Belinda Murrell: Bringing Australian History To Life | Page 54

INSPIRATION A french TWIST WHILE THE MODERN-DAY GIRL IN THE RUBY TALISMAN IS AUSTRALIAN, WHEN SHE FALLS BACK IN TIME SHE FINDS HERSELF IN FRANCE IN 1789. HERE’S WHY BELINDA DECIDED TO WRITE THIS NOVEL . . . Paris was so fascinating Belinda was compelled to set one of her books there. I have always been fascinated with the French Revolution and the beautiful and tragic Queen Marie-Antoinette. This fascination was deepened in 2007 when I spent several weeks living and travelling in France, exploring the catacomb tunnels under the streets of Paris, wandering the gilded salons of Versailles and experiencing Paris and the surrounding countryside. The catacombs The tunnels under Paris are amazing. There are hundreds of kilometres of old limestone mines and corridors that wind under the city. In one section of these tunnels are the catacombs where, during the eighteenth century, thousands of human skeletons were stored. Many of these people were killed during the French Revolution, including Queen MarieAntoinette’s best friend, the Princesse de Lamballe, and King 54 randomhouse.com.au/teachers Louis XVI’s sister Elizabeth. These tunnels were so spooky and atmospheric that I felt I had to write a book set during this tumultuous time and with a scene set in the catacombs. Imagination and fact While much of this story is my imagination running wild, much of it is also based on real people and true events, particularly the violence and bloodshed surrounding the fall of the Bastille and the start of the French Revolution. To research this story I read many books, both non-fiction and fiction. Some of these were written by people who experienced the Revolution firsthand, such as Memoirs of the Private Life of Marie-Antoinette by Madame Campan (1818). Others were written many, many years later, such as Marie Antoinette: The Journey by Antonia Fraser (2001), all of which gave me lots of facts to base my story on.