Curious about what’s behind Goblin Fruit? Explore my author notes about the historical details behind the book.
These notes do contain some plot spoilers! Otherwise, they’re as shared at the end of the book, with edits only to share the most useful links and cleaning up some formatting for the web. Posted March 2026.
In the 1920s in Great Britain, the Mysterious Charm series focuses on a magical community living and loving alongside the history we know. This series grows out of my joined love for mystery, parallel world fantasy, and romances. (And a particular fondness for Dorothy L. Sayers and other Golden Age of mystery fiction and for rolling around in real-world history.)
You can read a bit more about Lizzie and Carillon in On The Bias, which focuses on Carillon’s valet, Benton, and Cassie, the dressmaker you met briefly in this book. Best Foot Forward picks up with Carillon in 1935, in the rumblings before the Second World War. (You can find additional books about the Carillon family on my public wiki at celialake.com/wiki under the Series and Arcs section.)
Lord Geoffrey Carillon is my homage to Lord Peter Wimsey, the main sleuth of the Sayers novels. (And the ghost in the epilogue is a nod to the ghosts referenced in Busman’s Honeymoon and some of the short stories).
And if you’re wondering about the title, yes, this book is inspired by the poem Goblin Market by Christina Rosetti. We’ll be seeing more of Laura in a later book (In The Cards, book 5 of the series.)
Trellech is the major magical city in the British Isles of the series, though there are plenty of magical folk who live and work in London and other places. Trellech is a real place, or more accurately was a real place. It’s in Monmouth in southern Wales, near the River Severn.
In the 13th century, Trellech was one of the largest towns in Wales, about 20,000 people (at a time when London itself was about 90,000 people). It was a major centre for producing arms and munitions for the De Clare family. After they died and the family lost power, the town became a shadow of its former glory.
Of course, as soon as I discovered it, I realised it fit in beautifully with my timeline for the magical community (which starts to diverge strongly around that point, and splits off into its own community in the 1480s).
Comedia dell’ Arte is a theatrical style that began in Italy and also flourished in France. Using stock characters, such as Arlechinno and Columbina, troupes would create their own stories, often with a highly improvisational approach.
Pavo and bohort are both real mediaeval activities adapted in the magical community of the series for play. Pavo is played on horseback (a bit like polo, but more complex) and bohort is played on foot. Both are played by small teams who have to solve puzzles or challenges set by the match designers. Think of them like a cross between an escape room and capture the flag, with a dash of cricket scoring.
Laura has spent a number of years being treated for tuberculosis, which killed a tremendous number of people in this time period (before antibiotics were available.) Treatments included long stays in places with cold clear air (often in the mountains), extreme rest or highly regimented activity, and often painful surgeries to collapse or even remove portions of the affected lung. Even if someone survived, the disease lurked for the rest of their lives.
Spitting Blood: The History of Tuberculosis by Helen Bynum is a fantastic overview of the disease and treatment if you’d like to learn more.
The Belin are my take on a mysterious mention in a bit of Arthurian folklore about someone named Belin (or Beli or Beli Mawr) who is a king of the dwarves, or at least an underground kingdom. There are traditions like this in many places (especially those with a long history of mining), and as Lizzie notes, she’s visited some of the German ones in the past.
If you’ve got questions about these or other things that appear in the books, feel free to reach out and ask. I love talking about the bits of history I’ve found inspirational.
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Ancient Trust, my thank you to my newsletter folks, is a prequel novella for the series focusing on Geoffrey Carillon inheriting his title that overlaps with Outcrossing. It also introduces various other people (before Lizzie) who are important in Carillon’s life. And again, Best Foot Forward picks up with Carillon and his life in 1935.
The next book in the series is Magician’s Hoard, when a research project takes on some unexpected complications.