This is a true story of courage in adversity, a runaway marriage to an unfaithful husband and a descent from a life of pampered luxury to a struggle for survival in a far-off land.
Introduction to the author and book
Dr. Elizabeth Haywood, Baroness Hain, is a Welsh businesswoman.
Born: 11 November 1955 (Scotland)
Spouse: (m. 2003) Peter Hain (The Rt Hon. the Lord Hain PC)
Parents: Zaidée Maud Elsie Haywood, Douglas Inglefield Haywood
Grandmother: Maud Naylor Wilson
Great-grandparents: Zaidée Emily Iseulte Bodychan-Sparrow, Sir John William Honywood, 8th Baronet, William Hodgson Wilson
Haywood is a graduate of Swansea and Cardiff Universities.
She was the inaugural winner of ‘Welsh Woman of the Year’ in 1994 and has a career in public service in Wales. She began her career in the Welsh Development Agency and has subsequently held roles in Government, Third Sector and Private Sector Companies.
She served as the director of Confederation of British Industry in Wales from 1994 to 2000.
Dr Haywood is a member of The 30% Club, an organisation campaigning for diversity on company boards. Other jobs are in the arena of sustainability and natural resources. Dr Haywood is non-executive Director of Natural Resources Wales and of SP Energy Networks, part of the ScottishPower Group.
Elizabeth has acted as the Chair of the Independent Remuneration Board of the Senedd since 2020.
“Lucy: Ultimate Survivor” (published in 2021) was Elizabeth Haywood’s debut novel, born out of a desire to tell her ancestor’s extraordinary story . . .
A dramatic and intriguing true Georgian tale of love, betrayal and survival. Lucy, a strong-willed girl from a wealthy family, was brought up on the English–Welsh border and married a Caribbean plantation owner, Sam Lord, for love, meanwhile he married her for her fortune, at a time when a woman was a chattel and everything she had, including her children, became her husband’s. Abused and imprisoned in Barbados, she escaped with the help of enslaved people. A vibrant intimate description of early 19th-century life – giving birth at sea, braving disease and cruelty, and witnessing the abject misery of slavery –
In Elizabeth Haywood’s own words:
Lucy: Ultimate Survivor is the true story of my amazing great, great, great grandmother.
Writing about her life over 200 years ago was not simple. It’s possible to find birth, marriage and death certificates but many other records have been lost or never existed so one of my challenges was to make sense of things Lucy did, journeys she made, and conjure up the thought process and emotions involved without super-imposing today’s values or beliefs. It began as a family history project and grew into a historical novel published this year.
What did Bristol, Bath, Wolverhampton look like then? What was the weather like? How did they dress and travel? What was it like living in Barbados when most of the people there were enslaved? All these questions led to mountains of historical research and reading other writers’ historical fiction.
I loved all of that!
I also found it useful to come up with a timeline for dates of events that happened during Lucy’s lifetime such wars, famine, the abolition of the slave trade, the assassination of heads of state and inventions like the railway to name a few. Key historical events and people added colour and credibility to the narrative.
With historical fiction an author can never get everything right. I just tried to make sure no-one could demonstrate I’d got it wrong – unless of course they own private documents I have been unable to access.
They say that inside every person there’s at least one story waiting to be written. I’m hoping, now I’ve started, I’ve got more than one inside me – so watch this space!
What do you think of this novel?
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Once you’ve read this month’s book, and after the end of MARCH please, use the comments box below to say what you think about it; what you liked and didn’t like. What about the writing style, pace, mood, characterisation, use of description, the plot … ? Or get in touch with your comments and opinions by email to (rhossilihwb.cymru@gmail.com).
Vicki James & Helen Sinclair
The next book for April 2026 will be …
“All the Colours of the Dark” by Chris Whittakerpublished March 2025; 592 pages; Amazon 4.6*
A Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller and a sweeping coming-of-age tale, an epic love story and a searing thriller, all unfolding on a vast canvas.
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