Sherlock Holmes and the Dance of the Tiger (47 page)

Any representation of Sarah Fairbrother which might be interpreted as maligning her character in this novel is completely unfounded and a fictionalized version of her character.
 
The only account I read of her was that she was “jealous”, I have no knowledge of Sarah Fairbrother sending chocolate, poison or otherwise, to Louisa Beauclerk.

A “wedding” did occur between Prince George and Sarah Fairbrother 12-17-1846, but Miss Fairbrother was not legally recognized as his wife, which Prince George would have known even during the ceremony.
 
They were not legally married according to the Royal Marriages Act of 1772 and he did sign a false name to the marriage certificate.
 

http://anthonyjcamp.com/page12.htm

It is estimated that there are only 350-450 Siberian tigers left in the wild.
Almost all wild Siberian tigers live in the Southeast corner of Russia in the Sikhote-Alin mountain range east of the Amur River. Their former range included northeastern China and the Korean Peninsula, and as far west as Mongolia. They are the largest of the tiger species and can grow up to 13 feet in length and weigh up to 700 lbs.

The Siberian is considered a critically
endangered species
with the primary threats to its' survival in the wild being poaching and habitat loss from intensive logging and development.

To help Tigers In Crisis
 
http://www.tigersincrisis.com/siberian_tiger.htm
.

A gift from Bahadur, the white-bearded yogi,
if you wish your meditation period to be more exotic
:

http://hansonrecords.bandcamp.com/album/sounds-of-the-indian-snake-charmer-vol-two

The events surrounding Cetshwayo, the last king of an independent Zulu nation, are accurate according to my research, as was the granting of 38 wives to John Dunn.
 
The character of Ashanti is fictitious.
 

Ashanti is modeled after both Irina Bugrimova (b. 1910, d. 2001), first female lion tamer in the Soviet Union, and Mabel Stark (b. 1889, d. 1968), the world’s first female tiger/tamer.
Both ladies were mauled by the big cats—and both loved them nonetheless.
 
After working so many years with tigers, Mabel committed suicide because she was fired from the ring.
 

In 1923, Mabel starred in the Ringling center ring, but two years later in 1925, the circus banned all wild animal acts. After a sojourn to Europe where she performed in a circus, she came back to the U.S. in 1928 and began work with the John Robinson Show. In
Bangor, Maine
, she lost her footing in a muddy arena and was seriously mauled by her tigers. She would suffer a wound that almost severed her leg, face lacerations, a hole in her shoulder, a torn deltoid muscle and a host of other injuries. She was rescued by fellow trainer, Terrell Jacobs, and returned to the ring in a matter of weeks, swathed in bandages and walking with a cane. She suffered numerous maulings and serious injury over her nearly 60 years of working with tigers. At one point in her career, she faced 18 big cats in the ring.

In 1968 Jungleland was sold to a new owner who disliked Stark and fired her. Soon after she left, one of her tigers escaped and was shot. Stark was angry and hurt about the animal's destruction and felt that she could have safely secured the tiger if the owners had asked for her assistance. Three months later, she killed herself by an overdose of barbiturates.
 
In the last pages of her autobiography,
Hold That Tiger
, Stark writes: "The chute door opens as I crack my whip and shout, 'Let them come,' Out slink the striped cats, snarling and roaring, leaping at each other or at me. It's a matchless thrill, and life without it is not worth while to me."
 
She died on April 20, 1968.
 

The University of London in 1878 was the first university to admit women and University College London laid claim to be the first institution to run co-educational lessons.
 

http://www.london.ac.uk/history.html

University of London
Senate House
Malet Street
London
WC1E 7HU

In 1878 London became the first university in the UK to admit women to its degrees. In 1880, four women passed the BA examination and in 1881 two women obtained a BSc.
 

In 1900-1, there were 296 women students at Cambridge and 239 at Oxford. Women did not become full members of the university in Oxford until 1919 and in Cambridge until 1948.

Author Bio

Suzette Hollingsworth grew up in Wyoming and Texas, went to school in Tennessee (Sewanee), lived in Europe two summers, and now resides in beautiful Washington State with her cartoonist/author husband Clint, Barney D. Barncat, and Tinkerbelle the dachsie.
 

She collaborates on an autobiographical web-comic with her husband, Clint Hollingsworth,
www.startingfromscratchcomic.com
.
 
Visit her website at
www.suzettehollingsworth.com
.
 
You can contact her via facebook “Suzette Hollingsworth”.
 
If you enjoyed this book, p
lease write an honest review and post it on Amazon, which is a great help to the author in finding her fan base.

Suzette's writing style combines wit with elegance and can be described as "A Jane Austen and Robert Downey Jr. meet on the African Queen type of Historical Romance".

Her goal in writing historical fiction is that you, the reader, will engage in a magical journey and time travel through her books.
 
She is
very excited about her current Sherlock Holmes series in which Mrs. Hudson’s niece is a potential love interest amidst this Victorian mystery.
 
Sherlock Holmes is a great, fun hero to write because he is liked from the get-go despite being pompous and insufferable (or perhaps because of it!), something which might result in an unsympathetic hero in another narrative.   The series draws on the imagery surrounding the beloved Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson (in particular, Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law), incorporates the witty banter into the relationship between Sherlock and Mirabella, and lends itself well to Steam punk, blending the “Age of Invention” with something old-fashioned, elegant, and slower-paced.

Enjoy.
 
The game is afoot
.

Copyright © 2015 by Suzette Hollingsworth
 

Cover Design by
Fiona Jayde Media

Inside artwork by
Clint Hollingsworth

Cameo of Sherlock Holmes and Mirabella Hudson by Clint Hollingsworth

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED:
 
This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.

PUBLISHER’S NOTE:
 

This is a work of historical fiction.
 
As such, there are historical figures who actually lived contained within the pages of the book; the author has attempted to represent them honestly, but some leeway must be given as she has never met them in person.
 
There are also fictional characters within the book which seem more real than historical figures, namely those created by Arthur Conan Doyle.
 
For all the remaining characters, names,, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
 
So what is real and what is not?
 
We no longer know.
 

Published by Icicle Ridge Graphics. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at the following website address

http://suzettehollingsworth.com/

ISBN:
 
978-0-9909952-6-5