How much History?

When Jane Austen wrote her books, she did not include any of the stirring events of the day, despite that a great war raged, and social upheaval was rife.

Unless Georgette Heyer was writing about that great war, she did not often include the notable events of the early nineteenth century in her stories.

Until now, I have, for the most part, followed in their august footsteps. But when Shakoriel and I began to consider an illustrated book, it occurred to me to use history in a new way in my writing. And The Regency Storybook came about.

We already had the pictures for our book. A few years ago, Shakoriel did twelve line drawings of Regency fashions, with reference to original sources, and we published the "Fashions of Regency England Colouring Book". Then in the last year and a half, she painted the pictures digitally, and they have been offered for sale as frameable prints.

When we did the Regency colouring book, the people modelling the fashions had so much personality that, just for fun, we gave each of them a name. Now as we approached The Regency Storybook, we needed only stories to accompany the pictures. But the stories needed a cohesive focus. It seemed to me that the notable events of the era offered that focus.

We all can name events in our own time that have touched our lives to a greater or lesser extent: 9/11, the moon landing, deaths of famous people, encounters with celebrity, etc.
I began to reflect on how the events of the extended Regency era must have touched the lives of the people, sometimes directly, sometimes indirectly. And so the stories came together.

Anxious Miss Phoebe Churcham is in the street, unusually alone, when the assassination of Prime Minister Spencer Perceval occurs at the Houses of Parliament.

The Dowager Marchioness of Lavington visits her old friend Maria Fitzherbert at her new Steine House; Captain Benjamin Shedfield is missing for a week after the Battle of Waterloo; the death of the Princess Charlotte affects the entire family of Tabitha, Lady Newick -- it all led to our tagline "Twelve people, twelve historical events, twelve stories".

In his story, Sir Aubrey Granthorpe goes in search of Miss Austen's new book, Mansfield Park, though he has never heard of Hatchard's, and has a horror of bookstores in general.

I hope I have done justice--in about 2,000 words each--to the Regency events I have chosen. It was a fascinating experience in writing, weaving important factual events with fictional characters. History always frames my stories but seldom in such an immediate fashion.

This is the first of my books to be in print as opposed to an ebook format. An ebook version of The Regency Storybook will be available from Uncial Press in the fall of 2013.

The aim of Shakoriel and I was to produce a beautiful book, a gift book--in the tradition of storybooks for all ages--and yet one with some depth of storytelling. We hope we have succeeded.

'Til next time,
Lesley-Anne

The Regency Storybook is available from Amazon Createspace, Amazon.com, and Shakoriel's Etsy shop. A limited number of autographed copies accompanied by frameable mini-prints of the artwork is also available from Shakoriel's Etsy store online.

Heyer and Austen--Readers' Delights

"Pistols for Two, Breakfast for One"--a chilling reminder of the purpose of any duel; to put a period to the existence of one's opponent. But in the hands of the inimitable Georgette Heyer, a duel becomes a delightful story about the maturing of two young men, and the happiness of a young lady. "Pistols for Two" is the title of that story and it is the title of the anthology of eleven short stories in which it appears.

The anthology "Pistols for Two" was first published in 1960. It has always, to me, seemed like a box of the finest sweets, a thrill to open, and a delight to savour the contents. The stories vary from the light and delicious Bath Miss to the mysterious and enjoyably chilling Night at the Inn. The very first heroine (I think) won by a gamble is Helen Morland in Hazard, and the mistaken identity in Full Moon is the epitome of charm.

I cannot recommend Heyer's only anthology highly enough, and I have always regretted that she produced just one collection of short stories. You may have gathered by now that I am one of Georgette Heyer's most ardent fans.

But I am not the only fan. Indeed, the delightful website Austenprose is currently hosting a whole month about Georgetter Heyer's work--reviews, articles, opinions. I recommend the event highly for information, giveaways (!), and great fun.

When you are finished reading Heyer, you might want to return to the delights of Jane Austen. A book that I just completed, reflecting Jane Austen's real life, is "Dearest Cousin Jane" by Jill Pitkeathley. It is the captivating story of Jane's cousin Eliza Hancock, told in turns by herself and a variety of Austen relatives involved in her life. The voices seemed to me very accurate, and the story unfolds in delight and tragedy exactly as did the life of Jane's most charming cousin.

After completing Pitkeathley's book, I turned to a more current Jane Austen-linked offering suggested by my sister-in-law (thanks, Joan!). Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler is, in my opinion, a captivating read. There are so many of this type of book around these days (I won't be reading any of the zombie, vampire or sea monster versions, thank you) that it is difficult to discover if any of them are worth your precious reading time. I think Rude Awakenings is certainly worth the effort. The voice of the heroine is very believably Regency, her concerns, her anxieties, her courage and her personality are credible and convincing. The reason and the science for the exchange of mind and personality are of course unexplained and unexplainable but, like the best science fiction, one believes and does not question too closely.  Rigler's first book "Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict" will be next on my reading list.

I hope you are finding some delightful reading material this summer. I'd love to hear your recommendations.

'Til next time,

Lesley-Anne

P.S. Here's another recent blog I discovered about Pistols for Two! First Impressions

This is a little article I wrote to aid members of my writers' group who were just breaking into historical writing, particularly the Victorian era. I offered a few suggestions on reading and research, and some ideas for reading on and of the period. I hope you find it interesting. I am going on holiday within a couple of days, and will be back in the middle of August. There will still be blogs for you to read--I hope you enjoy them, and I'll talk to you soon…

Lesley-Anne

Firstly about wording or language -- to get a solid idea of how people spoke you need to read books written at the time. If you are interested in 19th C Britain -- you should read any or all Jane Austen, 'Vanity Fair' by Thackery, 'Barchester Towers' and others by Anthony Trollope, 'Jane Eyre' and 'Wuthering Heights' by the Brontes, anything by George Eliot, 'The Moonstone' or 'Woman in White' by Wilkie Collins, anything by Thomas Hardy, and of course, Charles Dickens. Some of these are heavy going -- the writing style is alien to us, but even if you just browse them to look at the language, you will be learning. (I've never been able to read Dickens ) Someone else very useful and much easier to read is Flora Thompson. She only wrote a couple of books-- I think the library has them. One title is 'Lark Rise to Candleford'. And then there are people like Georgette Heyer who have impeccable period language although she was writing in the 20th century.

Also diaries can be very useful -- Francis Kilvert and John Woodforde were both parsons who wrote diaires, one at the end of the 19th century, one at the beginning. And finally if you want to get technical about words and language you can try "Nineteenth Century English" by Richard W. Bailey from the University of Michigan Press. It's pretty scholarly but very interesting.

Something you should know is that research, if you're writing historicals, is a life-long process. There is no quick and easy way to learn it all. Most of us writing historicals find the research way more fun than the writing :) You will need to know your British history really well, and if you're writing emigration type stories, you need to know all you can about that process of emigration as well as 19th century Canadian history. Those will be your basics.

After that -- whenever you have time! -- you need to research particular subjects. For example, google or library search 'horse drawn carriages' or '19th century costume' or 'Victorian trades'. And you just learn and learn and learn; but there's no quick way.

And remember don't put off writing until you have all the research done. Because you'll never be done researching, and you need to start writing as well as researching.

The Sublime Georgette Heyer

Georgette Heyer started it all for me. In high school, I found one of her books in the library, and I was hooked. For the next ten years I searched out every Georgette Heyer book I could find; it became an obsession. I had to own every title.

I have them all now, at least all the ones I wanted, beginning with The Masqueraders set in 1746 through to Venetia set in 1818 excepting only Cousin Kate. I've half of them in hardcover, the other half in paperback. I'd like to have them all in hardcover, and I pick them up when I see them in used bookstores or used book sales. I got thinking about Heyer's books again the other day, when on Regency@yahoogroups.com they started to talk about Heyer books that they disliked.

That was a surprise to me. You see, I never before thought anyone would/could dislike a Georgette Heyer book. Well, I didn't like her now dated contemporaries, didn't read her mysteries, and didn't care for Cousin Kate, which is basically a Gothic. But I'm talking about the historical romances here--the Georgians and the Regencies. Oh, there are some I like better than others, but none that I dislike. Each and everyone has a character I love, or a situation I like, or a plot line I adore.
The folks on Regency@yahoogroups.com were talking about disliking False Colours. That is one of my favourites. Yes it moves slowly, but the twins, ah the twins, are lovely, and mistaken identity plots always grab me.

Someone didn't like The Tollgate because of the cant. The cant was a necessity given the setting. And for a dependable hero, a feisty heroine in an untenable situation, and a gentle murder mystery it can't be bettered.

I don't know why they didn't like Lady of Quality. For me the hero is strongly reminiscent of the hero of The Black Sheep, but I love The Black Sheep so why wouldn't I like Lady of Quality?

Bath Tangle is a bit problematic. The continuing confrontational attitude of the hero and heroine was cited as a reason for dislike. I can understand that. Yet both characters are so well drawn, and their long-standing relationship so clearly delineated that the passion and the reason for their verbal sparring is obvious. They are strong people, with opinions and attitudes to match.

The Masqueraders was singled out for disapprobation. But the people who didn't like it, admitted to a bias against 'secret identity' or 'identity swap' type plots. They didn't like False Colours either. As I said before, mistaken identity will hook me every time. We all wear masks; Georgette Heyer took the mask to the limit.

Cotillion and Charity Girl are probably my least favourite Heyers. Cotillion I must read again; when I read it first it disappointed me for it had no dashing hero. I'm older and wiser now Charity Girl I found derivative--one of her last books--and apparently written at a low point. But still I would be happy to pen such a work.

Georgette Heyer still enchants readers and is still in print thirty-five years after her death. No author could ask for more.

To explore Ms. Heyer's work further go to:
- Definitive Fan Website

- An Appreciation of Georgette Heyer by Jay Dixon (a very good bio and bibliography)

- The Romantic Novels of Georgette Heyer (an excellent, if occasionally condescending, article)

- A Gallery of Heyer Images

Which is your favourite Heyer? Why?

Till next time,

Lesley-Anne

Favourite Regency Reads

I have this list posted on my website, but it is rather tucked away. I thought it might be interesting to post it here and find out what your favourite Regency reads are.

These titles are my very personal choices for top Regencies. They are books I return to again and again just to visit with the characters and delight in their wonderful stories. In no particular order:

1. Deirdre and Don Juan by Jo Beverley 1993 Avon Books
2. A Gypsy at Almack's by Chloe Cheshire 1993 Harper Paperbacks
3. Love's Duet by Patricia Veryan 1979 Fawcett Crest
4. Miss Whittier Makes a List by Carla Kelly 1994 Signet Books
5. Frederica by Georgette Heyer Pan Books 1968; many reissues
6. Persuasion by Jane Austen first published 1817; many editions available
7. The Rogue's Lady by Marian Devon 1982 Fawcett
8. Miss Dower's Paragon by Gayle Buck 1993 Signet
9. The Runaways by Barbara Hazard 1997 Signet
10. Lady Elizabeth's Comet by Sheila Simonson 1985 Walker

Let's make it an even dozen:

11. Lydia by Clare Darcy 1973 Signet
12. Lady in Green by Barbara Metzger 1993 Fawcett

As you can see, most of my favourites are older books--sadly out of print now. In my opinion, the quality of traditional Regency romances deteriorated in the late 1990's and early 2000's which helped to lead to their print demise.

Anyway, that's my list of favourites. What are yours? I'm looking for some more books to read :)

Till next time,
Lesley-Anne