Category: Georgian era

  • Cleanliness is Next to Modern-ness

    Cleanliness is Next to Modern-ness

    Good morrow, dear readers. Many of my American readers are likely awakening from their turkey comas; my family is struggling with our lasagne coma. (Yes, we have lasagne for Thanksgiving dinner.) However, I hope every one of my dear readers enjoyed Netherfield Ball Day (otherwise known as November 26th to the non-Austen-enlightened world)!   Balls in Georgian England must have been very different from…

  • “Bright Ideas in a Bygone Era: Regency Lighting”

    “Bright Ideas in a Bygone Era: Regency Lighting”

    Greetings, friends! It is that time of year when the days grow shorter, the nights stretch longer, and we long to decorate every conceivable surface with lights. Because if it’s not dazzling, is it even worth looking at? 🙂 We in the modern age enjoy the magic of illumination with a flick of a switch…

  • Hair-raising Horse Tales

    Hair-raising Horse Tales

    Good morrow, dear readers! Happy Halloween.   I suppose it should surprise no one that the Amish did not celebrate Halloween, so I cannot give you a spooky Amish tale. But there were more than a few hair-raising moments in our 5 years in the community, nearly all of them associated with horses.  For the record, I am…

  • Orwell Nailed It

    Orwell Nailed It

    #PrideAndPerjury #JAFF #HistoricalFiction #SelfPublishing  “Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness.”  George Orwell  First, please note what Orwell did not say. Writing is often intensely enjoyable – even non-fiction. It’s when your enjoyable project turns into a judgeable, sellable, editable book that the illness kicks in… My…

  • City Caro, Country Lizzy

    City Caro, Country Lizzy

    Happy October, dear readers! In North America, autumn is upon us, and most of us associate this month with harvest time. It is likewise the month the Netherfield party arrives in Meryton. I feel like continuing one of my favourite themes: Bingley sister bashing! An aspect of the much be-hated Superior Sisters I failed to…

  • The first (and only) female historian in Georgian England

    The first (and only) female historian in Georgian England

    Georgian England is usually more associated with powdered wigs and aristocratic scandals than radical or revolutionary ideals. However, there were thinkers back then who supported the latter most ardently – and one of them was Catherine Macauley. Little is known about her early life, apart from the fact that she grew up with her brother…

  • Vertigo in the Regency

    Vertigo in the Regency

    In January of this year, after having 4 barometric migraines in 5 days, I found myself on the floor in my library, vomiting into the trash bin. For the next two weeks, I was told I had positional vertigo, but they didn’t want to treat it beyond medications to control the dizziness and nausea until…

  • All The World’s A Stage

    All The World’s A Stage

    We just returned home from our second visit of the summer to the Stratford Festival here in Ontario to end the summer with a celebration of theatre. This time, it was all Shakespeare! The festival—being in a place called Stratford, which is most conveniently on the River Avon—concentrates on The Bard’s works, and has a…

  • An Interrupted Proposal Cover Reveal

    An Interrupted Proposal Cover Reveal

    Wow! It has been a long time coming, and you have been soooo patient! First, I am really excited to get this book out in print. There have been a few challenges as my life erupted in the past couple months, which has caused some delays, but we are finally coming down to the wire!…

  • Another Stroll Through Bath’s Pleasure Gardens

    Another Stroll Through Bath’s Pleasure Gardens

    In the middle of the commemoration of the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth, many places in England—and especially Bath—have been awash in celebrations. I was unable to attend, but the busyness of the town, as related by residents and tourists, caused me to revisit and re-enjoy my own travels there a few years back.…