Sarah Ferguson reveals Aussie plan and encourages Harry and Meghan as she reveals family history behind new book

Sarah Ferguson reveals what she really thinks about her fellow royal outsider Meghan Markle’s controversial publishing deal.

She’s no stranger to drama, having navigated her way through turbulent waters in the Royal Family, so it’s fitting Sarah Ferguson’s new book is called Her Heart for a Compass.

And the real-life references run beyond the title – but you may need to look twice to find them.

Unlike nephew Prince Harry’s latest headline-hitting project, Her Heart for a Compass is no tell-all memoir but a novel.

Best pals ... there is an echo of Sarah Ferguson’s close relationship with Diana, Princess of Wales, in Fergie’s debut novel Her Heart for a Compass.

In fact it’s Fergie’s first step into adult fiction, even though she has already penned an incredible 77 books – including two autobiographies, children’s books, health and fitness titles and even one on skiing.

The Mills & Boon romance follows flame-haired heroine Lady Margaret Montagu Douglas Scott from 19th century Britain to America, where she forges a career as a writer and finally finds freedom … something both the author, formally known as the Duchess of York, and fellow redhead Harry can relate to.

“I always feel a weight lift off my shoulders when I arrive in the US. It was the place where I rebuilt my life after my divorce and had to get out there and make a living,” Fergie tells SMARTdaily. “I’ll always be grateful to the American people for taking me under their wing.”

‘I hope they will be very happy in the US’ ... Fergie on Harry and Meghan.

So does she think that’s why Harry and Meghan fled there? “I am enormously fond of my nephew Harry and hope he and Meghan will be very happy in the US,” she says, likely wary of stepping too far into the media storm that seems to hang around the controversial couple.

“One thing I don’t like about the UK and its media is the tendency to build people up only to seek to knock them down again, which doesn’t happen so much in the US or indeed in Australia.”

Of Harry’s and Meghan’s forays into publishing, she says, “I wouldn’t presume to give advice to Harry and Meghan, except to say to be happy.

“I think it’s wonderful that Meghan has written a children’s book … I know the effort it takes,” she told the UK Telegraph. “I did have to make my own way in the world when I left the family, and it is not always easy.”

Making her own way ... Fergie continues to do so, now as a romance author with Her Heart for a Compass

When it comes to physically making her own way in the world, Fergie’s next long-haul stop is Australia.

The duchess, who shares the family home in Windsor with her ex-husband Prince Andrew, describing them as “the most contented divorced couple in the world,” says as soon as travel restrictions are lifted, she plans to fly Down Under.

“I’m mad about Australia. I’m already writing a book based in Tasmania, and I’m also hoping to make a TV series called Duchess Down Under,” she tells SMART. “I will take up my helicopter licence again and fly around the country meeting interesting people.”

‘Mad about Australia’ ... Fergie with sister Jane in Sydney for the 120th anniversary of the SCG's Ladies Pavillion in 2016.

Sydney-based sister Jane played a big part in bringing the book project to fruition. “She helped me research our family history and I’m so proud of her and how she has lived her life,” Fergie says.

It was a distant family member who inspired Fergie’s feisty heroine – as well as a healthy dose of herself. Lady Margaret is a redhead who spurns conventions, makes mistakes, has adventures, moves to America and earns her living as a writer.

“I became intrigued by my great-great aunt Lady Margaret. Like me, she was a redhead. But why had she married so relatively late in life? Why could I discover so little about her? I decided I wanted to bring her story to life and give her all the characteristics my ancestors seemed to have shared,” she says.

Family and fiction ... Her Heart for a Compass by Sarah Ferguson.

Describing her character as having a “penchant for snubbing the well-established rules of good conduct and a reputation for setting a determinedly poor example,” just how autobiographical would the duchess say she is?

“It’s a work of fiction, but I’m sure people will spot some parallels between us,” she says. “She’s a redhead, she’s stands up for what she believes in, she gets involved in philanthropic work with children, and she takes up a career in writing.

“As I went into my sixties I felt more authentic and confident about myself than ever before, and that is reflected in the end of Margaret’s story.”

There are also echoes of Diana in the novel – possibly in the character Princess Louise. Fergie says she and Diana were “best friends from when she was 14 and I was 15”.

Moments of happiness ... Fergie and Diana at the Guard's Polo Club, Windsor, in 1983.

While their marriages proved anything but fairytales, many of the female characters in Her Heart for a Compass are also in unhappy unions. Lady Margaret describes her white-dress-clad self as resembling “a ghost at my own betrothal party … a spectre at the feast,” redolent of Diana admitting she felt like “a lamb going to the slaughter” at her wedding to Prince Charles, 40 years ago this week.

Diana was famously a Mills & Boon fan when young – did Fergie love a romance too?

No, she says, she preferred horses. “When I was young, I tended to read about nothing but horses. I wanted to be an Olympic showjumper. But as I’ve grown older I have become more aware of the great work that Mills & Boon has published, including dozens of books by my brilliant co-author Marguerite Kaye,” she says.

‘Honesty and trust’ ... Fergie’s co-writer Marguerite Kaye.

Kaye, who has written 50 romance books for the imprint, says the novel, like the duchess, pushed conventions. “The story evolved significantly as we got to grips with the character,” she says. At first, the duchesss was too polite. “She didn’t want to hurt my feelings, but she wanted Lady Margaret to be true to her vision. I’m so glad she did find the courage to come straight out with it though, because it established an atmosphere of honesty and trust between us.”

It produced a novel that’s a riotous romp from high-society to the slums of London, through Scotland, Ireland and the USA as Lady Margaret searches for herself and true love. It mixes period drama with modern touches, such as gossip columns and the heroine’s weight concerns – and has more than a touch of Bridgerton about it.

Was she inspired by the Netflix adaptation of the HarperCollins Bridgerton novels?

‘I loved it so much’ ... Fergie can see her book as a Bridgerton-style TV drama.

“I loved Bridgerton so much, I watched it twice. I can absolutely see Her Heart for a Compass as a period TV drama,” Fergie says. “We are already having some conversations with producers. It would be a dream come true to see it brought to the screen.”

And she knows just the woman to make it. “Having produced the film The Young Victoria, I’m wondering whether my next challenge should be as a TV director.”

There’s also that Aussie-themed second novel.

“I’m so proud of this book and the fact that I have become a first-time novelist at the age of 61,” the duchess says. “My second novel has already been commissioned and I’m three chapters in. It’s another period drama, with more of an element of mystery. I can’t tell you any more, I’ve been sworn to secrecy.”

Her Heart for a Compass, by Sarah Ferguson and Marguerite Kaye, published by Mills & Boon, is on sale August 4. Pre-order at Booktopia, Big W, Dymocks, QBD Books and Amaazon Australia.