The “Regency” novels, set during the two decades after Waterloo, are comedies of manners, intended as pure fun—but I hope you’ll find the characters are rather more than cardboard cut-outs.
The Spanish Cousins: In the wake of Waterloo, when Wellington, though recognising his services in an undercover position, advises Sir Harry Ainsley not to re-settle back in England, Sir Harry and his Spanish wife decide instead to send their children home. Paul may open up Ainsley Manor and the town house, and Gaetana may be brought out by his Cousin Patty Maddern—their “Tia Patty”—with her own three elder girls! The young Ainsleys, brought up on the Continent, are not thrilled at this prospect, but Mrs Maddern, after the initial shock, is aux anges and enters with horrid keenness into her rôle of chaperone and hostess, hatching a thousand matrimonial schemes… Not all of which are destined to come to fruition!
The Ogilvie Connection: If the Parker girls had never met their Ogilvie cousins, none of it would ever have happened—such was certainly to be Mrs Parker’s happy conclusion. The scene ranges from humble beginnings in a country parish and a girls’ school to the fashionable London Season, with a downriver adventure on barges, yachting in the English Channel, and a Continental tour. Mishaps and misunderstandings ensue, as the Parker and Ogilvie girls’ lives intersect with those of the saturnine Aden Tarlington, the dashing Sir Noël Amory, his uncle Colonel Amory, the retired Commander Carey, R.N., young Lord Lavery and his twin brother, and, not least, the eccentric zoologist Dr Fairbrother with his houseful of parrots and monkeys. But Henrietta Parker, dîte “Henry”, and Pansy Ogilvie return from the Continent considerably more mature and inclined to look more kindly upon their would-be suitors—so perhaps, in the end, Mrs Parker is right!
The Portuguese Widow follows the misadventures of charming, half-Portuguese Nan Baldaya Benedict, twice widowed at barely 21 years of age. Regency Bath is taken aback by Nan’s cosmopolitan household: the retinue of faithful Indian ayahs and bhais, and the French chef. Then, horrors! Her late mother’s scandalous history is raked up. A move to London results in the fortune hunters discovering her nabob’s fortune, the grandes dames looking down their noses at her, and an encounter with a notorious rake. Proper English ladies have nothing to do with theatrical persons, but the warm-hearted Nan plunges herself into a theatrical venture led by the stout and fruity-voiced Mr Perseus Brentwood and the lugubrious Mr Emmanuel Everett. Few of these encounters are likely to do anything for the reputation of a lady anxious to establish herself creditably. And, of course, there’s the unfortunate episode of the duel…
Raffaella: The half-Italian Raffaella dalla Rovere—she who was once scruffy little Raffy Andrews—arrives in England with no money and a large cat, Giampaolo dalla Rovere, the greatest ratter in all of the Romagna. Widowed very young, her only advantages are her dark-haired good looks and her unquenchably optimistic disposition. This is the story of how the indomitable Raffaella, in spite of the disadvantages of a notorious mother and no fortune, manages to cut a dash in London Society, holding her own amidst the grandes dames and the cronies of Wellington himself, and of her eventual, and somewhat unexpected fate—but not until after a second marriage which horrifies her conventional English relations.
The Patchwork Parasol: George IV is on the throne, but Regency attitudes still prevail. Unless the Earl of Sleyven should condescend to hold an open day for the county, very minor gentry like the Burdens of Bluebell Dell have no contact with the Maunsleigh estate. That is, until Jarvis Wynton, the new earl, returned to England after long service in the Indian Army, bestows a casual kiss on a pretty auburn-haired country lass who’s trying to reach a patched parasol which has been blown into a tree. The “lass” turns out to be the respectable Miss Burden. Sparks fly as two determined and stubborn personalities collide. Many obstacles have to be overcome before he will admit she is the woman for him and she will admit she is love with him.
The reappearance of an old flame who is out to get Jarvis back looks like ruining everything—until a far greater catch appears on the scene, and the “Russian intrigue” results in a hilarious victory for Miss Burden’s supporters, as the actors playing the Russians throw themselves into the masquerade with a will. Nevertheless, there are no easy solutions in life, as “Midge” Burden and Jarvis Wynton discover.
The Old Chip Hat: In a tale of masquerades, deception and play-acting, almost no-one is quite what they seem, from a group of London theatricals with their stage names to other, more serious double identities. Are Peebles the meek clerk, the cheery working-class Bert Dinwoody, the solid retired merchant Mr French, and even that rich land-owner, Lord Sare himself, who they appear to be? Is bright, talented little Miss Martin merely playing a rôle, as she joins the actors’ company on a summer tour of southern England? Gradually the three Martin siblings’ scheme to establish themselves creditably in the stuffy upper-class society of England in the 1820s unravels, amidst plot and counter-plot, and masquerade upon masquerade.
Tamasha, or The Great Tamasha Cookbook & Family History: A family saga of the British Raj, Anglo-India, Regency period, with contemporary Indian and English recipes, diaries and letters—love, intrigue, and delicious food! The “Tamasha” project starts in South Australia around 2010, when the Widdop sisters’ aunt remembers an old tin trunk in the garage. The discovery in it of the beginnings of a family history with old letters, a diary, and lots of old recipes sets them off on an historical quest which results in the story of their Regency forebears, Ponsonby Sahib and the four Lucas sisters, Tess, Tonie, Josie and Tiddy. We see three generations of the family, the scene switching from 21st-century Adelaide to India and England in the early 19th century, as the Lucas sisters grow up, and to England 30-plus years later, circa 1867, as the sisters, now elderly ladies, recount their family history and a granddaughter writes it down as the story Our India Days, on which the Widdop sisters from Adelaide largely base their narrative.
Peg Buffitt: When the two households of the conventional Beresfords and the eccentric, harum-scarum Buffitts collide in the innocent person of Peg Buffitt, dispatched to spend the fashionable Season with her mother’s “Cousin B.” in London, nothing goes as anticipated. For one thing, Mrs Buffitt is a year late in accepting the invitation and Mrs Beresford has left to spend a year abroad. Complications ensue, some hilarious, some alarming, and some even salutary, as the dashing Corinthian Jack Beresford, with the help of his meek Aunt Sissy and the eager co-operation of the fashionable Lady Stamforth, the erstwhile “Portuguese Widow”, becomes the pretty but independent-minded Peg’s unwilling host.
A host of minor characters (some of whom we’ve met in the previous Regency stories), ranging from the unscrupulous master of the artistic pastiche, Mr Frederick Greenstreet, to the London fashionables and the haughty grandes dames who rule the roost at Almack’s, combine in a colourful and amusing evocation of 1820s England.
The Fortunate Formbys: The Formbys are generally acknowledged to be one of the fortunate families of tiny Waddington-on-Sea. Joe Formby, that prosperous printer and bookbinder, has four pretty, bright grown-up daughters and two sturdy sons. With no pretensions to gentility, the Formbys are happy in humble New Short Street. By the year 1830, however, things begin to change: the dashing Luís Ainsley arrives from Spain and settles in the district, the Formbys are taken up by a wealthy cousin who’s gone up in the world… But a family tragedy and a lot of prejudice need to be overcome before the Formbys can once again be considered fortunate.
Alongside the scenes of the Formbys’ sometimes hilarious, sometime turbulent family life, we also follow the fates of Luís Ainsley and his father Sir Harry from The Spanish Cousins, and of Richard (Dicky) Baldaya and his sister Amrita from The Portuguese Widow, and meet again the charming Nan Baldaya Vane, now Lady Stamforth, the “P.W.” herself.
… And more yet to be posted
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