Good news for those of you who prefer your books in large print - Captain Wentworth’s Diary and Edmund Bertram's Diary are now available! You can buy them from Amazon or, if you're in the UK, you can order them from your local bookshops or take them out of the library!
I will lay out all the little judgment I have in endeavouring to get such stockings for Anna as she will approve; but I do not know that I shall execute Martha's commission at all, for I am not fond of ordering shoes; and, at any rate, they shall all have flat heels.
What must I tell you of Edward? Truth or falsehood. I will try the former, and you may choose for yourself another time. He was better yesterday than he had been for two or three days before - about as well as while he was at Steventon. He drinks at the Hetling Pump, is to bathe to-morrow, and try electricity on Tuesday. He proposed the latter himself to Dr. Fellowes, who made no objection to it, but I fancy we are all unanimous in expecting no advantage from it. At present I have no great notion of our staying here beyond the month.
I heard from Charles last week; they were to sail on Wednesday.
My mother seems remarkably well. My uncle overwalked himself at first, and can now only travel in a chair, but is otherwise very well,
My cloak is come home. I like it very much, and can now exclaim with delight, like J. Bond at hay-harvest, "This is what I have been looking for these three years." I saw some gauzes in a shop in Bath Street yesterday at only 4d. a yard, but they were not so good or so pretty as mine. Flowers are very much worn, and fruit is still more the thing. Elizabeth has a bunch of strawberries, and I have seen grapes, cherries, plums, and apricots. There are likewise almonds and raisins, French plums, and tamarinds at the grocers', but I have never seen any of them in hats. A plum or greengage would cost three shillings; cherries and grapes about five, I believe, but this is at some of the dearest shops. My aunt has told me of a very cheap one, near Walcot Church, to which I shall go in guest of something for you. I have never seen an old woman at the pump-room.
Elizabeth has given me a hat, and it is not only a pretty hat, but a pretty style of hat too. It is something like Eliza's, only, instead of being all straw, half of it is narrow purple ribbon. I flatter myself, however, that you can understand very little of it from this description. Heaven forbid that I should ever offer such encouragement to explanations as to give a clear one on any occasion myself! But I must write no more of this. . .
I spent Friday evening with the Mapletons, and was obliged to submit to being pleased in spite of my inclination. We took a very charming walk from six to eight up Beacon Hill, and across some fields, to the village of Charlecombe, which is sweetly situated in a little green valley, as a village with such a name ought to be. Marianne is sensible and intelligent, and even Jane, considering how fair she is, is not unpleasant. We had a Miss North and a Mr. Gould of our party; the latter walked home with me after tea. He is a very young man, just entered Oxford, wears spectacles, and has heard that Evelina was written by Dr. Johnson.
I am afraid I cannot undertake to carry Martha's shoes home, for, though we have plenty of room in our trunks when we came, we shall have many more things to take back, and I must allow besides for my packing.
There is to be a grand gala on Tuesday evening in Sydney Gardens, a concert, with illuminations and fireworks. To the latter Elizabeth and I look forward with pleasure, and even the concert will have more than its usual charm for me, as the gardens are large enough for me to get pretty well beyond the reach of its sound. In the morning Lady Willoughby is to present the colours to some corps, or Yeomanry, or other, in the Crescent, and that such festivities may have a proper commencement, we think of going to . . .
I am quite pleased with Martha and Mrs. Lefroy for wanting the pattern of our caps, but I am not so well pleased with your giving it to them. Some wish, some prevailing wish, is necessary to the animation of everybody's mind, and in gratifying this you leave them to form some other which will not probably be half so innocent. I shall not forget to write to Frank. Duty and love, &c
Yours affectionately,
JANE.
My uncle is quite surprised at my hearing from you so often; but as long as we can keep the frequency of our correspondence from Martha's uncle we will not fear our own.
upon is the distraction of beautiful Jane Tregarron, who has become involved with the local smugglers to save her penniless family from losing their home. Can Daniel still inflict his revenge or will his plans be muddied by love?
My new year’s resolution this year was to have a radical redesign of my website in time to launch the final three titles, plus an Historical Undone e-book, in the Those Scandalous Ravenhursts series.
I’ve two very different books out this month. One is a short, sizzling, contribution to the Historical Undone e-book series. Disrobed and Dishonoured links the two sets of Ravenhurst books and features a young lady with a problem - her highly inconvenient virtue - and a dashing highwayman who is only too happy to assist her with this burden.
We also saw cover flats of the forthcoming RNA short story anthology, Loves Me, Loves Me Not, which will be out in hardback in the autumn and in paperback next year, the RNA's 50th anniversary.
I had assumed the UK cover would be the same as the US one, focusing on the sexy legs in stockings. In fact, the UK book uses the inside cover from the US edition, so you get a chance to see what hero and heroine look like, plus a fair sample of sexy stocking as well. I hope you like it as much as I do.
Recently, Samhain reissued "Venice," the third Richard and Rose story.
I wrote the book after getting so immersed in the history of eighteenth century Venice, I could hardly stop.
When you write a Georgian or Regency novel, the book is most usually set in Britain, or in France, Spain or Belgium in the Napoleonic era. This book is mid-eighteenth century, long before Napoleon upset the apple-cart, and this was the first one I wrote that was set outside Britain (there is at least one more ‘foreign’ Richard and Rose to come).
Before I started researching, I hadn’t realised that by the mid eighteenth century, Venice was in a steep decline and could well have slid into the watery Lagoon if it hadn’t been rescued by culture-vultures like Ruskin a century later. Leghorn had taken a lot of the trade that had made Venice great. That, and expenditure on wars and battles, had led to Venice’s economic decline. The great families had either lost their money and influence, o
r moved somewhere else. So by the Georgian era it had become a place of culture, very much secondary to Rome, and sleazy goings-on. Carnival was a time for uninhibited fun, one respectable people tended to stay away from.
Perfect for Richard and Rose to hide out in while they searched for their would-be assassins, and perfect for the card-sharps who form a lot of the story. Courtesans, card-sharps and other tricksters ruled the city, and the old, grand palazzos were either left to fall into ruin, or split into smaller dwellings. Richard owns an apartment in a once-grand palazzo, and if you read carefully, you can discover which one!
Venice - Richard and Rose, book three
Venice is perfect for their honeymoon. Unless an assassin plays his cards right…
http://samhainpublishing.com/romance/venice
ISBN: 978-1-60504-517-7
Here’s the blurb:
Venice is perfect for their honeymoon. Unless an assassin plays his cards right…
Richard and Rose, Book 3
At long last, it is Lord and Lady Strang’s wedding day. Yet no sooner do Richard and Rose leave their wedding breakfast than two shots ring out, forcing a hasty change in honeymoon plans. Instead of traveling together by yacht, Richard goes on ahead, making sure the road to Venice is safe for his beloved.
Rose is by no means alone, however. Along her journey by packet, coach, even mule, she befriends young couple, the Ravens, who have a strange confession to make. They are traveling incognito—and are really the newlywed Lord and Lady Strang!
Once reunited in Venice, Richard and Rose heat up the sheets, making Richard consider the delightful possibility of keeping his wife in bed for the rest of their stay. Except Venice is as full of knaves as London, and one of them is still trying to find them with a bullet.
The Ravens could hold the key to the assassination attempts. Or perhaps they are playing a deadly game of their own…
In Regency times Harrogate was known as "the Bath of the North" and noble families made regular visits. The air was bracing and invalids would take the waters -"the Cure" - at the Sweet Spaw in High Harrogate, which tasted better than the Stinking Spaw in the village of Low Harrogate! But Harrogate was not only a spa - there were also balls and assemblies, visits to the Theatre Royal and trips out to the medieval castle at Knaresborough. It was a lively place, busy with the red coats of young officers on furlough and older officers retired from Army life, lords on the hunt for an heiress bride and ladies looking to dance at the balls and snare themselves a husband... It seemed the perfect setting for a Regency Quartet and so I had the background to The Brides of Fortune!
Many of you will know that I take inspiration from the wonderful English houses owned by the National Trust. West Wycombe in Buckinghamshire is a beautiful mansion once owned by Sir Francis Dashwood (founder of the infamous Hellfire Club) and inspiration for Malberry Court, where much of the action takes place in my latest Sarah Mallory novel, The Wicked Baron. These are two of the views of West Wycombe that fired my imagination when planning the story: Carlotta frequently walks to Malberry from her house and takes a short-cut through the trees and bushes that bound the park. The second picture shows 
