Sarah Ferguson Praises Meghan Markle's Latest Endeavor, Says 'To Sit Down And Work Hard To Write A Book Should Be Supported & Respected'
May 7 2021, Published 11:03 a.m. ET
Meghan Markle has one royal family member in her corner: Sarah Ferguson. The former actress announced this week that she would be releasing a children's book, and Ferguson — who has "written 74 books over 30 years" — supported her new endeavor.
"To sit down and work hard to write a book, in any genre, should be supported and respected," the Duchess of York told the Daily Mail. "To encourage literacy in general not just children's books, is a love of mine and to encourage more women to delve into their creative selves and get a book out is very well done."
On Tuesday, May 4, the 39-year-old revealed that her new book, which is called The Bench, will focus on a father and son's relationship.
"The Bench started as a poem I wrote for my husband on Father’s Day, the month after Archie was born," Meghan, who is pregnant with baby No. 2, said in the press release from publisher Random House Children's Books. "That poem became this story."
Following the announcement, Meghan was accused of plagiarizing (the author defended her), and Piers Morgan commented how she could write this story when she doesn't have a good relationship with her own father, Thomas Markle.
"Lest we forget, Ms Markle has ruthlessly disowned her father Thomas and refuses to have anything to do with him despite the fact they now live just 70 miles from each other," he wrote for his column in the Daily Mail. "She is also reported to have disowned every other Markle, none of whom were invited to her wedding."
Meanwhile, Ferguson has written a historical romance novel called Her Heart for a Compass, which was co-written with Marguerita Kaye.
"I have written 74 books over 30 years but this one is special as it was written during the pandemic and is my first ever historical novel," Ferguson, whose new book will be released on August 3, shared. "Something I have been waiting to write for 15 years."
"It all started with researching my ancestry. Digging into the history of the Montagu-Douglas Scotts, I first came across Lady Margaret, who intrigued me because she shared one of my given names," Ferguson said about the tome.
"But although her parents, the Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch, were close friends with Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, I was unable to discover much about my namesake's early life, and so was born the idea, which became Her Heart for a Compass," she added. "With real historical events and facts to hand, my imagination took over. I invented a history for her that incorporated real people and events, including some of my other ancestors. I created a friendship between my heroine and Princess Louise, Queen Victoria's sixth child, and I drew on many parallels from my life for Lady Margaret's journey."
"I have long held a passion for historical research and telling the stories of strong women in history through film and television. I am proud to bring my personal brand of historical fiction to the publishing world," she concluded.
