OnlineBookClub.org

A mini scandal is developing at a major stately home because the author of The Archivist of Duntisbourne Hall has been accused of using real people in the book and a number of ancient old tour guides have got uppity about it despite the fact that it's meant to be a satire. I can't possibly reveal my source but a large staff of several hundred people are falling over themselves to claim that (a) they have been represented in the book (b) that they haven't been represented in the book. Being a veteran stately home visitor myself I would have thought most people who take up guiding as a profession are perfectly at home with fiction.

How usual is this? Surely writers use real-life experience all the time. Take Nancy Mitford for example – she named and shamed loads of high society luminaries and biographies of her now have photographs of the real people portrayed as fictitious characters in her novels. There must be legions of red-faced ex-lovers grinding their teeth in fury at their portrayal in novels and yet I have never come across news stories about it before.

They are upset!!! Imagine if they were Joan Crawford, or some of the others who have had pieces of what they assumed would never be revealed exposed to thousands, and by those that they were closest to. Or like Jacqueline Kennedy who tried so hard to maintain privacy for her children when they were young and then had a couple of her staff that she trusted write books about her life. And all the stories of her husband's infidelities. Now that is hurtful!!!

I would not feel sorry for these guides if the scandals are about how they hurt others. However, if they are simply private stories where no one was seriously hurt or killed, then I think they are entitled to their privacy. Some people may not be loved by all, but they still are entitled to a quiet life.

Good point – and of course, of a generation where the proper thing to do is not to discuss private matters. Nowadays it seems perfectly alright to wear you heart on your sleeve and blab about the most private details of your life to anyone who'll listen.