Showing posts with label Regency. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Regency. Show all posts

Friday, 7 December 2012

Patricia Kiyono - The Partridge and the Peartree


Continuing with my Christmas-themed guest blogs from fellow Astraea Press authors, I'm delighted to welcome Patricia Kiyono to the blog today to talk about her Christmas Regency story, The Partridge and the Peartree   :)

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Though I've always loved to write, I didn't really start writing with a goal of being published until fairly recently. After Astraea Press accepted my story in June of 2011, I started writing in earnest. I'd been working on various manuscripts for about ten years but never completed any. So when the publication of the Legacy gave me the validation as an author, I went back to finish several others and got them on the docket. But I worried that I might soon run out of story ideas.

That notion was challenged when Astraea Press came out with a Christmas call for stories set in Regency period, specifically 1812. The story had to include a duke, as well as a reference to the Christmas Eve Ball at Holly Hall given by Lord and Lady Kringle. The requirements were simple enough. I started brainstorming plot ideas with my critique partners and my family. And then I started to write.

But even though I'd read many romances set during this time period, I was soon caught in a snag. Being an American, the concept of nobility, though definitely fascinating, is quite foreign. Here, no one is born into a title. It was a steep learning curve for me, learning about how one person addresses another depending on the speaker's position as well as the listener's.

It seemed like every other sentence I would have to stop and wonder, "How would this person talk to that person?" I found several websites that helped. But I got discouraged and nearly didn't finish the story. Thanks to some urging and last-minute help from my critique partner, I submitted The Partridge and the Peartree and to my utter surprise it's been far more successful than I ever dreamed it would be!

There is one thing I would do differently. Though I had three people proofread the manuscript before it was submitted, and two different editors approved the story, reviewers' comments show that I should have consulted a Regency expert. There are events in my storyline that would not have happened during this period, and someone well versed in this era would have caught them. Thankfully, most of the reviewers were kind enough to say that despite the inaccuracies, they liked my characters. If I ever venture into this genre again, I would definitely consult one of those people — maybe one of the reviewers!



Phillip Peartree, Duke of Bartlett, dreamed of a peaceful life with a suitable mate until a hunting accident left him scarred and nearly deaf. Resigned to spending the rest of his days alone, Phillip has devoted himself to rebuilding his family estate. But, a chance encounter with a lovely young woman in a dusty bookstore rekindles his almost-forgotten hopes and dreams.

Lady Amelia Partridge has no time for the frivolity of the London social scene. She is much too busy. In addition to her work with the Ladies Literary Society, she has a mission – educating poor children in the city. She also has a secret life, one she fears might drive away the young duke who has become increasingly important to her.


The Partridge and the Peartree is available at Astraea Press, Amazon, AmazonUK, Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords.

Patricia Kiyono can be found on facebook, her blog, and twitter (@PatriciaKiyono).


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Thanks for being a guest on my blog, Patricia - The Partridge and the Peartree sounds an intriguing read and I love the way you have worked in the names/title!  It has a great cover too :)


Thursday, 18 October 2012

Mrs Hurst Dancing

and other scenes from Regency Life 1812-1823.

This charming book is a favourite of mine and I thought I'd share some of its delights here.

The watercolour sketches reproduced in Mrs Hurst Dancing were by a young English lady named Diana Sperling, mainly between 1816 and 1823.  At the time she was living with her parents, brothers and sister Isabella at Dynes Hall, a large country house near Halstead in Essex.  Many of the sketches depict scenes in and about this house, and also Tickford Park, the Buckinghamshire home of the Van Hagens who were related to the Sperlings.

 Diana, or Di as she was known to her family, was born in 1791 and lived with her parents and siblings until her marriage in about 1834.  Her sketches and paintings are delightful.  In a charming, informal manner she depicts the lives of her family and friends.  Donkey races, riding parties, charades, hanging wallpaper are just some of the events she records.  She seems to have had a wicked sense of humour and if her sister Isabella rolled from her donkey (which she often did) or brother Harry fell from his colt, this was sketched with hilarious accuracy and pithy captions added!

As Elizabeth Longford points out in the foreword, 'Diana's birth - gentle but only of the minor gentry - did nothing but good to her art.  In those less grand country houses, with fewer servants, where she and her friends lived, the family could take an active part in the life of the estate, cleaning, decorating, planting.  And things that could go wrong, did go wrong, raising the laughs that cheer this sketchbook.  The Sperling girls had to squash their own spiders on bedroom walls, carry a change of shoes in a bag when they walked out to dinner in single file behind 'The Lord of the Manor', and often lose a slipper in the park mud.'

Here are just a couple of examples from the 70 colour plates in Mrs Hurst Dancing, with captions by Diana and further explanatory text by Gordon Mingay, Professor of Agrarian History at University of Kent.

Mrs Van murdering a spider.  September 10th 1816, Tickford.


The watercolour above depicts an incident while the ladies were dressing in their room.  There were two Mrs Van Hagens, the spider-killer was probably Henry Van Hagen's mother as Diana referred to her sister Harriet (married to Henry) by her christian name rather than her married name. 



May 25th.  Henry Van electrifying 

 May 25th. Henry Van electrifying - Mrs Van, Diana, Harry, Isabella, Mum and HGS.  Dynes Hall.

The electrifying machine is obviously Henry's latest toy.  It is probably his wife Harriet looking over his shoulder unwilling to be a party to his experiments.  His mother starts the chain, followed by Diana, Harry and Isabella - who is swooning.  HGS is a member of the Grace Sperling family, relations of the Dynes Hall Sperlings.


As you can see, Diana's watercolours have a wonderful simplicity, freshness and fun as well as giving us a unique glimpse of country life in Regency England.    If you can get hold of a copy of Mrs Hurst Dancing, it's well worth it - it's a gem of a book, especially for anyone interested in the Regency period.

Mrs Hurst Dancing and other scenes from Regency Life 1812-1823
Watercolours by Diana Sperling, Text by Gordon Mingay, Foreword by Elizabeth Longford 
ISBN 0575030356


 

And don't forget that my latest release The Cinderella Debutante - 'an elegant Regency take on a classic tale' - is available now from Amazon.com and Amazon UK.
No watercolours included, just a fabulous read! ;0)