Country Images Magazine May 2015 - North Edition | Page 14

The Dead Duke,
His Secret Wife,
and the Missing
Corpse

built this maze of underground passages beneath Welbeck Abbey and what
motivated him to do the things he did.”
The story was complicated because there are no records of Thomas
Charles Druce’s birth or baptism, heightening the mystery about whether
the 5th Duke was leading a double life.
“There’s a universal fascination with mystery,” says Piu. “People have an
image of Britain as a land of zaniness, eccentricity, so there’s a fascination
with the eccentric aristocrat and the Duke completely tapped into that.
“You wonder whether he was a total nutter or a genius, some kind of great
mind working behind all of this. It cuts into all that thinking.”

CHARLES DICKENS
The book details how people including the author Charles Dickens
believed the 5th Duke and Druce were one and the same; the decade-long
battle by Druce’s daughter-in-law Anna Maria to have his coffin exhumed to
prove there was no body in it; and the obscene amounts of money that were
offered, possibly by the 6th Duke, for the Druce family to drop the case.
Piu who spent a year writing the book says she was “extremely lucky”
during her research to see part of the underground system created by the 5th
Duke.

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“A lot of the tunnels are closed off because they’re now dangerous and
they’re falling through. But it’s quite extraordinary. I actually walked
through some of the incredible vaulted tunnels that he created under the
building. I also visited some of the places around the area that are mentioned
in the book.”
On 1 May an audio book of The Dead Duke, His Secret Wife and the
Missing Corpse is released. It is narrated by actor Barnaby Edwards who is
the chief Dalek in the Doctor Who audio books.
“He reads it very well and has got a great voice for the story,” says Piu.
The paperback comes out on 7 May. It will be released in the United
States in October by publishers Head of Zeus.
Piu is hoping the story of the outlandish 5th Duke will also be told on
screen. “There’s actually been interest expressed at various points by film
companies in making a drama out of it. If it was done correctly it could be
brilliant. The problem is it requires the right person to pick it up at the right
time.”

CREATIVE NON-FICTION
The Dead Duke, His Secret Wife and the Missing Corpse is Piu’s second
book. She had always wanted to write but decided she needed a career first.