It’s difficult, looking at this photograph of Princess Ducky, to believe it was taken when she was a teenager. But of course teenagers hadn’t been invented in the 1890s and the prescribed destiny of a granddaughter of Queen Victoria was enough to make anyone look glum. They were expected to marry, preferably a suitable cousin…
Category: Mid Modern Period
The hair-raising hair-do’s of Jane Austen’s England
Jane Austen, author of Pride and Prejudice (1813) was born in 1775, and during her lifetime there were hair-raisingly huge changes in fashion. If you visited Austen’s England during the 1770s you’d see ladies wearing absurdly high head-dresses. A triangular cushion or ‘system’ of horsehair three inches thick by nine inches diagonally, and seven inches in height,…
How To Dress Like A Georgian
How did the lady of fashion 200 years ago answer the call of nature during long and riveting church sermons? And what was the date of the last guillotining in France? Quirky facts are a side-line of the historical research I do for my Georgian and Regency novels, and these two questions are yet to…
The True Story behind the Titanic’s Cuddling Couple
There’s a moment in the film Titanic in which we are treated, if that’s the right word (which it isn’t), to an aerial shot of an old couple spooning, if that’s the right word (which it isn’t). The couple are on a double bed. Seawater is rushing underneath them. The aerial shot is part of…
The real story of the Victorian Prostitute
I had the smashing idea of writing a spy caper set in Victorian era London, with the owner of a brothel as my heroine. India Black, my protagonist, is cynical, sharp and witty. Her brothel caters to military officers, mid-level civil servants and minor aristocracy. She’s a madam on the way up, but is she…
Did Victorian Prudery End Female ‘Slavery’ Down The Mines?
I love a man who’s passionate about principles. From the perspective of a romance novelist, they make the best heroes and it’s Victorian philanthropist Lord Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftsbury who’s the inspiration for the passionate reformist MP hero of my latest Choc Lit release ‘The Maid of Milan’. Lord Anthony Ashley-Cooper. Source: en.wikipedia.org Not only…
The Regency Lady Vs The Modern Day Gal
Always wondered how a lady of the Regency Era might have spent her day? Fear not, because we have the solution: an itinerary of a Regency woman’s daily toil…yes toil! It was hard going; she didn’t have lunch until 3! And to make matters more interesting…we have compared it to how YOU live now! TimeRegency WomanModern Woman7amBe woken…
Georgiana Cavendish: At the Dukes Pleasure (Pt I)
Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire between 1774 – 1806, is one of history’s most complicated and fascinating characters. Beautiful, intelligent and charismatic, she quickly became the 18th century equivalent of today’s ‘It Girl.’ Despite her widespread popularity with the general public, Georgiana’s private life was a disaster. Drinking, drugs and gambling, illicit love affairs, and a…