Dear ol' Nell Gwynn, quoted for the title, "Oranges are not the only fruit", was an actress and the mistress of Charles II. There are excellent biographies available, including the recent and well reviewed Nell Gwyn: Mistress to a King, by Charles Beauclerk. Nell was a hoot as well as a self professed "whore" and a genuinely good soul. She rose from the ditch her mother was said to have died in to become a powerful and popular political figure, as well the Spirit of Her Age; irreverent, greedy, generous, spendthrift, hilarious, sexy and one Hell of a good time. That she was disinclined to be docile, to say the least, may well be what made her so attractive a figure with which to kick off the novel. Well worth further reading.
If I can find the context for the title quote, I'll post it here.
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