Book Review: "Her Heart for a Compass" by Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York

Historical Fiction is something that I really enjoy reading. One of my favourite authors ever is Philippa Gregory - I have read all of her books to date and every book she writes is brilliant. In this book entitled Her Heart for a Compass, we see the Duchess of York excel against the backdrop of one of British History's most famous ages - the Victorian Era. Honestly, the reason I picked up this book was because upon first glance, it reminded me so much of a Philippa Gregory novel even though Philippa Gregory herself tends to stick to an earlier age of history - it reminded me of the way Philippa Gregory writes about women and how they should have a voice.

This book starts off in the 1860s with a woman called Lady Margaret, she is the daughter of a Duke and a Duchess and is best friends with the daughter of Queen Victoria. At an age where it is considered her duty to secure a good marriage, Lady Margaret is set to marry a pompous weirdo whom she has absolutely no interest in. At a ball, she mysteriously vanishes into the night, meeting a Scottish Crimean War veteran before being take back home.

After the papers get a hold of the story, things start to turn out of control as she is shunned from polite society. Her father banishes her to a castle in Scotland where she is to have no contact with the family at all. Desperate to mend her ways, but also desperate not to throw her life away, she tries her best to return - but on her terms and her terms alone. She realises that this may mean getting along with people, but just for a while. She spends just enough time on this before she goes on a journey of self-discovery that will take her past Scotland, all the way to Ireland, to the United States, to Harper's Bazaar Magazine and all the way back to Scotland again.

One thing I loved about this book was the character of Lady Margaret. Yes, at times she can seem unreasonable but there is an excuse for it: she is desperate not to marry the man her parents have set out for her and she will not sit around whilst she is marketed to this strange man who, as I have read, seems to have very little personality whatsoever.

My favourite part of the book was when Lady Margaret goes to work with Father Sebastian in Lambeth in the church, she helps out by telling stories to children and does various charity works for the poor. I think that this aspect of the story really built the character of Lady Margaret and set her apart from her siblings and her friends. When her father finds out it is only right that her mother is more reasonable (I mean, since she knew in the first place) than her father is. It truly is quite a tense tale of keeping things from your family because they are completely out of order.

In conclusion, I really related to Lady Margaret in the sense that there is always something hindering you from doing what you want to do when you're a woman, and even more so when there are certain things you are expected to be doing: whether this means work, or socialising, or even something as small as eating - there are always obstacles of gender for women and I think that this book does a brilliant job of bringing them under the microscope through the character of Lady Margaret.