at the Lyric Hammersmith, where it acquired cult status, and was recently revived to great acclaim at the Finborough Theatre.
Her four murder mysteries featuring The Countess Ashby dela Zouche and her maid Alpiew are acclaimed throughout the world.
She has a new short story collection TRIPLE SHORTS and a modern novel, MURDER QUADRILLE available for Kindle and download to computers.
Her parents, Liverpool Catholics, believed in education in the widest sense, and enjoyed picking up waifs and strays. Once the family moved to a house it was not only crammed with animals (cats, dogs, chickens, geese, goats and foxes) but an endless stream of eccentric characters: boisterous painters who picked up women in the street to pose nude in the living room, musicians who battered away on milk bottles, the disgraced son of a local Earl, an Irish builder who had won and lost a million three times over and a bearded man who wore her mother's underwear and did the cleaning while Mae West records played. There was even a famous cat-burglar, who was proudly paraded at school sports day.
Fidelis survived school, despite being jeered at for her northern accent, and being expelled a number of times.
During her school holidays she spent a lot of time living in Paris where her mother sometimes worked as a painter on the Butte, Montmartre. Fidelis regularly earned enough money painting clowns, playing the guitar and giving Americans guided tours in a cod French accent ("Don't you talk good English, little girl. Here's a dollar.") to buy supper for them both.
She gained an honours degree at Birmingham University. Her finals papers were on Restoration London and the world of the 17th century theatre. Which led to her ground-breaking book THE FEMALE WITS, which rediscovered the long lost women playwrights of the Restoration. She followed up with numerous anthologies and biographies set in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, including A WOMAN OF NO CHARACTER, and The WELL-KNOWN TROUBLEMAKER.
She works as a professional actor. Her screen appearances include Jeeves and Wooster, As Time Goes By, Mr Majeika, Dead Gorgeous, Big Women and Never Let Me Go.
Fidelis has played leading roles by Brecht, Chekhov, Wilde, Coward, Lorca, Orton, Shaw, Genet, Goldoni, Massinger & Schiller, in companies like West Yorkshire Playhouse, Nottingham Playhouse, Liverpool Everyman, Paines Plough and particularly the Glasgow Citizens, where her work won her a Best Actress nomination in The Observer.
She has played opposite Rupert Everett, Glenda Jackson, Dame Judi Dench, Ciaran Hinds, Gary Oldman, Helena Bonham Carter and Alan Rickman.
As a playwright, her adaptation of Samuel Richardson's PAMELA won her a nomination as Most Promising Playwright, and was described in the Guardian as "a new eighteenth century play". The Morgan/Benedict play Fragments From the Life of Marie Antoinette won the LIPA award for large cast play 1997, while her adaptation of Patrick Hamilton's HANGOVER SQUARE played for an extended run at the Lyric Hammersmith, where it acquired cult status, and was recently revived to great acclaim at the Finborough Theatre.
Her four murder mysteries featuring The Countess Ashby dela Zouche and her maid Alpiew are acclaimed throughout the world.
She has a new short story collection TRIPLE SHORTS and a modern novel, MURDER QUADRILLE available for Kindle and download to computers.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Unnatural Fire,
By
This review is from: Unnatural Fire: A Countess Ashby de la Zouche Mystery (Hardcover)
A historical mystery that is a delightful rowdy romp through London in 1699. Not at all the usual 'researched and narrated to the nth degree' slow moving dull historical mystery one finds so often. Countess de la Zouche, bawdy ex-mistress of Charles II, keeps out of debtor's prison by selling naughty gossip tidbits with the aid of her former maid, Alpiew. Their adventures include murder, scandal/mystery involving alchemy, numerous backstreet characters and nobility. Witty and satirical, this book is definitely a fun read.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very Entertaining--especially for a first novel,
By
This review is from: Unnatural Fire: A Countess Ashby de la Zouche Mystery (Countess Ashby de La Zouche Mysteries) (Paperback)
Fidelis Morgan's UNNATURAL FIRE is an unnaturally enjoyable historical mystery. She blends mystery, comedy, intrigue and a healthy measure of period details of Restoration-era London to whirl the reader back in time. I do sincerely hope she plans to write a long-lived series featuring Countess Ashby de la Zouche and her fiery partner-in-criminal investigation, maid and confidant, Alpiew. They do make a winning pair! Hats (or should I say, wigs?) off to Miss Morgan for a finely written and very, very enjoyable "romp" through the back alleys and other unseemly places of ye olde London!!
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A devious duo solve a mystery,
By Luan Gaines "luansos" (Dana Point, CA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (VINE VOICE) (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
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This review is from: Unnatural Fire: A Countess Ashby de la Zouche Mystery (Countess Ashby de La Zouche Mysteries) (Paperback)
Out of expedience, two women on the fringes of society in Restoration England become embroiled in a mystery far more complicated than what it first appears. Lady Anastasia Ashby de la Zouche and her trusted servant Alpiew exist from day to day in that part of London where the demimonde earn their living by taking advantage of opportunity. Just released from debtor's prison, the two women have contracted to uncover shocking stories for a scandal sheet, even if they have to fabricate the details. In the context of researching a story, they are hired by a respectable woman to follow her husband, who the wife suspects of infidelity. Not exactly inconspicuous, the two bumbling sleuths eventually witness the husband's brutal murder, although they cannot get a good look at the perpetrator. When the wife herself is accused of murder for hire, Lady Ashby and Alpiew delve into the dark passages of nighttime London, replete with murderers, thieves and cutpurses, on a mission for truth.The result is a comedy of errors as the aging Countess Ashby exploits her memorable dalliance with the former King Charles II, now deceased. With the buxom and youthful Alpiew as a partner, the two unlikely detectives uncover more fodder for gossip and accusation than anticipated, from secret experiments to an alchemist's laboratory and suspects in high places. The two women are as engaging as they are foolish and impetuous and render the story with a broad wink at the vagaries of human nature. And, of course, in the nick of time, all is made right and fortunes restored. Snappy dialog and quirky characters make this back alley romp a pleasant experience.
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First Sentence:
'Take this down ... "At the stroke of 8 o'clock this morning, while the night-watch Charlies still slept in their boxes, the Honourable Marmaduke Smallwood tied a knot with tongue which he can never untie with his teeth. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
vizard mask, span round, bar lady, hackney carriage Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Sir Peter, Beau Wilson, German Street, Covent Garden, Jack Fry, Mistress Alpiew, Signior Fideli, Dorset Garden, Duchesse de Pigalle, Fleet Prison, Gresham College, King Charles, New World, Benefit of Clergy, King William, Lady Ashby de la Zouche, Salisbury Court, Baroness Penge, Countess of Clapham, Isaac Newton, John Cowley, Lady Anastasia Ashby de la Zouche, Ludgate Hill, Angel Court, Anglesey House New!
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
'Take this down ... "At the stroke of 8 o'clock this morning, while the night-watch Charlies still slept in their boxes, the Honourable Marmaduke Smallwood tied a knot with tongue which he can never untie with his teeth. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
vizard mask, span round, bar lady, hackney carriage Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Sir Peter, Beau Wilson, German Street, Covent Garden, Jack Fry, Mistress Alpiew, Signior Fideli, Dorset Garden, Duchesse de Pigalle, Fleet Prison, Gresham College, King Charles, New World, Benefit of Clergy, King William, Lady Ashby de la Zouche, Salisbury Court, Baroness Penge, Countess of Clapham, Isaac Newton, John Cowley, Lady Anastasia Ashby de la Zouche, Ludgate Hill, Angel Court, Anglesey House New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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