Elizabeth The Ordinary

This book is based on the life of my Great Grandmother, Elizabeth Ann. I do not have sufficient facts for this to be a biography. Instead, it is a story woven around, and as consistent as possible with, the facts of which I am aware. I believe this is termed biographical fiction.

Elizabeth was born in Cornwall in 1847. Her family worked in the mines and on the local farms. At thirteen years of age she was a dairymaid. She had no formal education and was illiterate. Before she was thirty years of age she had given birth to at least four illegitimate children, sired by at least two different fathers. The last of these children was born in Liskeard Union Workhouse in 1875.

She was at 'rock bottom', yet less than 6 years later she was described in the 1881 Census as being the head of her own household. She was still unmarried but living more than three hundred miles from Liskeard in Burnley, Lancashire. How had such a transformation come about? And why is it that she appears in all the national Census returns from 1851 until her death except for that of 1871? Where was she and what was she doing that meant she was not recorded?

This novel, starting with these questions and mysteries, considers the factual information available to fill the gaps and tell the extraordinary story of what might have happened in this ordinary woman's life.

Elizabeth the Ordinary by Dave Asthouart captures the intrigue of historical gaps and the resilience of a woman's spirit in overcoming societal challenges.