Life and Death of the Wicked Lady Skelton
Originally published in 1944, the Life and Death of the Wicked Lady Skelton follows the career of Barbara Skelton, a 17th-century noblewoman who, bored with married life, sneaks out at night to commit highway robbery, murder and adultery. Although Barbara is fictional, the novel was inspired by the legend of a ‘real’ highwaywoman, Katherine Ferrers (although Rowland Hughes’ introduction to the novel casts doubt on the veracity of that story). The novel also became a film, The Wicked Lady, in 1945. The book starts with several accounts of Barbara Skelton’s ghost. Not content to terrorise the local people during her life, Barbara haunts her manor house during the 19th and 20th centuries until its destruction during the Blitz, unlamented by the locals who still believe in her malevolent presence. It then moves into the story of Barbara’s life: her loveless marriage, the impulse which initially takes her onto the highways, and the rapid escalation into murder, infidelity, betrayal and eventually her own death.
Barbara Skelton has much in common with other heroines of historical fiction written in the ‘30s and ‘40s. She shares, for example, the frustration with their circumscribed, stultifying lives, an unusual, arresting beauty and bravery that is close to recklessness with Scarlett O’Hara from Gone With the Wind or Dona St Columb from Frenchman’s Creek. But while both of those women have attractive characteristics (Scarlett’s fierce, if resentful, loyalty to Tara and its people, or Dona’s ability to love both her children and her pirate lover), Barbara’s motivations appear no more than boredom and narcissism. These make her a difficult character to understand or empathise with. That said, the melodramatic subject matter and an easy, rapid style make it a very entertaining read, and one which is greatly enhanced by the fascinating introduction by Rowland Hughes.
