19 February 2022
By Elaine Murphy
elaine@TheCork.ie
Entertainment
A New York journalist and former TV news producer (Fox News) Kathleen Aldworth Foster will debut her first historical fiction novel Doneraile Court: The Story of The Lady Freemason, online and in bookstores in March 2022.
The novel is loosely based on a true story that occurred at the Doneraile Park Estate in Doneraile, County Cork, Ireland in 1712.
It brings to life the night when 17-year-old Elizabeth St. Leger was caught spying on a Masonic meeting being hale in her family’s stately home, Doneraile Court.
Legend has it that because the organisation’s membership was made up of men only, the pragmatic solution was to make young Elizabeth the first-ever female Freemason.
Promotional material says “Doneraile Court: The Story of The Lady Freemason is a story of truth, relief, and brotherly love, and proves well-behaved women seldom make history.”
Kathleen Aldworth Foster first found out about Elizabeth Aldworth, The Lady Freemason and her possible family connection in the year 2000. This information led her on a decades-long historical and genealogical quest that confirmed she is not in fact a direct descendant. Still, nevertheless she found the story so interesting she wrote the novel.
Where to buy?
From March 2022 onwards
https://www.amazon.com/KATHLEEN-ALDWORTH-FOSTER/e/B09SG6XNWS?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_41&sr=8-41
or
Doneraile’s ‘The Lady Freemason’ Elizabeth Aldworth, nee St. Leger (1693-1773)
