Lady of the Butterflies (76 page)

Acknowledgments

I referred to many books while researching the various aspects of this novel.

For details of Eleanor’s life and for suggesting the title of this book, I am indebted to
The Making of a Manor: The Story of Tickenham Court
by Denys Forrest (Moonraker, 1975). Further biographical material on Eleanor is from “Elizabeth Glanville, an Early Entomologist” by Ronald Sterne Wilkinson (
Entomologist’s Gazette
, vol. 17); “The Life of a Distinguished Woman Naturalist, Eleanor Glanville” by W. S. Bristowe (
Entomologist’s Gazette
, vol. 18); and “Mrs Glanville and Her Fritillary” by P. B. M. Allan (
Entomologist’s Record and Journal of Variation
, vol. 63).

Details of James Petiver’s life and career are taken from “James Petiver: Promoter of Natural Science” by Raymond Phineas Stearns (
Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society
, October 1952). Michael A. Salmon’s
The Aurelian Legacy: British Butterflies and Their Collectors
(Harley Books, 2000) contains invaluable advice on early butterfly collecting and collectors, while more timeless information about butterflies is to be found in
Butterflies
by Dick Vane-Wright (Natural History Museum, 2003),
The Millennium Atlas of Butterflies in Britain and Ireland
(Oxford University Press, 2001), and
Breeding Butterflies and Moths: A Practical Handbook for British and European Species
by Ekkehard Friedrich (Harley Books, 1986).
The Spirit of Butterflies: Myth, Magic, and Art
by Maraleen Manos-Jones (Harry N. Abrams, 2000),
The Pursuit of Butterflies and Moths: An Anthology
by Patrick Matthews (Chatto and Windus, 1957), and
Butterfly Cooing Like a Dove
by Miriam Rothschild (Doubleday, 1991) go a long way to capturing the magic of butterflies.

For details of life in seventeenth-century England, I relied very heavily on David Cressy’s
Birth, Marriage & Death: Ritual, Religion, and the Life-Cycle in Tudor and Stuart England
(Oxford University Press, 1997),
The Weaker Vessel: Woman’s Lot in Seventeenth-Century England
by Antonia Fraser (Phoenix, 2002), and
Ingenious Pursuits: Building the Scientific Revolution
by Lisa Jardine (Little, Brown, 1999). Also of great assistance were
The World of the Country House in Seventeenth-Century England
by J. T. Cliffe (Yale University Press, 1999), Liza Picard’s
Restoration London: Everyday Life in the 1660s
(Phoenix, 1997),
Bonfires and Bells
by David Cressy (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1989),
Women and Property in Early Modern England
by Amy Louise Erickson (Routledge, 1993),
Mind-Forg’d Manacles: A History of Madness in England from the Restoration to the Regency
by Roy Porter (Athlone, 1987)
,
and
The Cavaliers in Exile, 1640–1660
by Geoffrey Smith (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003). For the history of malaria, I referred to
The Miraculous Fever-Tree: Malaria and the Quest for a Cure That Changed the World
by Fiammetta Rocco (HarperCollins, 2004).

Her Own Life: Autobiographical Writings by Seventeenth-Century Englishwomen
(Routledge, 1992) helped me find Eleanor’s voice and some of her vocabulary, while
The Somerset Levels
by Robin Williams and Romey Williams (Ex Libris, 1996) and
The Natural History of the Somerset Levels
by Bernard Storer (Dovecote, 1972) helped me describe her home. Michael Williams’s
The Draining of the Somerset Levels
(Cambridge University Press, 1970) and Robert Dunning’s
The Monmouth Rebellion: A Guide to the Rebellion and Bloody Assizes
(Dovecote, 1984) were also invaluable resources.

I had almost finished writing
Lady of the Butterflies
when I discovered two books, one old and one newly published, that provided me with fresh inspiration and information on the quest to understand metamorphosis:
John Ray, Naturalist: His Life and Works
by Charles E. Raven (Cambridge University Press, 1950) and the wonderful
Chrysalis: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis
by Kim Todd (I. B. Tauris, 2007), the latter the fascinating biography of a seventeenth-century butterfly collector and artist who was obsessed with butterfly life cycles and traveled on an expedition to the New World to study them.

My great thanks go to Stewart Plant, who gave me access to Eleanor’s lovely home and the now well-drained moors, as well as providing insight into what it is like to grow up and live at Tickenham Court. Thanks also to Dave Goodyear of the Natural History Museum and the researchers at the Guildhall Museum.

For endless encouragement and patience, my thanks as always to Tim, and to Daniel, James, Gabriel and Kezia (who was born at the same time as the idea for this book). Also to Jane Gridley. A big thank you to Broo Doherty for her belief and support, and to Rosie de Courcy and all at Preface. Last to David, for being my inspiration.