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Author Archives: Amanda McCabe/Laurel McKee

About Amanda McCabe/Laurel McKee

Writer (as Amanda McCabe, Laurel McKee, Amanda Carmack), history geek, yoga enthusiast, pet owner!

Accession Day

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Yesterday, February 6, marks Queen Elizabeth II’s Accession Day, and the start of a momentous Diamond Jubilee year! Though I imagine it’s a day of some personal sadness for her (marking the death of her father, George VI, who she was quite close to), it’s an extraordinary achievement for an extraordinary woman who has seen and done so very much during her long reign. I wish I could be in London for some of the festivities this year (especially the Jubilee River Pageant on the Thames on June 3)!!!

Princess Elizabeth was only 25, a young wife with two small children (Charles, 3, and Anne, 1) when she and Prince Philip were sent off on a Commonwealth tour in February 1952. She probably didn’t expect to assume the responsibilities of queen for some time yet. Her parents waved her off, and only a few days later her father was dead. She was in Kenya, and hurried home to be proclaimed Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, and Defender of the Faith before the Privy Council at St. James’s Palace. It was a solemn occasion, as the king was being brought from Sandringham to lie in state at Westminster Hall and then to St. George’s Chapel at Windsor, where the funeral was held and he was buried, to be joined many years later by Princess Margaret and the Queen Mother.

The coronation didn’t take place until June 2, 1953–I’m sure I will be talking more about that later! In the meatime, I’m in the middle of reading Sally Bedell Smith’s new bio, Elizabeth the Queen…will let everyone know how it is when I finish…

Are you going to be in England this year?? What festivities would you attend if you were there?

Posted in Former Riskies | Tagged | 4 Replies

Much Ado About Loving

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I seem to be talking a lot lately about books I’ve been reading, but I seem to be in the middle of a good reading run!! I just finished the tons of fun Much Ado About Loving: What Our Favorite Novels Can Teach You About Great Expectations, Not so Great Gatsbys, and Love in the Time of Internet Personals by Jack Murnighan and Maura Kelly, which mines works of literature for modern dating advice. (PW called it “…a clever, amusing hybrid of lit crit and relationship advice”). I’ve often thought novels are a great source of guidance when it comes to dating and love myself, so I snatched up this book and spent a wonderful afternoon laughing at its lessons!

Some of my favorite chapters: “The Blabbers Karamazov: The dangers of revealing too much too soon”; “Not-so-great-Gatsby: Is it flattering or creepy when a guy persists?”; “Bride and Prejudice: Does wanting to get married give you champagne goggles?”; “Madame Ho-Vary: Is cheating ever okay?”; and “Jane Erred: Why it’s silly to put principles over passion” (“When and if you’re lucky enough to find true love, don’t muck it up with mindless adherence to convention. Throw away that list of requirements….”)

And then there is “Lady’s Chattering Lover: 10 things not to say after sex.” Example #8–Tread with caution when talking about his penis (“And now it’s tiny and soft like a little bud of life!”
What romance lessons have you learned from your favorite books??

Posted in Former Riskies, Risky Regencies | Tagged | 3 Replies

Catherine the Great

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Happy Tuesday, everyone! I just realized that it is Tuesday. I got back from a weekend trip to Santa Fe late last night, and this morning rolled out of bed and went to see what was going on with the Riskies today….

On my trip, I started reading one of my birthday gifts, Robert K Massie’s new biography of Catherine the Great. I love Massie’s work–his Nicholas and Alexandra was what got me interested in Russian history in the first place, when I read it years ago, and this book was no less fascinating. Massie has the gift of making history come alive and feel immediate and real, and in the coomplicated, fascinating figure of Catherine he has the perfect subject.

Catherine was born Princess Sophia Fredericka Augusta of Anhalt-Zerbst, the daughter of a minor German princeling who had not much money or influence. But her mother’s brother had been engaged to Empress Elizabeth of Russia before dying on the eve of the wedding, and Elizabeth (an equally complex character!) had fond memories of him. Plus she wanted a young girl she could control who could give Russia an heir. She brought Sophia to Russia and married her to her nephew Grand Duke Peter, a disfigured, alcoholic obesessed with the Prussian military (a complete wackjob, in other words). But after years and years of a painful marriage, loneliness, and virtual imprisonment (which luckily gave her much time to read and plan) Catherine overthrew her deeply unpopular husband in a coup d’etat and became Empress in her own right. She reigned from 1762–1792.

Among other achivements, Catherine added 200,000 square miles to Russian territory (mostly at the expense of the Turks and the Poles), was a patron of the arts, literature, and education (she corresponded with French philosophes like Voltaire and Diderot, whose libraries she eventually purchased), opened the Smolny Institute to educate girls, wrote the “Nazna” (a code of laws), and tried to impose Enlightenment ideas on her vast empire (with mixed results). She also had at least 12 lovers, including the vastly gifted Gregory Potemkin. As she got older they got younger and dumber (the last of them, Zubov, was 40 years her junior)….

Massie’s book is full of court intrigue, seductions, romance, illegitimate children, bloody uprisings, power grabs, battles–and a 389 carat ruby. What can be better???

For more info on her complicated life, look here…

What have you been reading lately??? What books have sparked a love of history and historical heroines in your life?

Posted in Former Riskies | Tagged | 6 Replies

Happy Birthday!

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So last weekend was my birthday! I got many lovely gifts, including the books Vauxhall Gardens: A History (thanks to Diane for the rec!), Versailles: A Private Invitation, and The Empire’s New Clothes: The Russian Fashion Industry 1700–1917. These will all keep me busy for quite a while. But what I really love about birthdays is cake!!

The Regency period wasn’t a big one for elaborate birthday celebrations, though there might be a special meal and small gifts of books and embroidered handkerchiefs and things like that, but even then people did like their cake. They probably didn’t have one like mine (which was this “Princess and the Frog” model), so I went to consult my bookshelves to see what they might have had. I pulled out Ian Kelly’s fascinating book, Cooking for Kings: The Life of Antonin Careme, First Celebrity Chef.

Careme is said to have invented the chef’s toque as well as the souffle, and he lived in remarkable times, being chef for the French royal family as well as Napoleon (he made the Emperor’s wedding cake when he we Queen Marie Louise!) before moving on to the Russian court, the Prince Regent’s household, and the Rothschilds. I found this recipe for Genoises Cakes a La Maraschino in the back of the book. (The historical note states that it was made at the Bighton Pavilion and Carlton House around 1817: “Maraschino, the Prince Regent’s favorite liqeur, was used repeatedly by Careme to flavor Brighton Pavilion recipes”).

I don’t quite have Carolyn’s dedication to hands-on research, so I can’t vouch for how this tastes! If you try it let me know how it turns out…

4 ounces almonds
Half an egg white
2 whole eggs
6 ounces flour
6 ounces pounded sugar
6 ounces butter
Zest of one orange
Maraschino brandy
Salt
Cochineal

Pound together 4 ounces of sweet almonds, half an egg white and then add six ounces of flour and six ounces of pounded sugar. Mix and add the zest of an orange, two whole eggs and a spoonful of brandy, a grain of salt and a splash of cochineal. Stir this for a full six minutes with a spatula, then take six ounces of butter, softened in the mouth of an oven, stir it a little, and then put it in the corner of a tureen, mix it with a little of the paste, and then more, stirring the whole for 4 or 5 minutes longer. Spread on a baking tray to the thickness of half an inch and level with a knife. Put in a slack (???) oven and as soon as the genoises are firm, cut them in all kinds of shapes, after which put them back in the oven to crisp

What is your favorite kind of cake? What would you choose for your birthday if you lived in the Regency? (And I love this Brighton Pavilion-shaped cake…)

Posted in Former Riskies | Tagged , | 7 Replies

Reforming The Rake (and other romance novel lessons)

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Happy Tuesday, everyone! I hope you’ve all recovered from the post-holidays. I’ve been working on the next book and trying to get back to exercising and NOT eating leftover Christmas candy.

I’ve also been reading fashion magazines and some celebrity gossip blogs while pretending to write. And something struck me when I was reading that Katy Perry and Russell Brand split after 14 months of marriage (something besides the fact that I thought “If she had just read a couple chapters of My Bookie Wook she would have totally known he was not a good husband bet” that is…). In romance novels we’re always asked to suspend disbelief and trust that a man with a, er, colorful past (say,your average historical Duke of Slut, TM) will meet his True Love and happily settle down for life with nary a thought to his old wild ways. Or that a marriage of convenience will work out to romantic bliss every time. Stuff like that.

I have been reading romances a long time, and I’ve also been dating a long time. I’ve never taken my dating cues from books (there are no dukes around here, for one thing). Aside from the fact that I learned one valuable lesson from these stories that has always served me well–never stay with someone who doesn’t treat you well, doesn’t respect you for who you are, or just plain doesn’t feel right. That can mean it takes longer to find the Right One maybe, but then it’s a lot easier to spot him when he does come along…

What life lessons have you learned from romance novels? Which lessons would you stay clear of? And have you read anything good lately??

Posted in Former Riskies | Tagged | 8 Replies