Lesley Gray, a mature student studying Comparative Literature, will have her first novel, The King’s Jockey, published next month. The book was written while she was studying part-time at Kent’s Tonbridge centre.
The King’s Jockey offers a fresh perspective on events surrounding the death of a suffragette at the 1913 Derby. It tells the story of the life of royal jockey Herbert ‘Bertie’ Jones and the dramatic events that followed his fatal collision with suffragette Emily Wilding Davison 100 years ago.
Lesley, who lives in Tunbridge Wells, is due to complete her Comparative Literature degree this year.
She had heard of the sacrifice made by the suffragette who ran out in front of the King’s horse, but knew next to nothing about the jockey. ‘There was little written about Bertie Jones, so I had to research most of my material,’ she said.
‘The more I found out, the more it made me wonder about where he had come from, how he had achieved his fame and how he coped after the suffragette incident. My story is fictional, but I have tried to create what might have been a similar world. I wanted to examine what may have driven Emily Wilding Davison to her dreadful fate and to lift Bertie up from a mere footnote in history.’ The University’s Tonbridge centre offers part-time study opportunities at certificate, diploma and degree level through both daytime and evening classes. Lesley said her studies at the University had provided inspiration and informed her work. ‘The course covers such a range of beautiful literature, exploring these works has helped enormously in the struggle to find my own voice as a writer.’ Lesley, who also works full-time as an editor in educational publishing, now hopes to continue her studies.
Timed for the 100th anniversary of the ‘Suffragette Derby’ on Saturday 1 June 2013, The King’s Jockey is published by Solis Press on 15 March.
For more details, please see the publisher’s website here:
http://solispress.com/9781907947612.html