The Fraud is a historical novel based on the Tichborne case written by Zadie Smith. Mrs Touchet is the Scottish housekeeper and a cousin by marriage of William Harrison Ainsworth. In 1873 she has been living with him for thirty years in London, Brighton and Surrey. He used to be a famed novelist. In 1834 his gothic novel Rookwood was a popular serial. Later he got negative reviews, and he had a conflict with Charles Dickens and illustrator George Cruikshank. All of England is captivated with a trial. Roger Tichborne, rightful heir to a baronetcy and a family fortune, was presumed to have died in a shipwreck in 1854, but now a man claims to be him. Andrew Bogle, who grew up as a slave on a Jamaican sugar plantation, is a star witness.

Zadie Smith (born on 25 October 1975) is a British novelist, essayist and short story writer. As of 2016, she has published five novels, all of which have received substantial critical praise. In 2003, she was included on Granta's list of 20 best young authors. Smith has won the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2006 and her novel White Teeth was included in Time magazines TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005 list. She joined New York University's Creative Writing Program as a tenured professor in 2010.