The most interesting thing though, about Julian Fellowes, is his actual life in relation to his comfortable literary evocations. I do not mean anything startling about his origins. He went to Cambridge University after all. What I refer to is the subtle way his own life skirts in and out of the outskirts of English aristocracy. For instance he married Emma Joy Kitchener,(born 1963), a woman with aristocratic connections, in 1990. She was a lady-in-waiting to HRH Princess Michael of Kent. (The latter personage appears in this blog space as often as I can think of a reason to include her. And not many know that Fellowes has agreed to do a screenplay of one of the novels of Princess Michael). Let's swerve back on track: he played the 2nd Duke of Richmond in the BBC series Aristocrats (1999).
And now, since he was given the honorary title of Baron Fellowes of West Stafford, (January 12, 2011) he got to create his own coat of arms. What a lovely confluence of art and reality. The artist for his services to his country (that would be Downton) is elevated to the peerage, and because of that honor, gets to create his own, really real, heraldic emblem. It is kind of like winning an Oscar (which he did do in 2001) and getting to design your own trophy. Only cooler.
The crest he designed is described as "A Lion's Head erased Or murally crowned Argent charged with a Fesse dancettée Ermine." That's the language of heraldry. The motto he chose "Post Proelia Praemia" translates: "After battles come rewards." And it may be, the life of Julian Fellowes IS that simple.
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