Guest Author Lloyd Lofthouse on Books, History, and Writing ‘My Splendid Concubine’
It’s all about time travel. After a nine year journey through time, My Splendid Concubine was finished.
My first journey took place while I was in high school. I worked in the school library and discovered the time machine in books. My first trip was to the Civil War. I’ve forgotten the author, but he set the hook deep.
I was reading one or two books a day and working nights washing dishes in a department store coffee shop. I don’t know how I went to high school, worked thirty hours a week and managed to read, but I did.
After that trip to the Civil War, I quickly moved on to C.S. Forester’s Hornblower series. Later, I bought the books and discovered the Emmy Award-winning series that A&E produced. I’ve read Hornblower twice.
My fascination with history didn’t start in my teens. I created historical fiction comic books when I was in grade school. Instead of doing homework, I’d lay on the floor with colored pencils drawing frames for battle scenes that told stories. The engine for my time machine as a child was an encyclopedia set and my imagination.
In my opinion, ‘dry’ nonfiction can’t compete with a well written historical novel. After high school, I fought in Vietnam as a U.S. Marine. Even though I returned with PTSD, I don’t mind visiting history vicariously through bigger-than-life characters brought to life by skilled authors.
College was behind me by the time I discovered and read Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey/Maturin series. I have the Master and Commander DVD starring Russell Crowe. Currently, I’m reading Sword Song by Bernard Cornwell. Three recent books are: Mozart’s Wife by Juliet Waldron; High Spirits by Dianne K.Salerni, and The Confederate War Bonnet by Jack Shakely—all excellent time trips.
This love for reading fostered a passion for writing. I wrote my first manuscript in 1968, and I never stopped writing. I’m also married to an accomplished author. I’ve edited her novels: Becoming Madam Mao; Empress Orchid, and The Last Empress. That set the stage for what came next.
In 1999, my wife said I might be interested in Robert Hart. I Googled Hart and discovered that few books existed about this man considered the godfather of China’s modernism. Harvard published three. I ordered Entering China’s Service, Robert Hart’s Journals, 1854-1863 along with two volumes of Hart’s letters. Reading Hart’s journals and letters fascinated me. He lived an incredible life. Yet, what he had accomplished had been all but forgotten.
There was also a mystery. Shortly before Hart’s death, he burned several journals covering his early years in China. In addition, he left instructions to have the rest destroyed once he was gone. Lucky for us, his wishes were ignored.
There were enough clues to prove he had a concubine, Ayaou. The Harvard scholars wrote that Ayaou played an important part in Hart’s life. My wife and I traveled to China. We uncovered enough to know that Ayaou was the love of Hart’s life, but his Christian, Victorian upbringing drove him to hide this bitter-sweet, love story from the world. My Splendid Concubine is that love story.
December 3rd, 2008 at 9:34 am
[...] Lofthouse, author of the historical fiction novel, MY SPLENDID CONCUBINE, will be stopping off at The Book Stacks! Driven by a passion for his adopted country, Robert Hart became the “godfather of China’s [...]