The Credit Crunch - Regency Style

Living beyond one's means is nothing new. In fact betting and gaming was a major preoccupation during the Regency period. Upper-class women mostly confined their gaming to cards - loo, faro, marcao, whist and the like. Men also gambled at cards, often wagering vast sums on a hand in the clubs and hells of Pall Mall, or risking their fortunes on the roll of the dice.

Almost any kind of bet was acceptable but once entered into was held as binding. Although gambling debts were not enforceable through the law they where considered to be debts of honour and it was understood amongst the upper classes that a wager undertaken between them took precedence over just about anything else - even if it meant the gentleman incurring the debt forfeited his entire estate as a consequence. A man of honour would not dream of defaulting, even if it meant keeping his tailor, and other tradesmen, waiting for payment.

Vowels - or IOU's - are commonly referred to in historical fiction. Their name is derived from the vowels - i,o and u which they represented. Incurring a debt of honour was taken so seriously that borrowing from a woman or even resorting to a moneylender were considered more honourable alternatives than defaulting.

Women did not view their gaming debts quite so seriously as men but were still obliged to pay. This often resulted in the sale of jewellery or other valuable personal items in order to honour their commitments. But such was the lure of the card table that the share of pawning their diamonds didn't prevent them from presenting themselves for more punishment, convinced that their luck must be due to change, the very next night.

Wendy

Two Gentlemen From London

Here is the final version of my cover for the Hale book which comes out in October. As always I love it - what do you think? Below is the opening scene from the book. I hope you enjoy it enough to want to read the whole thing when it comes out.

'Miss Bentley, lawks a mussy! They're here. Young Fred saw the carriage turn into the lane not ten minutes ago.'
Annabel Bentley dropped the jar of bramble jelly she had been about place on the shelf in the pantry. 'After so long? I had thought Mama and I safe from him.' Stepping over the sweet mess on the flagstones she gathered up her skirts, calling over her shoulder as she ran. 'You and Tom know what to do; we have about thirty minutes before they arrive.'
How had he found them? They had been so careful these past years, had not even attended church or visited Ipswich themselves. Her heart pounding, she ran upstairs calling her mother.
'Mama, we are discovered. We must get organized or it will be too late.' She had hoped never to be reminded of that black time again.
Lady Sophia appeared from the south facing chamber she used for her studio, as usual she had paint streaks on her face and fingers. 'Are you quite certain, my love? I can hardly credit that monster has been able to find us.'
'Well, he has. Mary and Tom are putting on the holland covers, we have to clear your studio.'
In the beginning they had practiced this exercise several times, but as the months, and then the years, slipped by they had stopped rehearsing. However, the boxes were ready and it was the work of moments to fill them with the paraphernalia.

'Quickly, open the panel and I'll start taking things through.' Annabel tried to recall how long it was since she had checked their intended hiding place. It must be almost a year, the two secret rooms would be dust covered, but it was too late to worry about that. There was the clatter of footsteps and their servants arrived to disguise the bed chambers they had been occupying with covers.
'Miss Bentley, everything's ready downstairs, we shall have your rooms done in a trice. Fred is moving the horses, I reckon we'll be prepared in good time.'
'This room is finished; all we need is sufficient food and water for today and tomorrow. No doubt you will be obliged to offer accommodation tonight, but when he finds he's mistaken, he will surely leave first thing.'
'He'll not get a meal he'll enjoy tonight, I'll make sure of that.'
'Thank you, Mary. I cannot imagine why the three of you have stayed with us so long in this isolated place, but we could not have managed without you.'
'Bless you, miss, it's been our pleasure. You mustn't worry. If you and Lady Sophia get settled, we'll be up with what you need as soon as we've done here.'
Annabel stepped into the hidden passageway, relieved to see her mother had not been idle, the sconces were burning and she had sufficient illumination to fasten the panel behind her and to pick up one of the remaining boxes.
The passageways and narrow staircase led from top to bottom of the ancient mansion. The place had once been used by smugglers and although the exit to the beach had fallen into disuse years ago, it was still possible to get from the kitchen to the hidden apartment in the attic.
She followed the twists and turns without hesitation, it was fixed in her mind. She could hear her mother moving about ahead of her and guessed she would be setting up her easel.
'There you are, my love. I shall run back and fetch the last box whilst you check we have everything we need up here. I fear the bed linen will be damp after so long.'
Annabel didn't bother to argue that she was younger and fitter and should be the one to go back, for it would be untrue. Her mother was barely eight and thirty, and she nineteen on her last name day, they would be taken for sisters if ever they appeared together in public.
These secret rooms had been constructed when the house was built. There was no way to enter them via the attics, the only panels that opened were in the room that had been used as a studio and the boot room in the basement. She walked across to the low doors that opened onto the roof.
She pulled them back and stepped out, knowing she could not be seen from below. Brandon Hall, originally built in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, now had a false edifice making it appear what it was not. Behind the brick frontage, hidden between two chimney breasts, was a space more than large enough to walk about. She carefully removed the brick that filled the peephole.
Her throat constricted and her hands clenched. Fred had not been mistaken. Already half way down the long curving drive was a smart, black travelling carriage. They had not received a visitor since they had joined Great-Aunt Beth, nobody knew they were there. It could only be her stepfather, Randolph Rushton, and his loathsome man of affairs.
A vivid flash of lightning split the sky. She counted, had reached five, when the thunder followed. The storm they had been anticipating all day would be upon them within the hour. She prayed the river that ran parallel to the lane would not flood, the last time it had done so it had been a week before the road was passable.


Miss Bennet & Mr Bingley is now available from Amazon and all other distributors. It has been given a good review on Pemberley and is mentioned on four other Jane Austen sites.
best wishes
Fenella Miller

Creative ideas from mysterious places!

The appearance of a crop circle in the shape of a jellyfish in the fields near our house last week might not seem the most obvious inspiration for a Regency author but as you know, we often get our ideas from all kinds of unusual places! When I heard about the “jellyfish” it set me to wondering when the first recorded mention was of crop circles and whether any had appeared in Regency times. I did some research and came up with some fascinating answers!

The earliest recorded mention of a crop circle appears to be in 815AD when the Bishop of Lyons wrote of corn “flattened by magical storms.” A celebrated case in 1678 records the case of the “Mowing Devil” which was shown on a contemporary woodcut. The text that accompanies the woodcut states that when a farmer asked a neighbour to cut his three and a quarter acre oat field, the man 'endeavour'd to sell the Sweat of his Brows and Marrow of his Bones at as dear a Rate as reasonably he might . . . some sharp Words had passed . . . The irritated farmer with a stern look . . . told the poor man, That the Devil should Mow his Oats before he should have anything to do with them.' The result was that that very night people saw the oat field in flames and in the morning a perfect round crop circle had been cut in the middle of the field. However, this report was discredited in some circles as being untrue and the woodcut a means of reinforcing the power of the church as a warning not to anger God with intemperate words. Even if this was the case, however, it does suggest that the concept of crop circles was something that men were familiar with at this time.

By the end of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth, the emphasis had shifted from religion and superstition to scientific investigation. Several scientific journals record the appearance of crop circles in this time, down to meticulous detail of how the corn was bent and flattened in some cases and cut and placed in others. Theories on crop circle formation suggested that they might have been created by swirling vortices of air or some other type of natural atmospheric process such as lightning. However, one particular account from the Victorian period near Plummer's Hill, in High Wycombe, Bucks, describes two disc-shaped objects with flashing lights hovering over a site where the very next day a circle of bent, flattened grasses was discovered! Was this the earliest suggestion that crop circles are created by aliens?

There are many ancient sites and historic events in this part of the world that could inspire a book, including the historic scouring of the Uffington White Horse and I’m tempted to include a mystery crop circle into one of my Regencies!

Nicola Cornick

Jane Austen: The Teen Queen?

I first encountered Jane Austen as a teenager, which probably accounts for why I am fascinated with the way she manages to capture the teenage spirit.

We studied Pride and Prejudice at school. My teacher, Mrs A—, loved reading out the funny parts of the novel to the class, especially the ones that had Mrs Bennet in them. To me, she’ll always be the quintessential Mrs Bennet. As you would expect, many of the girls in the class started groaning the moment Mrs A—/Mrs Bennet started reading, which always conjured up for me the images of Lydia and Kitty. This combination of teacher enacting the mother, and students being who they were – teenagers – has probably skewed my vision of Pride and Prejudice forever.

Still, I think it’s one of the remarkable aspects of Jane Austen that doesn’t get discussed often enough. Her ability to represent teenagers accounts for why each successive generation seems to rediscover Austen in a way that the older folks find irritating. There’s that “been there, done that” feeling whenever the new generation re-discovers her. But then again, each successive group brings to the novel its own notions.
One only has to look at the difference between the 1995 depiction of Elizabeth Bennet by Jennifer Ehle (right) and the 2005 version with Keira Knightly (below). I love Ehle in the 1995 version.

But what the 2005 version shows you much more clearly is that this is a film about teens.

Jane Austen’s skill at capturing the teenage mind was especially remarkable because she did it a long, long time before teenagers were even invented. Apparently it was not until James Dean’s Rebel Without a Cause came out in 1955 that the concept of “the teenager” even came to exist. Before that, if you were a teenager, tough luck. You were either an overgrown child, or a very young adult. James Dean, by portraying a lot of the issues and problems of teenagers, put teenagers for the first time on the map.

To give you a sense of how good she was at portraying the teen mind, look at Lydia, Kitty, and Mary, who represent a range of teenage archetypes, from the “popular” girl (Lydia), to the follower who longs to be popular (Kitty), to the “nerd” outsider (Mary). Then compare these figures to Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre. Jane Eyre goes through childhood to adulthood without ever passing through the “teen” phase. We never see it, unless you consider her childhood rebellion as her first teen gesture. But she was only ten. Jane Eyre is a different type of novel, obviously, but it’s much more typical of the way adolescence was depicted generally.

In this, if in nothing else, Jane Austen emerges as a pioneer (though there are plenty of other things she pioneered, too). Of course, if you mentioned the word “teenager” to her, she wouldn’t know what you were talking about. Which makes it all the more amazing that she was able to capture something which was not even identified until a century and a half later.

By Monica Fairview, whose The Other Mr Darcy will be available in a matter of weeks, i.e. at the end of June 2009.

The Eastbourne Redoubt

Summer is the time for going to the seaside and strolling along the prom, and a few weeks ago at Eastbourne I did just that, and was rewarded with a wonderful dsicovery.

Eastbourne is more generally associated with the Edwardian era than the Napoleonic wars, but it does have the most amazing redoubt, now restored to its early 19th century glory.

In the early 1800's the fear of a French invasion of Britain was very real. Napoleon moved troops to Boulogne and planned to ferry them across to the south coast. In response the British Government built over 70 Martello Towers plus three circular fortresses at Harwich, Dymchurch and Eastbourne.

In 1805, Nelson's victory at Trafalgar lessened the threat but plans had been laid and work began on the Eastbourne Redoubt, which took three years to build and only ever fired two shots in anger (at a French ship which strayed too close to the shore – the shots missed).

The Redoubt was used as an observation post and convalescent hospital during WWI and during WWII anti-aircraft guns were mounted on the gun platform. It is now a military museum and houses the regimental museums of The Royal Sussex Regiment and the Queen's Royal Irish Hussars.

Ironically, the Redoubt, which was built to defend the south coast, is now itself defended from the sea by the promenade, but I am so glad it has survived.

Melinda Hammond / Sarah Mallory

Promotional News

Sorry I am so late putting up my post but I am so excited I think my vibes gave my computer a wobbly and it needed to cool down before it would accept my post.

I have just heard that from late June to September Tesco are doing a special promotion for The Loveday Secrets. Every little helps as they say. I'm off to raid the wine rack and celebrate.

Kate Tremayne

Large Print editions of the diaries!

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!

And here is a very useful site for finding out if a book is available in large print and, if so, where you can get hold of it - click here

Happy reading!

Amanda Grange

Summer in Jane Austen's Bath, 1799

Isn't the weather glorious? It got me wondering what Jane Austen might have been doing at this time of year. In May, 1799, Jane Austen travelled to Bath with her mother, her brother Edward and his wife to sample the waters and electricity particularly for Edward's health. Jane wrote home to her sister at Steventon. I love the descriptions of their activities and those which mention what was to be seen in the shops - wouldn't strawberries have been a gorgeous addition to one's bonnet?
13, Queen's Square, Sunday June 2nd 1799

MY DEAR CASSANDRA,
I am obliged to you for two letters, one from yourself and the other from Mary, for of the latter I knew nothing till on the receipt of yours yesterday, when the pigeon-basket was examined, and I received my due. As I have written to her since the time which ought to have brought me hers, I suppose she will consider herself, as I choose to consider, still in my debt.

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.

Jane Odiwe

My latest Regency from Mills & boon

I think this is my day. I haven't made it here for a while so apologies if I have it wrong.

The first in the Hanover Square trilogy was published this month and the paperback for the next - An Innocent Debutante in Hanover Square is in paperback in September. The third should hopefully be out either in December or January. That will be the Mistress of Hanover Square.

I have been busy working on a huge manuscript for mainstream and I have my fingers crossed for news soon. Meanwhile various ebook and print versions have been coming out. Cassie's Shiekh and Chateau Despair are now in print here as well as America.

Love to you all, Anne Herries, Linda Sole

Linford Romance Library

UK readers may be familiar with the Linford Romance Library series which are short novels, in large print type, available in public libraries. They cover contemporary romances as well as historicals including Regencies, and I'm delighted to announce they've accepted a third Regency from me - The Smuggler Returns.

When Daniel Locke returns to Penhaven, the Cornish village of his childhood, he is intent on revenge against the smuggling gang who betrayed him as a young lad. What he doesn’t count 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?

I really love the covers I've had so far from Linford (pictured) so fingers crossed that The Smuggler Returns will get equally as great a cover. I'm not sure yet when it will be published, but hopefully before the end of this year.

If you're not a library user, or would just prefer your own copy, Linford Romances are also available to buy from amazon (including amazon.com) and book shops.

Kate Allan

New Website - New Books

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 hadn’t quite counted on the amount of work, and the number of decisions to make, even with a great website designer - or perhaps the better the designer, the more options there are.

It was great fun to choose prints from my collection of Regency originals to send off to Bekke at DreamForge Media to incorporate into the design and I’m thrilled with the result. Have a look at http://www.louiseallenregency.co.uk/ and see what you think - I’d love to get feedback.

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.

The other is the first of two books being reprinted in the lovely new Regency High-Society Affairs series from Mills & Boon. The Earl’s Intended Wife is one of my favourites and is set in Malta, occupied Spain and England. I think the covers for this series are just gorgeous.

Louise Allen

Schonbrunn Palace

This is the garden entrance to Schonbrunn where, in 1814 during the Congress of Vienna - the period of my next book - Napoleon's wife, Marie-Louise, eldest daughter of Austrian emperor Franz-Joseph, was held with her young son. She had wanted to accompany her husband into exile, but Metternich, the Austrian chancellor - a skilled manipulator and the driving force behind the Congress - persuaded her father it would give them greater bargaining power if she remained in Austria. In effect she was a hostage.

It was in under the personal supervision of Marie-Louise's grandmother, Empress Maria Teresa, that this former hunting lodge dating back to the Middle Ages was transformed over a period of forty years into a splendid palace, elaborately ornamented both inside and out in the Rococo style. Yet after the Empress's death in 1780 Schonnbrun remained empty until the early 1800s when Marie-Louise's father started using it as his summer residence in order to escape the heat and the stench of the river. During the Congress, Marie-Louise and her son lived there virtually alone but for servants, relying for company on visits from the wives and mistresses of the crowned heads of Europe, all of whom had their own agenda. The heroine of my book is a young and gifted artist who for a short time becomes Marie-Louise's friend. I'm so looking forward to following her adventures.

Jane Jackson.

www.janejackson.net

Busy, Busy

I’m a bit late with my blog this month. I’ve been in London all week, doing research, meeting my editor to discuss what I’m going to write next, and attending the RNA AGM and summer party. The party was great, as ever, and a wonderful opportunity to catch up with old writing friends, plus agents and editors. The Joan Hessayon Award was presented to a very worthy winner, Allie Spencer, for Tug of Love, though sadly Dr Dave Hessayon wasn’t well enough to attend. We all raised a glass to him and hope he is better very soon.

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.

For Regency fans, there are quite a few Regency stories, by authors including Louise Allen, Elizabeth Bailey, Nicola Cornick, Amanda Grange, and (I’m proud to say) me.

The cover jpeg here doesn’t do it justice — it’s really a beautiful gold, with foil decoration.

Then, this morning, when I was just about to start on the blog, the postman arrived, bearing a box of hardback books. At last, I get a chance to see the UK cover of the third book in The Aikenhead Honours trilogy, His Forbidden Liaison.

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.

The hardback is out in June. The UK paperback will be out in September. (In the meantime, the paperback of book 2 of the trilogy, His Reluctant Mistress, is out in the UK next month.)


Joanna
http://www.joannamaitland.com
Touch the past, taste the passion

Venice is for lovers

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, or 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…

Sea-Bathing

The experts tell us it's going to be a hot summer in England this year. I wonder if that prediction, combined with the effects of the recession, will see a resurgence in the popularity of the British seaside resort.

Wars with France and other European countries over the Colonies, followed by the French Reveolution, made for dangerous and unsettled times during the 1790's. The ensuing Napoleonic Wars combined to put an end to the English upper class fashion for the European Grand Tour and holidays at continental spas, which offered mineral-rich water to drink and even mud-baths, (a bit like Glastonbury today then!).

In England inland spas such as Bath were long established on the Continental model of health spas like Lourdes. George 11's old Prime Minister, Pitt the Elder, retreated to Bath in 1768 suffering from flying gout - the polite label for mental health problems. The English seaside resorts came into popularity during the heyday of the up-and-coming Prince Regent in the years between the Storming of the Bastille in 1789 and Waterloo in 1815, which effectively ended the French threat.

George 111 suffered from mental health probelms and went into seclusion. His reappearance at Weymouth in the summer of 1789 to take the waters was a welcome sight, for the situation in France prompted a fear the English monarcy could also collapse. Watched by a puzzled crowd, the Kind entered the sea from a bathing machine for his royal dip whilst a band played God Save the King! It was the king's regular public dips at Weymouth through the 1790's that helped popularize the new spa idea that salt water sea-bathing had curative properties. Perhaps it was the king's example that made Mrs Bennet in Pride and Prejudice so enthusiastic for the idea of going to Brighton. She was sure a little sea-bathing would set her up for good.

So if you are obliged to clamber over packed rows of scorched bodies in order to bag a few square feet of sand this year, you could be excused for thinking that George 111, (and Mrs Bennet), have a lot to answer for.

Wendy

The Brides of Fortune Quartet!

This month the e-book prequel to my new series, The Brides of Fortune, will be on sale from HQN Books online. The Secrets of a Courtesan is a complete short story but it also sets the scene for the trilogy, introducing the little Yorkshire market town of Fortune’s Folly (a character in its own right!) plus some of the heroes and heroines of the following books. Fortune’s Folly seems an ordinary, respectable town on the surface and that is one of the reasons that Eve Nightingale, a former courtesan, chooses it as a place to hide when she runs away from her scandalous life in London. But Eve and her secrets are not safe in Fortune’s Folly, especially when her former lover, the Duke of Welburn, arrives intent on discovering why she left him.

Fortune’s Folly is a fictional spa town but I based it mainly on Harrogate, where I had previously set one of my books, The Chaperon Bride. I have very fond memories of Harrogate from my childhood (afternoon tea at Betty’s tea shop!) The discovery of medicinal springs at Harrogate was first made in 1571. The first well, the Tewitt Well, was located in the middle of the open area of land called The Stray where the villagers grazed their animals. In the 17th century the medicinal properties of the waters were more widely publicised by Edmund Deane who wrote Spadacrene Anglica, or the English Spa Fountain and by the later 17th and 18th centuries Harrogate had developed considerable fame as a spa town.

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!

These days you can take the waters at the Valley Gardens and the Royal Pump Room Museum. But be warned – the sulphur and iron in them is a horrible combination and I thought it tasted vile!

The Secrets of a Courtesan will be available online from Harlequin HQN Books from 18th May and The Confessions of a Duchess will be on sale in the US and online in June. There is also a contest on my website to win copies of both books!

Nicola

Hero Spotlight on eHarlequin

There is now a new short story about Lord Jack Aikenhead, the hero of His Forbidden Liaison, here on eHarlequin which is featuring Historicals in May in its Hero Spotlight series.

You may need to scroll down the page to find Jack, but he is there. Hope you enjoy this sidelight on London life of a spy.

Joanna

Fragment from Caroline Bingley's Diary Discovered

Below is a transcription of a rare document found revealing some hitherto unknown information about Miss Caroline Bingley, and providing our first evidence of the existence of a cousin to Mr Darcy. As yet, the cousin’s identity is unknown.

Note from the Editor: the following fragment was discovered among the coals in Miss Bingley’s bedchamber. Since it is a rare example of personal writing by her, we have here a discovery of monumental importance for those interested in determining the accuracy of Pride and Prejudice. One can only guess at Miss Bingley’s feelings throughout the piece, however. It is particularly unfortunate that the rest of the document is lost to us. We must hope that other evidence will be unearthed which will reveal more about this unknown cousin of Mr Darcy’s.


Transcription of diary fragment:

[I] do not keep a diary.

At least, I have never kept a diary until today. Only the direst circumstances could bring me to confess my feelings on a piece of paper. I have always found the idea utterly juvenile. Of course, I must have been juvenile once, but I did not keep a diary even then. For what is the point of writing one’s thoughts on paper, when one has already thought them, and no one will read them?

No one must read this, least of all my sister Louisa. I could [not?] bear to think of her as having even an inkling of how I feel.

However, there are moments in one’s life which demand to be recorded, and today is one of them.

Today was Mr Darcy’s wedding. To watch him slide the ring on Miss Eliza Bennet's finger, to hear him say his vows to her, to know that their lives are tied together, never to be split asunder -- I
the worst day I have ever experienced
to imagine that my outbu[rst]
watching me all the time
Mr Darcy’s cousin

By Monica Fairview, whose THE OTHER MR DARCY is coming out in June 2009

Inspiration

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
the original entrance to West Wycombe is very like the frontage of Malberry with its newly-painted frescoes on the ceiling just beyond the portico.

My heroine Carlotta's father is an Italian artist, commissioned to decorate Malberry Court with murals and frescoes. He "signs" his pictures by painting a small snail, a "lumaca", somewhere in the scene. Imagine my delight when I read that an Italian snail was discovered at Cliveden, another National Trust property not that far from West Wycombe. It would appear that this tiny snail hitched a ride to England in 1896, when marble was imported from Italy to form a balustrade at Cliveden. This may be almost a century later than my own story, but it shows the importance of the Italian influence upon English landowners – and I like to think that this snail is something like the one Carlotta's father would have depicted in his pictures!



Melinda/Sarah

Maypoles, morris men and mayhem or the joys of a butterfly mind

Throughout the ages May Day has been a time of celebration, ritual and supposedly for blossoming creativity as it is the herald of nature bursting forth, fruit trees being pollinated, the fields are full of lambs and young livestock and birds are frantically feeding their newly hatched chicks.

I have been working this week on checking the printer's proofs of The Loveday Conspiracy and they were put in the post yesterday. My blog post being the first of the month completely sneaked up on me unawares and I awoke to a sense of panic and a blank mind on a subject to write. The dawn chorus of blackbirds, robins and the delightful calls of over thirty goldfinches who sing to me every morning was instantly calming. This is often my favourite time of day and I allow my mind to drift upon a scene or character I will be writing about that day. I have had some wonderful inspiration in this semi-dreamlike or dozy state. The idea to blog about finding our own inspirational time came to mind.

The melody of the blackbirds and robins can instantly transport me to a nostalic Cornish scene or a tender moment of romance. However when this moment was rudely interrupted by squawkinbg seagulls and argumentative crows which did not fill me with feelings of love and blessings upon the world, I was less than enchanted with this idea and gave the pillow a hard punch for good measure. As I huffed and puffed and tried to bury myself under the duvet for another hours sleep, I realised that this more raucous awakening had often given me ideas for more turbulent scenes of conflict. So perhaps the idea for the blog was not lost at all.

So with great enthusiasm I sat at my computer which informs me the date is 1st May. I have always loved researching ancient festivals and my head was filled with maypoles, morris men and Jack of the green and then on to all things Celtic. A photo of morris men seemed a good idea to illustrate the blog. Two hours later I realise I have become totally absorbed in the ancient rituals and folklore and how the Lovedays would celebrate this day - which so far I have not used in the novels, and I always need fresh images and ideas. Then I am panicking that most of the morning has disappeared, no blog is written and this was the day I was supposed to be checking research for the first chapters of the next Loveday book.

Thank goodness that as women we have butterfly minds which when allowed to roam free can come to our rescue. I now have all the information I need for my novel and hopefully you have found these chaotic ramblings an insight into the mind of a writer who is always open to receiving inspiration when it is least expected. Happy May day and inspiration and creativity to you all.
Kate Tremayne