Mamamia's Extraordinary Stories series deep dives into the kind of tales you will keep thinking about long after you've read them. From unexplained mysteries to moments that have changed history, Extraordinary Stories will take you down the rabbit hole and make you never want to leave.
At the height of her fame, V. C. Andrews was a peculiar, tortured woman.
While she found notoriety through her prophetic storytelling, her real-life experiences were not so far removed from the tales she told. In fact, her most distinguished novel, Flowers In The Attic, was written in just two weeks, and was based lightly on a record of events given by her own physician.
Except there's more to the serial novelist, whose work still manages to cause conversation four decades on from her death.
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Born in 1923, Virginia Andrews was often referred to as "spoiled little Virginia", and according to family, there wasn't much she didn't get.
"When rubber bathing suits were the rage, Virginia had one in every colour. Forty-dollar blankets were casually purchased when 40 dollars was a fortune," her cousin Patty told her ghost writer, Andrew Neiderman in the new book, The Woman Beyond The Attic.
While her family didn't have all that much, they were able to create an idyllic childhood for Virginia and her brothers in her grandparent's four-bedroom home. Her imagination, though, was the real wonder – and it's what would be her rise to stardom.
As an adult, Virginia loved to write her own stories, but as a child, she had a talent for creating disturbing art.
Watch the trailer for the 2014 film Flowers In The Attic. Story continues after audio.
Despite her nature, she was considered a child with brains, beauty and talent – so much so that she was sent to a junior college for art lessons at the age of seven. She was required to sit on top of a dictionary so she could see her lecturer.
She even claimed American architect Frank Lloyd Wright visited her class and enquired about a sketch she'd made.
"Why did you draw a round house with all glass?" he asked
"Well, it’s my mother," a seven-year-old Virginia responded. "She always complains that she never seems to have enough windows."
According to the author, Wright looked at her teacher and said, "A child like that scares the hell out of me."
She grew up to be an undeniable beauty – which, combining with her wit and intelligence, made her a force to be reckoned with. But at 17, disaster struck.
While at school, she stumbled and twisted her hip. The tumble would be catastrophic, as it caused a bone to spur and her spine to twist out of alignment. It accelerated her arthritic condition exponentially.
The teenager went through two surgeries and ended up in a full-body cast, making things all the more difficult for Virginia.
She would never return to school and she became completely dependent on her parents. The rest of her life was spent in crutches and in wheelchairs.
Her mother, Lillian, did not hide her shame.
"Let’s not allow anyone to see my afflicted daughter," she was recalled saying while positioning Virgina so she would be shielded from neighbours when they would sit on the front porch.
Of course, while Virginia's body proved to be a difficult personal feat, her mind kept strong and when asked how she could "bear" being a reclusive shut in, she responded: "I imagine I am a princess in a castle enjoying life".
Despite being kept at home, she still had beautiful dresses and jewellery bought by her parents. A cousin quipped her as a "romantic princess" who had absolutely nowhere to go.
When Virginia reached her 30s, her father died and then her life became even more lonely as Lillian was said to have hid her daughter more than ever. Visitors to the home were infrequent and monitored, and she was rarely allowed to leave.
The last time she had been to a shoe store was when she was 16. She didn't step into one again until the age of 41, according to her cousin Pat.
All she and her mother had to live off were her father's pension checks and her own disability payments. As a result, she began selling her artwork, which consisted of plush velvet paintings of flowers.
Eventually, Virginia pivoted from creating disturbing art to writing hellish, obscene novels – all published under a pseudonym.
Her book Flowers In The Attic would be what shot her into stardom – and it all stemmed from an idea given to her by one of her doctors.
Her spine troubles began at 17 but would follow her for the rest of her life and, as a result, she became close with one of her many doctors. He then told her an incredible, almost unbelievable story. He and his siblings had spent six years hidden in their family's mansion to preserve an inheritance.
The tale would stick with her for decades and become the general inspiration for Flowers In The Attic, which involved four children hiding away in their grandfather's attic.
She combined the story she had heard with her own experiences and added a pinch of fictional horror.
The incestuous aspect [two siblings become lovers in the book] proved difficult, as she was a virgin herself, so she consulted medical books and her niece to help depict the sex scenes accurately.
In total, the book took two weeks to write and was released in 1979. She was 56, and the personal impact of what she had written was immense.
"I lost 12 pounds [in the weeks writing it] it upset me so much, for I lived through everything those children suffered," she said.
It became the first work that she published under her own name and was an instant hit. While it was banned in libraries and bookstores throughout the U.S., it was a bestseller.
Despite the book being dedicated to her mother, Lillian refused to read it because it featured incest. In fact, she refused to read any of the books her daughter would go on to write up until her death. However, Lilian remained by her side at every public event and book tour throughout France and England.
The new life Virginia acquired was one she relished.
She was able to buy a beach house in 1980 for her and her mother to live in, made a cameo in the film version of her hit novel in Hollywood and was able to spend time with men after 40 years of being kept away from the world.
Sadly, Virginia would die just seven years after the release of her famous novel at the age of 63, in 1986 – seven years before her own mother would pass away.
At the time of Virginia's death, she had been working on her fourth prequel to Flowers In The Attic. Her publisher asked author Andrew Neiderman if he could finish it. Since then, he's written over 60 books in her name.
Her legacy has lived on, surprising no one – least of all V. C. Andrews herself.
"All my life I thought I was meant to be something special," she famously explained. "I never knew what it was. Now I have the satisfaction of having my name recognised. And it will live after me."
Feature Image: Booktopia / NY Post.
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