The Queen of Bushy House

Book Club Questions 

​

 

1. Dorothea Jordan and Princess Adelaide never met in real life. Why do you think the author chose to imagine a relationship between them?

 

2. How did your feelings towards William change over the course of the novel? Did your sympathies shift between him, Dorothea and Adelaide?

 

3 .Motherhood is central to both women’s stories. How do Dorothea and Adelaide experience motherhood differently, and what do they have in common?

 

4. How did you interpret Dorothea’s ghostly presence—as something literal, metaphorical, or somewhere in between? What does the haunting allow the novel to explore?

 

5. Both women face a conflict between duty and desire. Who do you think sacrifices the most, and why?

 

6. The novel explores ideas of legitimacy and respectability. How do these shape the choices available to Dorothea and Adelaide, and who gets to decide what makes a woman respectable?

 

7. Both women have, in different ways, been forgotten or overshadowed by history. What does the novel suggest about memory and legacy?

 

8. What stayed with you most after finishing the novel—a character, relationship, scene, historical detail or idea?

 

9. Adelaide arrives in Britain as an outsider, expected to adapt quickly to the traditions and expectations of the royal family. How does her experience compare with those who have married into the British royal family in more recent times?

 

10. The novel explores the tension between personal happiness, public duty and the need to secure the monarchy’s future. How do you think those pressures have changed — or remained the same — for members of the British royal family today?