Historical Occupations for Heroes
Aug 20th 2010Suzanne EnochOn Writing! & Suzanne Enoch
Most of the historical heroes I write about are lords or sons of lords. They’re men who are allowed to have hobbies, but for the most part aren’t supposed to be employed. Working is gauche, don’t you know.
There’s a bit more leeway with second sons or nephews of dukes, etc., but that’s where another problem comes in. A historical romance is a fantasy, but it’s also historical. So what’s an appropriate occupation for a working historical romance hero?
Judith Ivory, in The Proposition, makes her hero a Cornish rat catcher. I think Mick’s kind of an exception to the rule, however. In After the Kiss, my hero Sullivan Waring owns a breeding stable. He does work for a living, but he gets to ride horses and be the best at what he does.
My November book, Rules of an Engagement, features Captain Bradshaw
Carroway, a second son who’s made his way as a British naval officer. Very nice uniforms, too. I’ve made several of my heroes soldiers – or officers, more specifically – in King George III’s army. Beyond serving the country as an officer or a spy, or of course just being rich and unemployed, finding that perfect heroic occupation becomes more difficult.
I own a book called The Worst Jobs in History. Among the worst Georgian period jobs, it lists the Riding Officer, the guy who had to ride up and down the coast watching for smugglers. The locals all hated him, he had to provide his own horse, and smugglers worked on
the murkiest, wettest, coldest nights. Another one was the Bath Guide. He (or she) helped visitors into the waters of the Bath spas. They wore canvas smocks and stayed in the hot water for 12 hours a day. The high iron content of the waters turned their skin orange. And the pee and…yuck coming off all the ill people who took the waters floated around them the whole time, until the baths were closed for the day and the Bath Guide had to stay and clean them up for the next day.
A man could also find employment as a professional Hermit. He would be hired to live in a cave on some lord’s landscaped properties to provide ambience and to remind the wealthy owner that life could be so much worse than it was. The usual term of service was seven years, and a number of them killed themselves before the contract was up. (By the way, when I googled “Crazy Hermit”, a photo of Obi-Wan Kenobi came up.)
Of course there were also jobs in trade, like Saddle Maker, Button Maker, Carpet Weaver, Baker, Cooper, Potter, and Ship-Builder. Or Castrato – which wouldn’t make for much of a romance.
What’s the most unusual historical occupation you’ve seen for a hero? Do any of these “worst jobs” sound like they could be a hero’s employment? What’s the worst job you can think of in all of history?










I have a confession to make. Well, several of them.
Okay, I didn’t like Lost in Translation, but I LOVED him in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. And Groundhog Day. And Ghostbusters. And Larger than Life (with an elephant and a young Matthew McConaghey as a crazy truck driver). The man is not classically handsome, but I just adore watching him act.
love seeing him on screen. From Armageddon to Fargo to Desperado, he keeps my attention and my interest. I don’t know why, but he does.
We all know that a romance hero is (generally) very different from a real-life one. The bad qualities can be exaggerated and still forgiven, because frequently the lengths the hero goes to in order to finally win over the heroine are far beyond reality, too. The colors are more vibrant, the conversations are crisper and wittier, and the sex is better.
so to speak.
I like to play video games. I had a Nintendo (the old one where Mario could only move from left to right on the screen). I still have a Nintendo 2, where the characters can actually move toward and away from the screen.
And no facial hair except for a rather elegant pair of reddish-brown eyebrows. Oh, and his name is Mako. Like the shark. So far he’s been killed about 79 times, which is a bit disturbing, but one of us is getting a little better at playing.












