STELLA TILLYARD ON WRITING A ROYAL AFFAIR…

“When I began A Royal Affair I felt the burden of unknown lives weighing down on me and the questions they asked.  Who were George III's brothers and sisters, what were they like as men and women and as members of a family?  What was going to happen in their lives and how would their story end?  

Why did George's youngest sister die in exile, and virtual imprisonment? What went wrong in the brilliant marriage she had made as a fifteen year old to the young King of Denmark?  Why did his older sister, married to a German Prince and military hero, end her life in suburban Blackheath?  Why did his brothers, one by one, lose his affections, and how did they live their shadowed, royal lives?