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Author Archives: diane

About diane

Diane Gaston is the RITA award-winning author of Historical Romance for Harlequin Historical and Mills and Boon, with books that feature the darker side of the Regency. Formerly a mental health social worker, she is happiest now when deep in the psyches of soldiers, rakes and women who don’t always act like ladies.

The Look Of Love – Redux

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Last March I blogged about The Look of Love: Eye Miniatures from the Skier collection exhibit at the Birmingham Museum of Art. I had heard of the exhibition and its catalogue book from Jo Manning, author of My Lady Scandalous and several wonderful Regencies and frequent guest blogger at Number One London. I considered myself lucky to purchase the catalogue, because I didn’t have a prayer at getting to Birmingham to see the exhibit.

Then a couple of days ago I saw this at Number One London. The Look of Love exhibit was at the Georgia Museum of Art in Athens, GA. And guess what?? I was IN Georgia! The dh and I took a detour during our Georgia visit so I could see the exhibition.

Eye miniatures were a brief phenomenon during the late 1700s to early 1800s, started when the Prince Regent, then the Prince of Wales, commissioned eye portraits for him and Mrs. Fitzherbert, his secret, but not legal wife. It became the fashion for lovers to exchange portraits of only the eyes, so that they had a remembrance that no one else could identify. Because of this secrecy, whose eye is depicted on most of the pieces in the exhibit is unknown. In the exhibit catalogue, Jo Manning wrote brief vignettes of how certain eye portraits might have come to be.

I’ve known about eye portraits for some time, but have only seen photos, never the real thing. The first thing that struck me was how tiny most of them were. The smallest ones were set in rings which were worn with the eye-side in, so the lover could gaze upon the image without anyone else seeing it. It is amazing that so many rings survived, because the miniatures were painted by watercolor on ivory and could be very easily damaged. The images were so tiny that the artist must have used brushes with only one hair. And yet the images are amazingly detailed and distinctive.

In addition to rings the miniatures were made into brooches, often encircled with tiny pearls or gems. One was a tiny gold heart pendant. There was also a bracelet, stick pins, and even toothpick boxes. Some of the later items were meant to be mourning jewelry and some also contained locks of hair.

We could not take photos, so the images here are taken from the exhibit’s brochure.

The gift shop sold these button souvenirs of the exhibit. Comment on this blog today for a chance to win one of these little buttons!

Have you seen this exhibit? Have you seen eye miniatures elsewhere?

A big thanks to Number One London for blogging about the exhibition and making it possible for me to see these wonderful treasures!

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The Death of Lord Nelson

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Yesterday was the anniversary of the death of Admiral Lord Nelson. On October 21, 1805, Horatio Nelson, the 1st Viscount Nelson, was in command of the British Navy fleet and defeated a combined French and Spanish fleet at Trafalgar, thus securing Great Britain from invasion. The Battle of Trafalgar is considered one of Great Britain’s greatest naval victories.

While engaged in the battle, Lord Nelson was hit by a sniper’s bullet fired from the rigging of the French ship Redoutable. After being hit he said to his captain, “Hardy, I do believe they have done it at last…my backbone is shot through.” He died four hours later, his last words being, “Thank God I did my duty” and “God and my country.”

Lord Nelson was beloved by his men and revered as a great naval commander by his country. His funeral was an event with much pageantry and he was interred in St. Paul’s Cathedral. By 1809 monuments in Dublin and Montreal were constructed. Nelson’s column in Trafalgar Square was completed in 1843.

Everyone knows that Nelson’s body was preserved in brandy until transported to England, and everyone knows of his affair with Lady Hamilton. In fact on his deathbed he begged that his country take care of her and that his belongings be given to her, but these requests were ignored. She was not even allowed to attend his funeral. But did you know:

That his famous dispatch was originally requested by him to read England confides that every man will do his duty? His signalman suggested substituting the word expects for confides because expects was in the Signal book and could be represented by one flag while confides would have to be spelled out.

That before the battle, Nelson was advised to remove the decorations from his coat so he would not be so easily identified by snipers? He refused saying they were military orders and he did not fear showing them to the enemy.

That you can see Lord Nelson’s bloodstained breeches and stockings at the National Maritime Museum in London?

That you can see Lord Nelson’s famous hat at Locke and Co., hatters since 1676? Locke and Co. remains a family owned business, the oldest family business in existence as well as the oldest hat shop in the world.

Do you know any interesting facts about Admiral Lord Nelson? Did you ever see That Hamilton Woman with Vivian Leigh and Lawrence Olivier?

 

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Hurricane

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Today in the mid-atlantic states and the northeast we will be having a hurricane. Not just any old hurricane, but a storm such as has never been seen before. It looks like New Jersey and New York city will be hardest hit. The Washington D.C. area where I live will be on the outskirts of the storm, but, even so, the federal government is closed, the subway and bus lines will not run, schools are closed and we’ve been warned for two days to be prepared.

I’ve been to the grocery store twice and purchased all the essentials. Toilet paper. Cat food. Kitty litter….and food and drink for the people in the household. If we have electricity, I’ll let you know how we are faring during the day. If not, I’ll be back when I can.

Meanwhile, here’s a snippet about a hurricane in England, March 23, 1822.

And one from October 18, 1812, and another from October 19 and 20 that same year.


If you are in the storm’s path, I wish you good luck. Stay safe.
Any advice for weathering a storm? What should I read, if I need to read by candlelight?

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Susanna Fraser and An Infamous Marriage

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Diane here, announcing that today Susanna Fraser, one of our new part-time Riskies (posting every third Friday), is here to talk about An Infamous Marriage, her latest book from Carina Press, to be released tomorrow, Nov. 5! 

 Susanna has been a long time, frequent commenter to Risky Regencies, even before her first book, The Sergeant’s Lady, was published. She and I share a love of British soldiers–Regency-era, that is–and Wellington.

Reviews for An Infamous Marriage:

“I was happy to read a historical romance in which the time period and setting actually matter…Fans of understated, atmospheric Regencies like those by Carla Kelly and Edith Layton won’t want to miss this. I give An Infamous Marriage 4 stars.” — Willaful Review

“Loved this book! The romance was sweet and passionate and the characters felt so real…An Infamous Marriage is a spectacular historical romance.” — Imagine A World Review

“…an intriguing story with a fast pace…Hours of engrossing page-turning….” — RT Book Reviews

Susanna will give away one download of An Infamous Marriage to one lucky commenter here, but there is more! Commenters here who include their email addresses in the comment (yourname AT yourhost DOT com format) will also be entered for Susanna’s blog tour grand prize, a $50 gift card to the winner’s choice of Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Powell’s Books. That grand prize winner will be drawn by Susanna on Nov. 6. 

 An Infamous Marriage will also be available in audio format from Audible.com. How cool is that?

 Welcome Susanna! I love the premise of this book!

 Tell us about An Infamous Marriage.

Jack Armstrong and Elizabeth Hamilton marry out of duty and necessity with no thoughts or expectations of love. They’re quickly separated by Jack’s military duties, and their post-marital courtship by correspondence falls apart when Elizabeth gets words of his amorous exploits an ocean away. When he returns at last after a five-year absence, she’s not in a forgiving mood…but he falls in love with her at second sight.

Northumberland, 1815
At long last, Britain is at peace, and General Jack Armstrong is coming home to the wife he barely knows. Wed for mutual convenience, their union unconsummated, the couple has exchanged only cold, dutiful letters. With no more wars to fight, Jack is ready to attempt a peace treaty of his own.
Elizabeth Armstrong is on the warpath. She never expected fidelity from the husband she knew for only a week, but his scandalous exploits have made her the object of pity for years. Now that he’s back, she has no intention of sharing her bed with him—or providing him with an heir—unless he can earn her forgiveness. No matter what feelings he ignites within her…
Jack is not expecting a spirited, confident woman in place of the meek girl he left behind. As his desire intensifies, he wants much more than a marriage in name only. But winning his wife’s love may be the greatest battle he’s faced yet.

What inspired this story idea?

I realized I’d never yet written a rakish, bad boy sort of hero, so I gave myself the challenge of creating one I could find likable and redeemable. Also, though there’s nothing especially Wellingtonian or Nelsonian about Jack’s personality, I’ve often thought what horrible husbands both of England’s great war heroes were. So I found a certain vicarious satisfaction in taking a powerful, high-ranking officer, marrying him to an outwardly meek and humble woman…and then giving her the chance to humble HIM.

Did you come across any interesting research while writing An Infamous Marriage?

Definitely. Jack spends many years stationed in Canada, including the entire War of 1812. Going into the story, I knew almost nothing about life in Canada much before Anne of Green Gables’ time, and little more about the war beyond what I learned to pass my high school history tests. I am now far less embarrassingly ignorant about my neighbors to the north (and to me in Seattle they really ARE neighbors–depending on how long the line is at the border crossing, I could be in British Columbia in 3-4 hours), and the conduct of the War of 1812. For example, I’d known almost nothing about the extensive interactions between the British and the Native American population, including the alliance between Tecumseh, the great Shawnee leader who tried to unite the tribes to halt American expansion, and the British general Sir Isaac Brock. All that research mostly ended up as mental backstory for Jack, simmering below the surface of the story, but I hope to make fuller use of it in some future tale.

You and I both LOVE Regency soldiers as heroes. What is it about a British soldier that captivates you?

Well, I’d be lying if I didn’t give Sean Bean’s Sharpe some of the credit, not to mention those sexy uniforms in general. 😉 But mostly it’s that while I’m not an Army brat, I come from a family with a tradition of military service. My background gave me an interest in military history, so the aspect of the Regency that naturally fascinates me is the wars.

Willaful Reviews praised your writing as being “actually set in the Regency rather than in that Never Neverland mash-up that’s been dubbed ‘The Recency’ or ‘Almackistan’.” How important is it to you to have your history right in your stories?

I do my best to get the history right because I feel I owe it to the people who actually lived then to portray their world as accurately as I can. Also, to me the joy of historical fiction of any genre is a sort of mental time travel, and I want to make my books the best TARDIS for my readers that I can. 🙂

That said, I don’t think it’s possible to write a 100% accurate story from 200 years’ distance, and eventually I have to let go of my own perfectionism and write. And I worry more about getting my characters’ mindset and attitudes right than the exact number of days it took to travel from Edinburgh to London in a post-chaise in good summer weather or the precise price of a top-quality hunter.

What is next for you?

I’ve just sold a novella to Carina, title and release date still TBD, set in the aftermath of the Battle of Vittoria in 1813–which my fellow military history geeks will recognize as the one where the
British army captured the French baggage train, including assorted royal treasures belonging to Joseph Bonaparte or looted from Madrid.
The plot hinges on a gorgeous ruby necklace plundered from the battlefield. It’s also an interracial romance. The hero is a black British soldier, the son of slaves who escaped from a Virginia plantation during the American Revolution to take the British army’s offer of freedom to slaves who helped their war effort.

What little-known corner of history, Regency or otherwise, would you like to see incorporated in a historical romance?

Thanks, Susan, for being our guest/mini-Risky!

Readers, don’t forget to include your email address in your comment (yourname AT yourhost DOT com) if you want to be added in Susanna’s Blog Tour Grand Prize. All comments here will have a chance to win a download of An Infamous Marriage.

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