13 Things You Didn’t Know About VC Andrews, The Author Of ‘Flowers In The Attic’

4. ‘Flowers In The Attic’ Is Supposedly Based On A True Story

According to the website The Complete VC Andrews, Flowers in the Attic was based on a true story. Specifically, her tale was allegedly influenced by a man Andrews had known in her teen years. One of Andrews’s relatives said:

“Virginia was a young lady when my dad made arrangements to take her to the University of Virginia hospital for treatment. While she was there, she developed a crush on her young doctor. He and his siblings had been locked away in the attic for over six years to preserve the family wealth. Obviously, she cut the time back [in her novel] to be more believable. That area of the country has a lot of very wealthy people. I do not know who they were.”

The events of the novel, however, are likely almost entirely fiction. Andrews’s editor Ann Patty said, “Whether the twins were real, the sex, the time frame, probably not. I think it was just the concept of kids hidden in the attic so the mother could inherit a fortune.”