“Clorinda” battles (and enchants) her guardian
REGENCY BUCK by Georgette Heyer is one of her most famous historical novels, and pretty much invented the genre of Regency Romance. But what is so refreshing about Ms. Heyer’s heroines is how they break the mold of what a society miss is supposed to be. They are extremely intelligent. They are athletic. Sometimes they […]
His friends call him “Satanus” ~ THESE OLD SHADES by Georgette Heyer
The Duke of Avon has a Reputation, one that causes his friends (and others) to call him Satanus. Now 40 years old, he has never married and his family consists of a slightly younger sister (a lady in her thirties) and a much younger brother (Lord Rupert, who is around 20.) One day, His Grace […]
A modern-day twist on an ancient tale ~ ANTIGONE by Rhea Karvanis
This book was an unexpected surprised. I expected it to be about the moral dilemma that Antigone faces in the Sophocles play, whether she should obey divine law and give her father an honorable burial, or whether she should obey earthly law and not bury him. Instead we meet “Ann” on a plane going to […]
DEVIL’S CUB is about a crack shot and expert swordsman with a tendency to murder
Georgette Heyer’s DEVIL’S CUB is the second volume of the Alastair-Audley Book Series. (Volume One THESE OLD SHADES concerns the protagonist’s father and mother.) So who is this protagonist? His name is the Marquis de Vidal, he is 24 years old, he is a perfectly proportioned handsome young man. Needless to say, he is a […]
A MOST INTRIGUING LADY has marvelous characters
This is the second book I have read by Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, and I believe the second book of historical fiction she has written. So how does it compare with her first foray into the histfic genre A HEART FOR A COMPASS? Whereas COMPASS is about Lady Margaret Montagu Douglas Scott (1846-1918) a […]
Influential power players struck from history
In the Middle Ages, influential power players were struck from history with the word FEMINA (woman) put beside them. Naturally the “weaker” sex was not worthy of (male) attention. But now it is 2021, and Oxford historian Janina Ramirez is determined to set the record straight. And so we learn about Bertha of Kent (565-601), […]
British-Indian relations simmer just before the end of the Raj
I had never heard of Dinah Jefferies before, but when I was visiting England and enjoying myself perusing a bookshop in Marlborough, her title caught my eye, maybe because the cover was so beautiful. (I am a very visual person.) In any event, I have now finished this remarkable novel and can whole-heartedly recommend it. […]
The County of Suffolk binds two eccentric novels together
Today, I’m going to review two books, because one of the books is so frequently mentioned in the other. I’ll start with W.G. Sebald’s THE RINGS OF SATURN. It is August 1992, when the protagonist (which the book cover blurb helpfully points out both is and is not Sebald) takes a dreary perambulation around the […]
Were the princes murdered? Or spirited out of the country?
My sister contacted me recently, telling me I had to read this book, by Philippa Langley, about the Princes in the Tower. For those who do not know, Philippa Langley was the inspiration behind the project to find the remains of King Richard III, which was eventually found beneath a car park in the City […]
A gem of a memoir, with so much left unsaid
I LIVE AGAIN is the memoir of Princess Ileana of Romania (1909-1991), daughter of Marie of Edinburgh (1875-1938) who was Queen of Romania due to her marriage to Ferdinand I of Romania. In 1931, Ileana married Archduke Anton of Austria (1901-1987), becoming an Austrian Archduchess. The bulk of I LIVE AGAIN deals with Ileana’s war […]
