Author to return to her Mansfield roots with new book

Growing up in the shadow of Newstead Abbey, it is perhaps fitting that Sarah Murden developed a love of literature and history.
Sarah Murden (left) with her co-author, Joanne Major.Sarah Murden (left) with her co-author, Joanne Major.
Sarah Murden (left) with her co-author, Joanne Major.

The ancestral home of the poet, Lord Byron, which was only five minutes’ walk from her Ravenshead home, clearly had an influence on her career as a writer and author.

Now Sarah is to return to her roots to give a talk on her latest book, ‘All Things Georgian: Tales From The Long 18th Century’, which she has written in partnership with close friend, Joanne Major.

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The talk will be on Tuesday, June 18 (2 pm) at Mansfield Library, not far from where Sarah was educated, at the former Queen Elizabeth Girls’ Grammar School and then West Nottinghamshire College, in the mid-1970s.

She says she is looking forward to rekindling memories of the area as she and Joanne reveal the royal links, scandals and unconventional marriages associated with Welbeck Abbey and the Cavendish-Bentinck family.

Bawdy scandal is also at the heart of the duo’s latest book, which is a collection of 25 short stories from the reigns of the four King Georges between 1714 and 1830. All the stories are true and carefully researched, and the book also features more than 100 stunning colour illustrations.

Readers can marvel at the Queen’s Ass, gaze at the celestial heavens and be amazed by the equestrian feats of the Norwich Nymph.

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And they can meet actresses, whores, high-born ladies, politicians, inventors, royalty and criminals as the book takes them through the Georgian Era in all its gruesome glory.

Sarah lived in Nottinghamshire for about 20 years before moving to the Peak District in Derbyshire, where she spent the next 20 years of her life.

She studied humanities, with a focus on history, and developed a passion for life in the 18th and 19th centuries.

She then moved to Hampshire, which is where she met Joanne, a fellow ‘super-sleuthing historian’, on an online genealogy forum.

Sarah now enjoys the quiet life in a village in rural Lincolnshire, and this book, published by the Barnsley-based Pen And Sword, is the fourth she and Joanne have written together.