You’ve lived in Berkeley Spring for many years, so I know Berkeley Castle wasn’t a new discovery for you. What is it about the castle that made you want to write a book about it?
I should have dedicated this book to my sister, Barb Wolfe, who owns a gift and souvenir shop: Berkeley Springs Memories. She said all the folks who come in ask about the castle, and she wanted to be able to sell them an appealing and accurate book that told the story. As a tourism promoter in Berkeley Springs, I was also getting tired of folks making up stories about the castle to tell visitors. The real story is filled with enough romance and drama to satisfy anyone.
In your book, you want to separate fact from fiction. How hard was that to do with a castle that has been there for decades?
Easy and hard. The Internet makes it easy to trace historic biographies, so I could verify births, deaths and marriages. Also easy because the castle was always a hot topic for the local newspapers of the period. Hard because the made-up stories had to be tracked down, matched up with facts and deflated gently. Hard because neither Rosa nor Taylor Suit left papers or diaries and really hard because in her lifetime, Rosa was a spinner of tales and encouraged people to tell whatever stories they wanted… (View original article)