A Winter’s Romance: A Regency Anthology
I’m delighted to announce that A Winter’s Romance, an anthology of short stories all set in the Regency period, is now up for pre-order on Amazon. My story, ‘A Christmas Wish’ is included. Set in Bath, ‘A Christmas Wish’ tells the story of Jane Mortimer and Nicholas Anstruther. They have their ‘meet cute’ on Milsom […]
Two Historic Libraries: An Evening Tour in Oxford
A couple of weeks ago, I was fortunate to secure a place on an evening tour of the Radcliffe Camera in Oxford. Just off the High Street, it is one of the iconic buildings that form part of the University of Oxford. Built in 1737–49 to a design by James Gibb, it was originally intended […]
Feeling Peckish? Eating Out in the Regency Period
My previous post was about private dining. Now it’s time to explore the subject of eating out in the Regency period. Where did people find something to eat if they were not at home? Believe it or not, there was a version of a good food guide to dining out in London during this period. […]
Food Glorious Food: John Simpson, Regency Cook to the Nobility
As an author of Regency novels, I consult a lot of 19th century sources to ensure that the details of my stories are accurate for the period. Naturally, not everything ends up in my stories – that would be far too boring for my readers – so I enjoy posting snippets of interesting facts here […]
Escaping the Guillotine: French Émigrés in England
Gabrielle, the heroine of my forthcoming Regency novel, An Adventurer’s Contract, is a French émigrée living in London. The inspiration for her story was an article that appeared in the February edition of The Monthly Magazine for 1810. You can read my post about it here. The article set me thinking about what life must […]
An Abbey and a sad tale
A brief break from my writing this weekend when I visited Dorchester Abbey, Oxfordshire. Dorchester-on-Thames is a small town situated on the confluence of the River Thames and the River Thame. The abbey is beautiful building with its origins in 12th century. Little did I know the sad tale that this visit would lead me […]
A Scottish Adventure: Trains and Boats and Rains
Although I lived in Scotland for seven years I never made many trips to Edinburgh. That was rectified this year when my husband and I decided to have a Scottish adventure and get to know that city better. Our journey started with the overnight sleeper train from Euston. We travelled light with one small suitcase […]
Adventurous Females Part 2
On a previous post I spoke about women who had occupations not usually associated with the ‘fairer sex’. Most of those employments, such as accompanying the army or working down the mines were undertaken out of economic necessity. Today I’m looking at ladies who don’t quite fit that category; in fact, at least one of […]
The weaker sex – a myth? Surprising female occupations of the past.
I’m sure many people today believe that women in the past didn’t do much outside of the domestic sphere. Up to fairly recently it was almost a given that a woman’s place was in the home. Women have been called the weaker sex. We often hear how it took World War I to change things. […]