1st Kydd Inheritance review!

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What a lovely way to be greeted on a grey Sunday morning! A Google alert to this review by the very fine Bookbag people.

Sue describes it as
"a splendid Regency romp with a heroine you will love for her acerbic tongue, kind heart and her no-messing attitude, be it bulls, uncles or Captains who are in the firing line"

and adds that
" I read it in one sitting so keen was I to find out how it all worked out, and just when I thought it was all going to work out very satisfactorily there was another twist in the tale and I was back on the edge of the seat."

I'm always grateful when people take the trouble to review a book. This particular one, coming unexpectedly on a grey day, has started a train of thought in my head which I'll muse over and return to tomorrow.

If anyone would like to order The Kydd Inheritance - either for themselves or through the library - Hale Books have a very attractive short-term offer on their website right now!
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Another lovely review!

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Another lovely review - this time from the completely charming Liz Fenwick who said she couldn't put Fortunate Wager down.

Thanks, Liz!

Wonderful review for Fortunate Wager!

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Thank you to Cybil from Rakehell for this wonderful review of Fortunate Wager. I loved writing this book, so I'm delighted that she enjoyed reading it and took from it all that I was trying to convey.

And if anyone is thinking of buying a copy - it's a staggering £11.69 from Amazon right now!!!

(Also, they still have Fair Deception at £14.94 - it can't last long!)
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Surprise review!

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How lovely is my friend Kate Hardy! I clicked on her bog this morning on my usual round up and saw this!

Reading: Jan Jones, Fortunate Wager – read this in one sitting. I love Jan’s Newmarket books because she has the place spot on. I also love her characterisation (Caroline is a tad unconventional and utterly lovely – the kind you’d want to be your friend; and Alexander is just gorgeous), her dialogue, the way she writes the most horrible villains, and the rollicking good pace of her stories. (Jan, you’d better have the next one almost complete now. Impatient readers – i.e. me – want the next one…)

Thanks, Kate! And congrats to you for being nominated for "Best Presents"

(Oh, and the next Newmarket Regency is, er, in progress. Ish. Very ish.)
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"He's Much To Blame"

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Oooh! I do like a nice revival!

Steeping myself as I am in Regency theatre research for the Work In Progress, I was overjoyed to open the latest Theatre Royal brochure and discover that the main Restoring the Repertoire play this Autumn is He's Much To Blame by Thomas Holcroft.

Holcroft was one of a band of radical thinkers who sought to change people's opinion by means of incorporating telling scenes and speeches into his plays. Very witty and sharply executed, a lot of the exchanges on stage are as true today as they were 200 years ago. Billed at the time as a comedy, He's Much To Blame (first performed in 1798, but they'd still have been putting it on in the Regency era) nevertheless produces moments of stark tragedy designed to make the audience stop and think.

So what's the story? Maria has come to town disguised as a man in order to prevent her brother (Delavel) and her erstwhile suitor (George Versatile) from fighting a duel. George had been going to marry Maria until he was suddenly taken rich and had his head turned by Society.

George has now fallen in with Lord and Lady Vibrate and their celebrity German doctor Gosterman. Versatile by nature as well as by name, he has lost his own true self in making himself pleasant to everybody and has apparently forgotten the love he left behind. Lady Vibrate (who lives only for pleasure) wishes him to marry her daughter Jane. Jane, however, is in love with Delavel.

And - as could only happen in a play - all of them are now staying in the same hotel!

The Bury St Edmunds production was an absolute joy, and as I had secured a seat in the box right on the stage again, I felt as if I had slid not only into the past, but also into the play itself.

And on Monday the cast is taking a day off(!) to do a rehearsed reading of Holcroft's comedy The Road To Ruin. I am a very happy Regency writer.
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