It'll come as no surprise that many of the characters in the hit show Outlander are based on real-life historical figures.
After all, author Diana Gabaldon has invested a large amount of time (over two decades) ensuring that her books are grounded in the reality of the events surrounding Culloden and the Revolutionary War in America - even though they involve many fantastical elements.
Jamie Fraser, who is played by Sam Heughan, in particular, took part of his name from a genuine soldier who survived the last battle on Scottish soil.
But what about his paramour Claire Randall Fraser? Was the time-travelling English nurse and heroine of the piece based on a real person?
Though many of the characters were inspired by, or loosely based on, real-life people, – and Diana is fanatical in her research – it appears Claire isn't one of them.
Having already decided on the setting and some of the main cast of characters, the Outlander author admitted in an article for Penguin way back in 2015 that Claire was purely a figment of her very active imagination that became a very real character to her very quickly.
After she was asked about why she writes such strong female characters, Diana said she herself doesn't "like stupid women".
The writer explained that the creation of Claire as a character, and even her name was a quirk of fate, due to her needing a strong female lead.
She said: “I needed a female character to play off against all the men in kilts so I introduced an English woman.
“I had no idea who she was or how she got there, but I loosed her into a cottage of Scotsmen to see what she'd do.”
Not only that, the creation of Claire, also led to the addition of time travel to the Outlander Universe.
She revealed that as soon as she started writing the dialogue for this feisty female lead, Diana quickly realised Claire didn’t sound like she was from the 1700s.
She added: “I fought with her for several pages, trying to beat her into shape, make her talk like a historical person.
“But she kept making smart-ass modern remarks, and she took over telling the story herself.
“So I said, 'Go ahead and be modern. I'll figure out how you got there later.'
“So it's all her fault that there is time travel in the books.”
Fiercely intelligent, Claire then became a married World War II nurse who travels backward in time accidentally - and thankfully we wouldn't have it any other way.
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