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Category: Regency

My October Cover…and the Sussex Coast

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Here’s the cover of my October book, WHEN HORSES FLY, and I hope I can upload it and have it come out at a reasonable size….

The story takes place near Beachy Head on the southeastern coast of England…the castle is fictitional, of course, although I had some inspiration from Hastings Castle, only my fictitional one is not a ruin.

A link to the official Hastings site:

http://www.visithastings.com/attractions/default_castle.asp

And another:

http://www.discoverhastings.co.uk/discover_hastings/index2.html

Here are a few pictures of Beachy Head, The Seven Sisters, and the coast:

A long look down from the top of Beachy Head…the site of more than a few suicides…

And finally, a shot of Birling Gap, which figured in smuggling history among other things.

Laurie

Posted in Regency, Research, Risky Book Talk | Tagged , | 5 Replies

Playing Dress-up

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I’ve been loving this thread about places, and definitely want to return to it! But since I just got done sorting through my summer photos, I thought I’d share this one of some of us during the Beau Monde conference in Reno.

I’m the one in the middle. That’s Cara to my left, looking very cute. (Sorry Cara, you are cute! And I envy your skill at Regency dances. And your left foot, a left foot that actually knows it’s your left foot and not your right…) To the right is our good friend Regina Scott aka Regan Allen (www.reganallen.com). I miss that rakish dandy Sir Reginald Scott, who has made appearances at previous soirees, but I have to say Lady Regina is most elegant! As for me, although the high-waisted Regency style doesn’t highlight the real waist that I do have (honest, it’s under there somewhere) and anyone who knows me can tell I’d had a few glasses of merlot by that point, I don’t care!

It was fun, though looking at the pictures from the soiree did make me think about why we like to dress up in period costume.

It isn’t as if anyone is actually going to mistake me for Elizabeth Bennett on the dance floor. Maybe more like Mr. Collins, occasionally coming close to bumping into the other dancers and messing up the entire figure. Though of course real Regency folk would have many more opportunities to practice, it’s not as easy as they make it look in the movies!

It is actually a good learning experience to don somewhat-accurate period clothing and try to recreate period activities (though I hasten to say I am not a purist and did not have my costume hand-sewn, as I’ve heard some Civil War reenactors do).

But I think the bottom line is some of us never really outgrow the urge to dress up. I figure inside me there’s still a five-year-old who clumps around in her mother’s pumps, a necklace swinging way past her belly-button.

It’s just fun.

Elena
LADY DEARING’S MASQUERADE – an RT Top Pick – available now
www.elenagreene.com

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Hornblower, Aubrey and Nelson!

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This is Horatio Nelson’s flagship, Victory. If you have a chance to visit Portsmouth, you can even tour it! It’s fantastic. (Though very popular — the first time I took a daytrip to Portsmouth we arrived by noon, and all the tours were already full for the day! And this was a Wednesday. Though for all I know one can now book a place ahead of time…)

I don’t know why Regency warships are so beautiful! They were highly functional, yet somehow their lines are just gorgeous. That’s one reason I love the recent Horatio Hornblower television productions (starring the oh-so-nice Ioan Gruffudd, who also makes a hunky superhero) and the film “Master and Commander: the Far Side of the World” (starring the also very delicious Russell Crowe.)

Are there any other fans of Hornblower or Aubrey here? Of the films, or the books by C.S. Forester and Patrick O’Brian? What do you like or dislike about the books or the cinematic productions? Or have you buy any chance toured the Victory? What did you think?

Share your thoughts!

Cara
Cara King, www.caraking.com
MY LADY GAMESTER, Signet Regency 11/05

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St. George’s Hanover Square

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In Regency romance lore, St. George’s Hanover Square is the church where many society couples married during the Regency. Located in Mayfair, it’s a lovely “little” church (little compared to something like St Paul’s Cathedral!) which looks a bit like St. Martin-in-the-Fields. You can still see St. George’s Hanover Square today. Here are some photos I took last time I toured Mayfair. (They were doing some repair work at the time, as you can see!) There’s isn’t a huge amount of Regency Mayfair still standing (St James’s is much better preserved) — Almack’s is gone, and so much else — but there are some gems left (like this one!) Here are a couple more pictures:

I do love taking pictures of churches and cathedrals — they photograph so well!

If anyone wants to see more pictures of Regency London, let us know! (There’s a lot more where these came from . . .)

Cara
Cara King, www.caraking.com
MY LADY GAMESTER — Signet Regency, November 2005

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One of my favorite places–William Herschel Museum, Bath

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I find a lot of people don’t know about this museum in Bath, so naturally whenever I get the opportunity I spread the word. It’s the home of the astronomer William Herschel, and where he discovered the planet Uranus in 1781 (I mean, through a telescope. He didn’t find a major planet lying around among the old newspapers, which is the sort of thing, on a less celestial scale, that happens in my house). Herschel’s story is fascinating. He was a refugee from Hanover and a musician (you can buy recordings of his works), and traveled around England for a time as an itinerant music teacher before settling in Bath. There, one of his pupils paid him with a telescope, and he figured out he could make a better one. So he did. His sister Caroline joined him in England and was also an astronomer, and after the discovery of Uranus many famous names flocked to his observatory at 19 New King St. Eventually King George III invited him to move near Windsor to continue his work there.
The house is gorgeous and intimate–on a much smaller and modest scale than the houses of the Royal Crescent, for instance, and beautifully restored (I kidnapped a pic of the music room–note the “wall to wall” carpeting–actually long strips of carpet, and the intricate wallpaper) and full of Herschel’s books, furniture, and telescopes. His laboratory still features the cracked flagstones from a mishap of 1781. There’s also a charming garden, with a replica of his telescope.
I only discovered this museum the last time I visited Bath and I’ve been in love with it ever since.
Anyone else care to share their favorite place?
Janet

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