Arabella – The Gypsy’s Baby
BEATRICE YELL
When a gipsy’s baby is left on a manor house doorstep during Queen Victoria’s reign, Lady Imelda takes her in and has her christened Arabella – after her mother as she looks Spanish. The baby grows to be a young girl who forms a small choir. This story, told in first person, begins when she is fifteen years old. A foiled elopement, a rival in the choir, and journeys across England and America are just some of her adventures, culminating in her pursuit to become an opera singer in New York.
Beatrice Yell was born in her favourite city, Sydney, to a seafaring father and a Dutch mother from the former Dutch East Indies. She spent a year in Papua New Guinea as a baby, then four years around Victoria in wartime. After studying at the National Art School, she worked with a fashion house in London, travelling in Britain and Europe at every opportunity. Beatrice feels a strong connection with the Cinque Ports in Sussex where her Viking ancestors settled.