Consistently Eccentric History

Princess Caraboo - A Georgian tale of 'fake it 'til you make it'


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This week we are meeting Mary Willcocks, a young woman from a poor family who didn't want to accept her lot as a future housewife scraping an existence in a tiny rural village.


Armed only with her own sense of self importance and a gift for making up stories, she left for London, determined to make her fortune. Free to reinvent her past she began presenting herself first as a globetrotter and then as a foreigner with a persona that drifted further and further from Britain as time passed.


The end result was Princess Caraboo, member of a Javanese royal family who excited the nobility of the small village of Almondsbury.


Would Mary be able to keep up her deception? What was her end game? And did she finally get to travel the world as she always wanted? We answer these questions and more.


Guest Host: Emma Heathcote

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Consistently Eccentric HistoryBy Joe Heathcote

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