Historical Romance – An enduring passion for Melinda Hammond

 Historical romance, I can't get enough of it!  But why?  that's difficult, it's a love affair that started a long time ago....

Think historical romance and perhaps you think of big dresses, even bigger hats(!) and lush plots featured in the older movies. This was probably my first impression of the genre, gleaned from the films shown on British TV when I was a child and still reading Enid Blyton. One such film was the Wicked Lady, starring Margaret Lockwood (seen here in the title role). It was actually made in 1945 but has been shown many times since then – I am not quite that old!)

Historical romance in book form came first with the "classics" we read at school, Jane Austen, The Brontes, Dickens etc. topped up by liberal readings of Georgette Heyer and Jean Plaidy, amongst others. So what was it about historical fiction that is so enduring? For me, it is another world, one we can never visit, except in our imagination. Wandering around castle ruins and old houses, I can imagine how people lived there and although the basics might be due to the guide books and history books that I have read, the colour and "flesh on the bones" comes from novels. Authors interpret history using their own voice, this gives tremendous scope for different views on the same period, but is it so very different today? We have contemporary writers who write about the modern world in hugely differing ways, from gritty political thrillers to warm, funny romances.

As a child my first historical romances came from the family bookcase, The Three Musketeers, The Scarlet Pimpernel and an author one hears little of these days, Jeffery Farnol. His books are romantic adventures full of action and passion, dashing heroes, spirited heroines and dastardly villains.  I loved them and still have them all in my own bookcase. However, I have to admit I do not re-read them as much as Heyer.

I discovered Georgette Heyer as a young teenager and have been re-reading her books ever since.  They were an escape for me – I could visit a world that was far more glamorous than the inner city where I grew up and escape from the pressures of being a teenager – exams, boys, keeping up with fashion, etc.

Over the years this love of historical romance has endured, so much so that my old copies of Heyer are now so worn I am having to replace them – not with the new glossy paperbacks, but I treat myself occasionally to hardback versions such as this one. 

When I decided I wanted to write a novel, it seemed natural to write historical romance, but being published is only the start of it. In the early 80's, with three books to my name, I was still a relative newcomer facing all the challenges for authors – research, marketing, finding time to write while looking after a young family, staying published - it was then that I met fellow West Country author Jean Saunders. She was a prolific romance writer and she gave me lots of encouragement – including this signed copy of her book, Scarlet Rebel.

It was Jean who told me about the Romantic Novelists Association and encouraged me to join. It was a wise move, for the RNA provides a hugely supportive network for writes of romance in all its forms. Sadly Jean died in 2011 but I know she is remembered fondly by many authors like myself, who found her an inspiration.

 And still the fascination of romantic fiction endures for me. I am so busy writing my historical adventures under the names of Melinda Hammond and Sarah Mallory that I do not have as much time to read as I would like.  Still, I do my best, and there are many great new authors coming along all the time, so there is no shortage of reading material.

What is it you enjoy about historical romance? Do you like adventurous swashbuckling stories or a comedy of manners? I'd love to hear your views.

Melinda Hammond / Sarah Mallory

www.melindahammond.com

Why I love Regency romance

I first discovered Regency romance in my early teens with Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer and I was hooked. Of course, Jane Austen wasn't really writing Regency romance, she was writing contemporary novels, but she set the template for a whole genre with Pride and Prejudice. Georgette Heyer picked up the baton in the twentieth century and made the Regency romance her own.

So what do I love about it? I love the chance to escape to an elegant age where courtesy was the order of the day; where witty conversations took place in crowded ballrooms or gracious drawing-rooms; where men and women danced and rode and took tea as they gradually fell in love. Many Regencies are comedies of manners about impoverished ladies who meet rich, handsome and arrogant gentlemen, causing the sparks to fly. Or sometimes it's the reverse, with heiresses meeting their match in impoverished gentlemen,

The language is another thing I particularly love about the genre. Georgette Heyer introduced a lot of wonderful phrases to the genre, which came from her detailed research. Characters are not poor in Heyer's novels; instead, they don't have a feather to fly with or they have pockets to let. They aren't drunk, they are a trifle disguised. There's a fantastic list of Heyer slang here This kind of rich and exuberant language peppers the pages of Regency romance and provides a unique and very entertaining read.

Regencies also offer a chance to delve into history and find out more about how our ancestors used to live. Some Regencies focus on the day-to-day life of the characters in small country villages. Others highlight historical events and place their characters in the turbulence of the Napoleonic wars or other similar events. I love reading and writing smuggling stories similar to Poldark, or stories about highwaymen or daring rescue attempts from the shores of revolutionary France, as well as elegant comedies of manners. Most of my own Regency romances have some kind of adventure as well as a romance. There is so much choice in the genre, it offers something for everyone, which is why I suppose it is still so popular, over 200 years after the first publication of Pride and Prejudice.

Amanda Grange

Lace, Stays and Powerful thighs: How could I resist?

Today, Elizabeth Bailey shares her reasons for loving reading and writing Regency romance.

Huge picture hats and charming straw bonnets; lashings of lace and tulle; yards of gathered floating muslin and bosoms upthrust by tightly boned stays.  Powerful thighs encased in close-fitting breeches; elegant colourful tailcoats with flowing hair brushing the collar; white starched cravats and tasselled polished boots.  Horses and carriages, vast estates and mansions filled with treasure.  It’s a world of privilege and slowed down time, far from the rush and bustle of the twenty-first century.

Although the fictional Regency and Georgian worlds are necessarily a romanticised version, they hark back to an era of endless fascination.  We know that the sharp class divisions and the inequities in life were unfair, that those who worked had to toil for hours to produce articles that would now be cut out in minutes by machine.  We know life was harsh, that odours we would consider offensive were legion, that disease was rife and often incurable.  But somehow the harshness adds to the piquancy of the period, pointing up the glamour enjoyed by the rich.

For the novelist, it’s an era riddled with possibilities.  Where your modern author struggles to find legitimate obstacles to put in the way of achieving goals, the historical writer has them readily to hand.  Communication can take days instead of being instantaneous; rules forbid women access to male dominated areas; travel is long and arduous; clothing is restrictive; food and drink can be inaccessible; and it is all too easy to become lost in a maze of dangerous alleyways or vast acres of uninhabited countryside.

But restrictive clothing adds spice to the hero's hunting instincts. Long coach journeys provide opportunities both for scintillating dialogue and hands-on getting to know you. Heroines found in the wrong place provoke heroes to gallant deeds of rescue. And getting lost together is almost certain to end in dalliance. As for food and drink, remember that outrageously sexy meal in the film Tom Jones?

The period element offers an endless variety of situations to tickle an author's imagination. That's why I love working in this Regency and Georgian world.

My own fictional world may be similar to that of other historical authors, but each is unique, reflecting the writer’s personal enjoyment of that past time. What I love most about writing in this period is that I can invite readers into my particular world, which is close to the real one but belongs exclusively to me.

Journey into my world with Friday Dreaming:

Bookish Friday Edborough’s secret dream looks set to come true when childhood friend, the gorgeous Nicolas Weare, proposes—if only he was behaving like a man in love. All too soon, Friday’s worst fears are confirmed when she finds Nick has been forced into the betrothal to stop him marrying the beautiful but ineligible Hermione.

Caught between love and loyalty, Friday ends the engagement, leaving Nick to realise the value of what he’s lost just as he discovers Hermione’s true worth. But with the lines joining love and hate beginning to blur, has Nick’s change of heart come too late?

Elizabeth Bailey