Who Is Tina Andrews? 5 Questions with Queen Charlotte Sophia Author
As we celebrate the eBook release, and anticipate the hardback publication of Queen Charlotte Sophia: A Royal Affair on 9th November 2023, we caught up with the international award-winning writer, producer, director, actress as well as author, playwright, and multi-media visual artist to find out a little bit about the mind behind this excellent deep dive into the world that Queen Charlotte Sophia and her mad husband King George III built their lives upon.
Meet the indomitable, Tina Andrews...
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Describe Tina Andrews in three words?
Humorous, Workaholic, Spiritual
If you could steal the wardrobe of an iconic black female television character, whose would it be?
The character “Denise Huxtable” played by Lisa Bonet on the old “Cosby Show.”
What is the character or story that made you fall in love with writing?
No question, “Roots” by Alex Haley—who, thankfully, would later become my literary mentor and helped me become a screenwriter and author after I appeared as an actress in the original ABC “Roots” miniseries.
Queen Charlotte Sophia is now a character known worldwide, but one that you have spent so much of your life with, what was it about her story that compelled you to immortalise it on paper?
Charlotte was a royal who had to keep her aristocratic German family propped up by marrying a proper royal—and not just any royal. She could not afford to marry for love, but for continued power, titles, and money. She had no say in who that royal she was enjoined to marry was, and ultimately married King George III of England without ever meeting him. Her duty was to be a royal vessel through which future kings would be born. On top of this, though light in skin colour, she was of mixed heritage which she had to hide. She was also descended from a Knights Templar
and wanted to know more about who it was but she was without a clear avenue toward research.
Imagine living with that stress coupled with her superior intellect which she also had to hide as a woman of her era. Thankfully, she and George had a wonderful marriage—especially after he broke things off with his paramour, Lady Sarah Lennox who was an illegitimate royal and a Catholic—which precluded him from marrying her. It was so much wonderful material for me to mine as a writer and kept me researching for years before finally writing the novel.
What if any similarities do you see between yourself and Queen Charlotte Sophia?
Too often, like Charlotte, I had to do things I was uncomfortable with to move forward—e.g., write comedies because it was easier to get films made if it was funny, when what I wanted to write was period dramas and TV shows based on my historical fiction books. Charlotte and I also had loving, accepting, affectionate fathers who cheered us on in whatever decisions we made—and welcomed
discussions, debates, and our strong opinions.
Conversely, Charlotte and I had similarly tough, strong mothers who challenged us vis-a-vis our personal or career choices and we had to convince them those choices should be ours to make as opposed to theirs. The difference is I was finally able to convince my mother that my being in the business as a writer was chosen for me by “higher power.” She finally accepted this and I am glad it happened before she died. Charlotte did not accomplish this. She and her mother were estranged at the time of her mother’s death.
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Queen Charlotte Sophia: A Royal Affair will be available on 12th October 2023 in hardback and eBook format. You can shop this captivating historical fiction novel from us, at your favourite local bookshop and everywhere that books are sold!