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Confessions of a Georgette Heyer Addict
I’m not actually certain when I read my first Georgette Heyer. I know it was her anthology of Regency short stories, Pistols for Two, because I vividly remembered both the cover and several of the plot lines decades later, but I must have read it before the age of twelve, because the memories are inseparably connected to a specific armchair that didn’t survive much past that. I also entered a tomboy phase about then that precluded my even entertaining the thought of such drivel as historical romance. But inevitably my tomboy phase ended and I swung to the other side of the pendulum, yearning for romance. In my inexperience, I…
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Anatomy of a Regency Inquest
During the Regency, the British had a constitutional dislike of police, believing that an organized police force would undermine the ideals of the kingdom. So when there was a crime, they had to rely on local magistrates and volunteer constables to take care of things. Occasionally, people would enlist the aid of the Bow Street Runners in London (that’s a post for another day). But when the crime involved a suspicious death, the coroner was called in to decide if someone was responsible and if that person deserved to pay for the crime. The title “coroner” comes from the Latin “coronus,” meaning crown; from the Middle Ages, the British coroner…
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Cerebral Palsy in the Regency
Cerebral palsy was misunderstood during the Regency to be a mental illness.
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A Reflection on Pre-Colonialism
When we think of the British in India, most of us will instantly envision colonial officers and their memsahibs lording it over the natives. This supremacist attitude, however, did not always the reign in England, but was the result of a long and complicated progression.
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A First of Its Kind: the Waterloo Medal
The Waterloo Medal was the first of its kind in Britain, but not everyone was pleased by its historic creation.
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Entails: the Real Deal
Entails are familiar to most of us---but how they are broken is another matter.
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The Senses and Sensibility
What was up with Marianne Dashwood and Catherine Moreland anyway?
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Never Mind Your Daily Bread
Though I love the Regency era, it was not all loveliness and good manners. The Corn Laws were an example of what greed can do to destroy peace and prosperity.
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The Truth about Romance
Romance hasn't always meant what we think it means.
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The Glory of Britain
Princess Charlotte of Wales was thought to be "Europe's hope and Britain's glory."
