Many Regency romances are set against the dramatic backdrop of an island nation fighting for its very survival against a messianic European man bent on world domination. (Echoes of World War II? Who says history doesn’t repeat itself!) At the height of the conflicts with Napoleon, … Continue reading →
A few months ago I posted about hunting in Georgian and Regency England and about how the peace that followed the Napoleonic Wars impacted the economy and hunting laws of England. I’ve been researching the topic of smuggling in England … Continue reading →
Since tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, it seemed like a good idea to do a post about today. In England, this is Shrove Tuesday, or Pancake Day, and in the rest of the world, Carnival, or Mardi Gras. In the more traditional Christian churches … Continue reading →
Living in the mild Mediterranean climate of a coastal desert as I do deprives one of some of the celebrations and mile-markers of life. Like yesterday’s all important Halfway Point, Groundhog Day, the day that Punxsutawney Phil, using ancient traditional forecasting methods, … Continue reading →
January 24, 2015 marked the fiftieth anniversary of the passing of one of the great heroes of the twentieth century, Winston Churchill. In a lovely Op-Ed piece in the Wall Street Journal, his granddaughter Celia Sandys describes his last days … Continue reading →
Though I’ve always enjoyed the action and adventure of the James Bond movies, I never saw much true romance between James and his Bond Girls until the train scene in Casino Royale when Eva Greene showed Daniel Craig that he had met his … Continue reading →
An Anniversary… A few weeks ago I wrote about the story world of author Georgette Heyer, and an upcoming post I was working on. My article about Regency Buck, the first Regency romance, published in 1935, went live yesterday on the Beau Monde … Continue reading →
Mixed in with all the happiness of Christmas are some sad memories, and I couldn’t let Christmas 2014 pass without mentioning the events of seventy years ago, Christmas Eve 1944. It was a wartime Christmas, a hopeful time, as the … Continue reading →
If you are a fan of Bernard Cornwell’s Richard Sharpe books, or have seen Sean Bean’s excellent portrayal of the hero in the series, you are familiar with the battles among the French, British, Spanish and Portuguese in the Iberian peninsula during the Napoleonic era. And if … Continue reading →
Though the Prince Regent of England declared a day of Thanksgiving in January 1816, Thanksgiving as an annual holiday is a new world phenomenon. In the United States, the tireless crusading of Sarah Hale led in 1863 to the establishment of Thanksgiving as a national holiday. The “Mother of Thanksgiving” was … Continue reading →