Before They Were Fiction: The real life inspirations behind some of the most famous characters in fiction.

Have you ever wondered, who were the real life inspirations behind some of literature’s famous fictional characters? In Before They Were Fiction Summer Strevens shines an erudite light on to the people and personalities who have inspired some of literature’s best known and enduring fictional creations.

From the refugee Belgian police officer who inspired crime novelist Agatha Christie’s eccentric and amusingly pompous detective Hercule Poirot, to Alice Perrers, the grasping mistress of King Edward III as the basis for Chaucer’s The Wife of Bath, both historical and contemporary character inspirations, the works they appear in and the authors who dreamt them up are accessibly detailed in a diverse and fascinating collection of real life literary inspirations, arranged in chapters pertaining to seven of the great literary fiction genres.

Thoroughly researched, surprising and sometimes shocking, the real people who served as inspiration for Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, Jane Austen’s Mr Darcy, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Ian Fleming's James Bond and Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, and many, many others are included in accounts that are bound to fascinate and intrigue anyone with an interest in the minds and motivations of some of literary fiction’s greatest authors.