Scandalous Women welcomes Guest Blogger Kate Lord Brown

Scandalous Women is pleased welcome author Kate Lord Brown, whose new book The Beauty Chorus came out this month:

Synopsis: New Year's Eve, 1940: Evie Chase, the beautiful debutante daughter of a rich and adoring RAF commander, listens wistfully to the swing music drifting out from the ballroom, unable to join in the fun. With bombs falling nightly in London, she is determined that the coming year will bring a lot more than dances, picnics and tennis matches. She is determined to make a difference to the war effort. 5th January, 1941: Evie curses her fashionable heels as they skid on the frozen ground of her local airfield. She is here to join the ATA, the civilian pilots who ferry Tiger Moths and Spitfires to bases across war-torn Britain. Two other women wait nervously to join up: Stella Grainger, a forlorn young mother who has returned from Singapore without her baby boy and Megan Jones, an idealistic teenager who has never left her Welsh village. Billeted together in a tiny cottage in a sleepy country village, Evie, Stella and Megan must learn to live and work together. Brave, beautiful and fiercely independent, these women soon move beyond their different backgrounds as they find romance, confront loss, and forge friendships that will last a lifetime.

When I read a tiny obituary about a remarkable woman who had flown Spitfires during the war, I had to know more. Why don’t people know about these amazing women, I thought? As I researched in archives and museums across the country piecing together the historical details for my novel, I was blown away by their bravery and modesty. There was no glass ceiling for these girls – the sky was the limit.

Some of the men didn’t like it – they said they should do jobs ‘more befitting their sex’, but with remarkable ability and quiet determination these women fought for equal pay and equal terms, a first I think in history. They were mentored by two incredible women – Pauline Gower (who had taught French to pay for her flying lessons), and Jackie Cochran (a formidable American aviator, an orphan who had battled her way to the top – she started out as a beautician, married a millionaire, and singlehandedly recruited and shipped over some of the finest American women pilots to help the British Air Transport Auxiliary).

Coming up with fictional characters to equal the real women was no easy task. Among the ranks of the women pilots, there was Amy Johnson – who had flown half way round the world with only a tennis racket and an evening dress in her flight case. Then there was Audrey Sale Barker, who had crash landed in Africa, and calmly handed an SOS note written in lipstick to a passing Masai tribesman.

I came to admire these women for their strength and bravery – they flew all kinds of planes, anywhere, without radio and without arms. They came from all countries and all walks of life – mothers, grandmothers, debutantes, graduates, trick flyers and even a stripper. They ‘did their bit’ with enormous grace under pressure – and to me, it was a story that had to be told.

Kate Lord Brown has worked as an art consultant for palaces and embassies in Europe and the Middle East, and she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. She was a finalist in UK ITV’s People’s Author contest in 2009. Her debut novel ‘The Beauty Chorus’ has just been published by Atlantic. She lives in the Middle East with her pilot husband and young family. http://thebeautychorus.blogspot.com  Purchase the book on Amazon:

Guest Blogger Lisbeth Eng on “The Spy Who Loved Me…but was sleeping with the other guy, too”

Scandalous Women is pleased to welcome debut author Lisbeth Eng, and fellow RWA NYC member to the blog to talk about female spies and her new release IN THE ARMS OF THE ENEMY, a WWII romance set in Italy. 

Isabella Ricci, the heroine of my World War II romance novel, In the Arms of the Enemy, is devoted to her country. She has witnessed the brutal execution of her own brother by the Nazis and will do anything to defend Italy from the occupying German army. An accidental reunion with old school friend Silvia Matteo brings her to a gala party for German officers and Fascist officials. Silvia is a fun-loving party girl (that’s “party girl” as in “let’s have a good time”, not “Fascist Party” girl) and enjoys the company of good-looking, powerful men, regardless of what uniform they wear. Silvia is apolitical and doesn’t know that her friend Isabella has joined the Italian Resistance. Isabella’s commander and lover, Massimo Baricelli, persuades Isabella to attend the gala to attempt to infiltrate the enemy.

At the party Isabella meets and attracts handsome German army Captain Günter Schumann. Massimo encourages his lover to pursue a relationship with the German to see how much information she can induce him to share. When the flirtation between Isabella and Günter leads to intimacy, she is torn between her loyalty to the Resistance, which requires continuing a relationship with the enemy, and feelings of guilt over her faithlessness to Massimo, even though it is he who assigns her this mission of seduction and espionage. Her conscience is further tested when she begins to realize how affectionate and attentive the enemy officer is.

Real life female spies have been viewed throughout history as heroines, traitors and whores. Elizabeth Van Lew was an abolitionist and spy for the Union during the American Civil War. A Southerner, she was shunned by her neighbors for her pro-Union sentiments. Van Lew dressed oddly and used the persona of “Crazy Bet” to cover her activities. Never arrested for espionage, she was rewarded after the war by Ulysses S. Grant with the appointment of Postmistress of Richmond, Virginia. The Confederacy had their spies, too. Belle Boyd “La Belle Rebelle” used her female wiles to charm military information from enemy officers. She was captured, but later seduced, fell in love with, and eventually married Union Captain Samuel Hardinge.

Mata Hari, perhaps the most infamous of female spies, reportedly declared, “Harlot, yes, but traitor, never." Found guilty of espionage against France during World War I, she was executed by firing squad in 1917. And, as if being an exotic dancer and double agent isn’t enough to ruin a girl’s reputation, rumor had it she had been sleeping with high-ranking military officers on both sides of the conflict.

By comparison, Isabella, heroine of In the Arms of the Enemy, is rather tame. Yes, she is sleeping with two men (her Italian boyfriend/commander knows about the German, who remains blissfully unaware of his rival) but her motivation is noble. She sees herself as a soldier, defending her country from Nazi oppression and avenging her brother’s unjust execution. Women, historically precluded from serving in regular armies, have used their charms and their bodies to fight for their countries. Scandalous perhaps, but immoral? You be the judge.

Oh, and if you want to know which man wins Isabella’s heart in the end – Massimo or Günter – you’ll just have to read the book!


An English major in college, Lisbeth Eng has also studied Italian, German and French. Lisbeth is a native New Yorker and has worked as a registered representative in the finance industry for the past 25 years. Her first novel, In the Arms of the Enemy, is available in e-book and paperback at The Wild Rose Press. Lisbeth invites you to visit her at http://www.lisbetheng.com/.