Hi Everyone! Me again! Aren’t you glad you’ve been safe from me all week?! 😉 You should – it’s been a sulky one. Enough of that though, because we’ve got the wonderful Joanna Chambers visiting with us again, and this time with her author hat on! Yes! Her debut book will be out with Carina Press soon! All of you who love historicals, you’ll like this. And those of who don’t treat it as your go-to genre? Learning is fun! Cuz knowledge is power! 😛

Let’s hear it for Regency Romance!

Thanks for having me over again, Lime!  Today I want to talk about my unashamed love of that sometimes-maligned animal: the Regency romance.

My debut novel The Lady’s Secret is released by Carina Press on 7th November (buy it here!) and yes, it’s a Regency romance! I know some readers get fed up with the dominance of this period in the historical romance genre but I’m out and proud as a lover of the Regency.

So what was it all about?  Well, in 1811 Prince George, took over the reign of his father King George III.  His father was still alive but incapacitated by ‘madness’ (which it was later suggested, but never proven, may have been porphyria.  Accordingly, Prince George did not rule as his father’s heir and king during this period, but as his proxy.  As regent.  Hence ‘Regency’.

This situation continued until George III’s death in 1820 when Prince George became George IV.  Technically therefore, the actual Regency lasted only 9 years.  However the term ‘Regency’ is used with reference to anywhere from the late 18th century until 1837 when Victoria became Queen and the Victorian period began.  My own (very personal) take is that the ‘Regency period proper’ begins with the commencement of the Napoleonic Wars in 1803 until George IV’s death in 1830.

The Regency is a hugely fascinating time in British history, book-ended by two very different worlds.  Prior to the Regency, we have the world of the late 18th century.  A time of immense aristocratic privilege, with the Industrial Revolution and the rise of the middle classes beginning to happen.  After the Regency, we have the Victorian period.  The age of steam and invention.  When the dominance of the aristocracy began to wane and the power of the industrialist middle class rose. And wedged in the middle of these two very different worlds, was the Regency, a time when all the tensions of money and class and industrialisation were brewing, against a backdrop of war and political unrest.

So no.  It wasn’t all just about going to Almacks to dance and Gunther’s for ices!  And that’s not the Regency you’ll see in The Lady’s Secret.  In fact, my hero and heroine come from quite different sides of the tracks.  Nathan is an earl and Georgy is a failed-actress-turned-stagehand who masquerades as a man to gain a position as his valet.  So while you get to see the world of the aristocrats (so familiar to romance readers!) you also get to see other worlds: the world of servant class, and the world of the theatre.

What about you?  Do you love the Regency period?  Hate it?  And what’s your favourite Regency romance?

Joanna Chambers has been blogging about romance as Tumperkin since 2007 at http://tumperkin.blogspot.com.  Her first novel, The Lady’s Secret, is released by Carina Press on 7th November. You can find an excerpt here.

Isn’t that interesting? I didn’t know. (I should though, shouldn’t I.) Ms. Chambers has also very kindly offered up a copy of her debut novel to one lucky commenter. So go on and answer her questions!