Last night I attended a talk in Winchester's Pilgrims' School hall by author Robert Goddard.

Although I knew that Robert was born in Fareham and had at one time lived near Winchester I hadn't really considered that any of his books had been particularly inspired by Hampshire. At the end of the evening one of the audience asked Robert a straightforward question, 'Was your book Painting the Darkness inspired by the case of the Tichborne Claimant?' Robert answered the question without hesitation 'Yes'.

The affair of the Tichborne claimant was the celebrated 19th-century legal case when an impostor claimed to be a missing Hampshire heir Sir Roger Tichborne (1829-1854). A quick check on Wikipedia shows that the case has inspired quite a number of fictionalised accounts or variations on a theme.

I haven't yet read Painting the Darkness yet, but rather luckily while rummaging at the Cathedral's secondhand book sale the other day this was the Robert Goddard book which I found and purchased for the grand sum of 30p.