Book Buy Links: Releasing March 2023 from Claret Press - book links will update when available.
Editorial Review:
Our affair started after his first inauguration, when I, never a beauty, was a forty-two-year-old spinster. What? I hear you say. You? And him, the most powerful man in America! Believe me, I had similar thoughts when we dined with the Duke of Windsor and Wallace Simpson. You left a kingdom – for her?
Every once in a while, a book comes along that is one in a million, and is a revelation about hidden secrets throughout history that the world might never have known if not for a brave author to tackle the sometimes controversial topics. This is one of those rare books. The author, Justine Gilbert, is a master storyteller, weaving her own family's history into the narrative in a flawless and breathtaking way. And who is her family? None other than the Roosevelts and Delanos, the Hudson Valley set who rubbed shoulders with the Rockefellers and Astors during the Great Depression and on into the second world war.
The main character is Ms Gilbert's grandmother's first cousin, Daisy Suckley (pronounced like Bookley with an S). Daisy is the sixth cousin of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd president of the United States, and becomes his dearest companion later in his life. While many might know this little detail about his distant cousin, many might not know the hidden secrets beneath the surface, and the 'talk' within the family of Daisy and Franklin's long-standing relationship. With this book, Ms Gilbert brings to light some of the talk behind closed doors, as well as incorporating some fictionalized additives (which she notes in her endnotes) to round out this incredible love story between two devoted people.
...out came bees on a coated lattice frame encrusted with dripping honeycomb. Placing a dense wedge of shiny gold into a glass jar, he returned them gently to their nest. Then he handed the contents to my father, who, smiling, shared out a sticky portion for each of us. At first bite, I experienced the taste of raw warmth, an explosion of granular sweetness in my mouth, lingering on my tongue to be savoured forever. That was our first kiss.
While the world is reeling from the stock market crash and plunging towards war, FDR is striving to hold the country together with his new reforms and new deals, while his wife, Eleanor, is on a political and personal tirade against him... from her own misgivings about ever becoming a wife, to her discovery of FDR's numerous affairs. Without a doubt, the author portrays her as a harsh and unforgiving woman. Enter Daisy Suckley, whose mild and meek manner, and her love for the Hudson Valley connects her to her cousin, Franklin, in a most profound way. She is one of the women who longed for marriage and children, but denied the state because of the circumstances of the time period; yet, in an unexpected way, she becomes Franklin's secret wife after Eleanor rejects her husband in more ways than one.
For the first time, I was in love and my life became a Gaugin painting. The woodland wasn't green, it was virescent, the yellow leaves were saffron, the oranges, titian, the gold, aurelian. Sunsets offered a sky smeared with the intensity of oils; the mountains soaked up the mellow ball of butter from the day and threw out the scents of purple vegetation, amaranthine and heliotrope.
While Daisy accepts the impossibility of something more, she settles into life as the President's “secret” while dealing with the other formidable women in his life, some of which have their own claim to his affections – Frances Perkins, the first female Secretary of Labour; and his secretary, Missy LeHand; as well as another former love interest who “wheedles” her way back into FDR's life before his ultimate death in Warm Springs GA. In all of this, Daisy is as faithful as the little Scottie dog, Fala, that she gifts to Franklin as a token of her affection for him. Both Daisy and Fala stay by his side as the world around them transforms into chaos, yet Daisy is the one who holds even more secrets, ones that she even keeps from the President.
I prayed to have everything and prayed to accept nothingness. I watched tiny violets and wild forget-me-nots poke through leaf mould, carpeting underneath the quercus alba and beech trees, jostling to reach the sun. I was in a race with nature and nature was as competitive as the Senate.
In times of war, the public needed a Shakespearean clown for light relief. Even someone as politically un-astute as myself knew that. Fala was that ray of light that won both Republican and Democrat smiles. His tail-up ever-wagging camaraderie brought smiles to even the stoniest politician. In my free time, I penned a small story about him, which Franklin loved.
The utter poetic prose of this book is breathtaking, and the author's ability to show the real and raw emotions of the characters is profound. Not only do you get a sense of the travails of the president with the political scene and the war, but you feel his pain as he struggles with his illness, his failing health, and his desire for a normal life at 'Top Cottage' with the love of his life, Daisy. With Daisy, her words reach deep into the reader's heart and soul, and you get a true sense of who she is and how she influenced FDR's life. This is a book for the ages, timeless, a beautiful story of love, loss, grief, pain, and trust, all wrapped in the whipping winds of war.
*****
“Daisy Chain” by Justine Gilbert receives five stars from The Historical Fiction Company and the “Highly Recommended” award.
Award:
Author Bio:
Born in New York, on Manhattan Island, Justine moved to London with her parents when she was six. She returned to the USA for regular visits, some of which involved seeing her grandmother’s Cousin Daisy, who lived in Wilderstein on the Hudson River. Daisy Chain is the culmination of her research into family, all of whom lived for some time in Europe in the early twentieth century.
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