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The title, The Heir Apparent, tells you a lot about what you can expect to find within these pages, but it's also deliberately confusing because female heirs to the British throne are almost never called called 'the heir apparent'. Instead, they're called 'the heir presumptive'. To be the heir apparent means that the crown belongs to you. No one will ever have a better claim to the throne than you. It's almost always a phrase used in reference to men. But to be 'heir presumptive' means you're a woman who has made it to the head of the line because there are no men left. The crown always holds out hope that a boy will come along and supersede her - even if it's physically and legally impossible.
The Heir Apparent is about a wayward British princess called Lexi who is estranged from her royal relatives and living in obscurity in Australia. But a skiing accident kills her brother and father, and makes Lexi the future monarch. Her grandmother, the Queen, decides to dispense with tradition and call Lexi 'the heir apparent' because she's tired of royal women being back-up options when there are no men left to reign. She wants Lexi to know that nothing stands between her and the throne - except for...[read on]
Q&A with Rebecca Armitage.
--Marshal Zeringue
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