Kit Donner, you have won a signed copy of Beyond Heaving Bosoms… congrats and send us your snailmail, riskies @ yahoo.com
Kit Donner, you have won a signed copy of Beyond Heaving Bosoms… congrats and send us your snailmail, riskies @ yahoo.com
Today is Easter Monday and in addition to egg rolling, all sorts of festivities are taking place in the UK, where Easter Monday is a Banking Holiday.
At Hallaton in Leicestershire, the annual Hare Pie Scramble and Bottle Kicking match is held, although the pie is made of beef and the bottles are tiny wooden kegs like the “plough-bottles” field workers once used to hold their daily ration of ale or cider.
There are varying accounts as to the origin of this custom. Some accounts say it began as a pre-Christian Celtic ritual; some say it originated in the Middle Ages. One legend has it originating in 1770, putting it close enough to “our” time period. On Easter Monday, the Lady of the Manor was crossing a field and was charged by a raging bull. She was saved when a hare ran across the bull’s path. Because her life was saved, a piece of land was given to the rector (how that follows, who knows?) on the condition that every Easter Monday thereafter he cook two hare pies, bake a dozen loafs of bread, and provide three kegs of ale, all to be given to the needy, who presumably “scrambled” for their share. Nice way to thank that brave little hare, cooking its descendents into pies…
Today in Hallaton, a parade will begin at the Fox Inn and end at St. Michael’s Church. A man carrying a pole with the symbol of a hare leads the parade, followed by a woman carrying the bread in a basket, two women carrying the pie, and three men holding the kegs of ale over their heads.
At the end of the parade, the pieces of pie are thrown in the air and the crowd scrambles for them. The bread is blessed before being thrown to the crowd.
After the scramble the crowd proceeds to a field where a contest begins between Hallaton and neighboring Medbourne, to see which team can get all three ale barrels to a touchline in their repective villages. The contest takes the teams over hills, through hedges, across a stream. Every year some people are injured.
At the end everybody drinks the ale…
Crazy Brits.
Here in the Washington DC area Easter Monday means the Easter Egg hunt at the White House. I’ve never attended the White House event but I did take my then 3 year old daughter to an Easter egg hunt once.
Come to think of it, it was a lot like Hallaton’s Hare Pie Scramble…
Photographs are courtesy of http://www.ourmaninside.com/, “Documentally” on Twitter. Thank you, Documentally!
Don’t forget, you can order The Diamonds of Welbourne Manor from eHarlequin right now and receive it before it hits bookstores. The Unlacing of Miss Leigh is instantly available from eHarlequin and other ebook vendors.
Visit my website and enter my contest for a chance to win Scandalizing the Ton.
Your romance novels are welcome here. Celebrated. Loved. Cuddled, even, if they’re particularly good. Adorned with man titty and paraded up and down the street to acclaim, applause, and perhaps stray dollar bills. We’ll occasionally poke — with savage abandon, even — at the more ludicrous aspects of the genre, but we kvetch because we love.
–-Beyond Heaving Bosoms
A big, thrusting Risky welcome today to guest Sarah Wendell, co-author with Candy Tan of Beyond Heaving Bosoms: The Smart Bitches Guide to Romance Novels. As always, your question or comment will enter you into a drawing for a signed copy of the book, so heave your bosom over to the comments section…
Romance is such a huge genre with so many tropes and themes and subgenres. How did you and Candy decide how you’d categorize material?
It was NOT easy. We had IM sessions and email conversations and outlines and other outlines that were outlines of the first outlines, and some random post-it notes that have since been lost and probably contained the secrets to the universe. I’m sure there’s something we missed and I so want to know what people think we ought to have mentioned more — it was probably in early drafts. Early drafts of this book were mammoth. Turgid, even.
Why do you think the Regency is such a popular setting?
I think part of it is what Kalen Hughes called that fantasy patina of the distant past. That far back in the days of yore and everything is soft focus and sepia toned, right? I mean, the 1940’s weren’t in COLOR were they?!
Plus, the Regency, and to the same extent the Victorian era, were both marked by extreme social rules and restrictions operating on top of a rather lustful and actively sexually curious society, and that dichotomy leaves a great deal of room for writers to explore all the classic themes of romance.
What do you find particularly ludicrous about regency-set historicals?
The frequency with which heroines go out wearing a pelisse that is always, always inadequate for the weather. It’s England, for God’s sake. Expect rain, you ninny!
What do you think works in Regencies?
The role of manners, both stated and unstated, and the importance of dialogue to convey the atraction that cannot be expressed through physical contact.
Which writers of historical do you enjoy reading?
Names?! You want me to name NAMES?! Gosh, it depends on the mood, but I’m always up for the subversive portrayals of women from Claudia Dain and Carolyn Jewel. I love the depth of history in Janet Mullany and Kalen Hughes‘ books, and I love, love, love the way Julia Quinn can make me laugh.
I’m going to kick myself for the next 3 days every time I remember someone I forgot to mention.
(Squirming with pleasure.) What’s next? Do you plan a sequel?
Nope. We shot our wad with this one, as I’ve said. It’s not really possible to do a sequel to a guide to the genre. We’ll be doing as much as we can to portray romance as the genre it really is: brilliant fiction written by brilliant women for an equally savvy, sharp audience of smart, smart women.
Thanks, Sarah–OK, everyone, get your sensible pelisse on and comment away. One lucky commenter will receive a copy of Beyond Heaving Bosoms!
Sarah Wendell of Smart Bitches
Sunday April 12
Come visit and comment for a chance to win a copy of Beyond Heaving Bosoms: the Smart Bitches’ Guide to Romance Novels