Word Wenches

What We Are Reading!

This month's What We Are Reading features a wonderful array of delights, including a lovely selection of traditional holiday stories, a Viking timeslip and thrilling real-life historical  adventures. Remember that books make marvelous presents—and be sure to treat yourself  . . . because Santa thinks we all deserve some comforts to end a very difficult year. So curl with a good book this holiday season and stay safe and well! Now on to the treats!

Pia: Last year I travelled to Sweden with my friend Sue Moorcroft because she wanted to do some background research for a Christmas story and I was very happy to show her around. We had great fun and I’ve been eagerly awaiting the resulting book – I wasn’t disappointed! Christmas Wishes is a wonderful festive tale, partly set in my native country and partly in a little English village. The heroine, Hannah, has been living and working in Sweden, where she has her own shop in Gamla Stan (the old town) in Stockholm. It’s not doing as well as she would like and things are not going great with her Swedish boyfriend either, but when she runs into her teenage crush, Swedish Nico Pettersson, her life begins to change. Nico has big problems of his own as a single father, with an ex-wife who is battling depression and drug dependency, and a tiny step-daughter who needs him as much as his biological daughter does. As his world unravels, he is forced to take some drastic measures in order to cope, and in addition he has a secret he doesn’t like to share with anyone either. I loved this story, and I was rooting for these two characters all the way. The snow, the Christmas cheer and the many festive customs and touches from both countries add loads of charm, as do the two little girls. Nico is the kind of hero you can’t help but fall in love with and I definitely did! The best Christmas story I’ve read in a long time!

To Catch a King by Charles Spencer is historical non-fiction at its best! Earl Spencer is a master at telling a story at the same time as imparting all the pertinent facts and that makes for a thrilling read. The tale of how the future King Charles II escaped his enemies after losing the battle of Worcester is so fantastic it could actually have made a great fictional story. On the run through ten of England’s counties for six weeks, Charles had to improvise and trust those who were firm royalists. His life was in constant danger and with a price of £1,000 on his head (an enormous sum at the time!), there were many people who wouldn’t have hesitated to turn him over to the authorities. Lord Wilmot, his constant companion, was a flamboyant man who ran many risks during those weeks, but seemed to be born under a lucky star. Charles himself was more circumspect and donned several different disguises, as well as suffering hardships such as walking for miles in shoes that chafed his feet raw. He proved to be resourceful, quick-thinking and incredibly courageous. This, as well as his innate charm to everyone he met, proved part of his salvation. Reading this tale, one can’t but cheer him on and rejoice as he finally set sail for France and safety. And there is huge satisfaction in hearing about the rewards he gave those who helped him, as well as his revenge on those who had sought to end his life. This is highly recommended for anyone who enjoys history and especially from the Stuart era.

Pat: For fans of satirical sf/f, Douglas Adams, and Neil Gaiman, Carpet Diem: Or How to Save The World by Accident by Justin Lee Anderson is a mad trip into an earthly world caught between heaven and hell. Simon Debovar hates people. He’s the ultimate introverted hermit. He doesn’t even have to put up with family because all of them, except his great-aunt and one cousin, were blown up at a family reunion. He inherited everything, including a rug that apparently heaven and hell have made a wager on. In Simon’s world, the devil is a female, represented by a female demon, and our heavenly father is a domineering, uptight male god, represented by a male angel. The carpet could very well be the end of the world, unless Simon and the mostly clueless and wildly irreverent crew he grudgingly collects can find a way to keep heaven and hell from winning it. I am on a violence avoidance kick and even though Simon and his crew are threatened with every conceivable kind of death and nearly killed over and over—no one ever dies, even the villain with his head off. Read it as a rollicking adventure. If there’s a moral to the story, I don’t want to know what it is.

My second report is on a novella meant for savoring, our own Anne Gracie's The Christmas Bride. I know you've heard about it from us before but I just wanted to pitch my praises. I love this novella. It has all the wonderful Gracie trademarks--a heroine in trouble, a hero who can help her but not himself, and lovely, lovely romance with the added fun of children, brides, and a duck. For extra reading pleasure, we also have a glimpse of the Chance sisters from a previous series and a great manor house Christmas holiday! It's just a perfect confection for a cozy evening by the fire (or for those down under, a day at the beach).

Andrea: I was lucky enough to get an advance copy of our own Christina Courtenay’s new Viking timeslip, The Runes of Destiny, which releases on December 10! (One of the many wonderful things about being a Wench is we often share our books with each other before the official release.) I just loved it—it’s a marvelous combination of a captivating love story and enthralling history. . . and had me staying up way too late as it that swept me along in a magical journey.

Linnea Berger, a specialist in ancient Norse languages, is taking refuge from the emotional trauma of a recent car accident by working at a summer archeological dig. Because she’s spooked by the idea of digging up bones, she’s sent to a deserted field with a metal detector, and discovers a magnificent silver brooch . . only prick her finger and pass out. When she awakes, she surrounded by a band of men in Viking dress—led by the hunky Hrafn, who promptly informs her that she is now his captive. Thinking they are Viking reenactors, she plays along for a bit . . . until it becomes shockingly clear that she’s somehow been transported to the ninth century.

Initial panics gives way to logic. The brooch must have brought her here, so perhaps it can take her back. The only problem is it belongs to Hrafn’s horrible half brother, and the only way to have a chance of getting her hands on it is to go along with their plan to take her with them on a long and perilous trading journey to the city we know as Constantinople—where Hrafn intends to sell her as a thrall.

The journey is absolutely riveting. Christina’s meticulous descriptions—the river journey through Russia, the trading towns, the details of everyday life and the dangers the party faces—really makes history. But even more compelling is how she develops a friendship between Linnea and Hrafn based on mutual respect for each other’s courage and moral principles, sentiments that soon develop into something way more complicated. And as they reach Constantinople, there are some very difficult decisions to face . . . Fix a cup of hot chocolate, snuggle into a comfy chair and escape into a thrilling and heartwarming adventure!

I also got the chance to read Anne's new Christmas novella, The Christmas Bride, and echo Pat's praises. It's absolutely delightful, with wonderfully engaging characters . . .and a little brother of the heroine who will steal your heart!

Nicola: This month I picked up The Rebel Heiress and the Knight by Melissa Oliver, which recently won the Romantic Novelists' Association Joan Hessayon Award for best debut novel. I'm partial to a bit of medieval romance and this story, set in the reign of King John, was a great combination of adventure and romance. Eleanor, the heroine, has been widowed after an abusive marriage and when the King decrees she should marry Hugh de Villiers she's pretty horrified. Hugh isn't thrilled either as he hadn't planned on getting married at all, least of all to Eleanor, whom he finds standoffish and arrogant.
 
The journey these two characters make through respect and admiration to love is at the emotional heart of the story, with Hugh recognising the scars from Eleanor's first marriage and wooing her gently. There's also a fun adventure story mixed in as Hugh tries to track down the outlaws who have been causing mayhem in the local area and who keep giving him the run around... All in all it was a very enjoyable and romantic read!
 
I also read Jane Austen's Best Friend by Zoe Wheddon, which is a biography of Martha Lloyd and examines the long and close friendship between Martha and Jane over many decades. I wasn't sure I was going to enjoy it to start with because it kept talking about BFFs and seemed to be trying too hard to use modern concepts and parlance to describe the friendship, but when the book got down to details it was fascinating. I particularly liked the way that it examined the relationship between the two friends through different aspects of their lives - everything from fashion, to socialising, to Jane's writing. It was an interesting approach and let us get to know Martha as well as to see Jane in a different way. The book is up for pre-order and out next year.

Mary Jo: Some months back, there were recommendations here to read Beth O'Leary's The Flatshare. (I think Anne Gracie first called the book to our attention--I'm one of several people who read and loved it.)  It was a clever story of a man and woman sharing a flat but never seeing each other because he works nights and she works days. But they write  each other notes….  It's called a romantic comedy, but with more than the usual number of layers.  

O'Leary's much anticipated second book, The Switch, had big boots to fill, and she succeeds beautifully.  Leena lives a fast paced, high stress in life in London while her much loved  79 year old grandmother, Eileen, lives in a village in Yorkshire, lonely and yearning for more out of life.  When Leena is ordered to take two months off work to rest up, she goes to visit Eileen--and comes up with the idea of the two of them swapping their homes for two months.  Eileen can live with Leena's hip young flatmates, and Leena can relax in her grandmother's charming cottage and garden.  
 Naturally things are not that simple.  The book is funny and romantic, but the beating heart of the story is the earlier loss of Leena's sister to cancer, a tragedy that devastated Leena, her mother, and her grandmother, so the subtext is growth and reconciliation as well as new chances for love.  A great read with a thoroughly satisfying resolution! 
 
Anne: For some reason, this month I've been doing a lot of rereading. I have plenty of new books waiting in the TBR pile, but instead, I've gravitated to old books I know I will enjoy, even for the second (or third or fifth) time around. 

While I was waiting for the US election results (and also waiting for my novella to come out) I started reading old favorite Christmas stories, some of whom were by the Wenches. MJP's lovely collection in Christmas Revels (5 excellent stories—4 historical and 1 contemporary—in one anthology), Pat Rice's Tin Angel, some of Mary Balogh's Christmas stories and others, not forgetting the Wenchly Christmas anthology (The Last Chance Christmas Ball) I usually reread Trisha Ashley's Twelve Days of Christmas but I haven't yet. I have however reread her Invitation to Christmas, which is a favorite too, and that sparked a reread of several other of her books. 

I also read (new) Jenny Colgan's Christmas at the Island Hotel, and enjoyed it very much. It has rather a large case of characters and though I think you could read it as a stand-alone, it would probably be better if you'd read the others in the series. In other rereads, I enjoyed Nancy Warren's Toni Diamond series, where Toni, a larger than-life character is a makeup consultant who gets involved in murder mysteries. Lots of fun, and I'm sad there are only four books in the series. Another series I wish were longer is Ilona Andrews' Innkeeper series, and I reread that whole series, too. Next I think I'll reread either one of Sharon Shinn's series, or maybe one by Patricia Briggs

Now, let keep adding to the TBR pile! What have YOU all been reading lately? Please share!

 

Giving Thanks

By Mary Jo

Thanksgiving has long been my favorite holiday because of the warmth of friends and family gathering together around my table.  People fill my kitchen, good naturedly dodging each other, cats lurk in hope of a bit of turkey, and there's a bounty of goodwill.

That's not happening this year because of the pandemic.  2020 is a lost year in so many ways. So many events, so many gatherings, so many concerts and vacations, have been cancelled.

To the left is my country oak table, bought from a consignment shop. It has about five different leaves that can be inserted, and I bought it specially for Thanksgiving since I usually host here.  Not this year so no extra leaves, but I do love the table!

 

The Boarding School Fantasy

Anne here. When I was a kid, I longed to go to boarding school. Partly this was because we'd moved a lot and I was fed up with making friends and then moving and having to make new ones, and then moving . . .

It was also because my siblings are a decade older than me, and by the time I was ten they'd all left home to go to college or university or to be married, and I was fed up with being the only kid at home.

But I think mainly it was the influence of writers like Enid Blyton and others, who wrote stories about girls at English boarding schools who were always having adventures and making chums and having midnight feasts and solving mysteries. All terribly jolly. My sisters had stacks of those books and I devoured them. It wasn't just girls. The books and schoolboys' annuals my brother left behind were also full of boarding school adventures for boys — usually much more thrilling than the girls' ones.

True Friends

Many people will walk in and out of your life but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart. Eleanor Roosevelt

Me and my BFF

We all need friends and there has seldom been a time when we’ve needed them more than we do right now. The pandemic has really shown us the value of true friends – mine have definitely kept me sane throughout the lockdown and without them it would have been easy to sink into lethargy and depression. With the days blurring into one another (my husband has taken to calling every day “Blursday”!), having a weekly FaceTime chat or Zoom meeting to focus on has helped me to stay motivated. After all, when your friends ask you what you’ve been doing, you don’t want to just say ‘vegging out’! And emails from lovely friends lift the spirits no end, not least when you hear that they are safe and well and you can breathe a sigh of relief.

I’m thinking about this today especially because it happens to be the birthday of my very oldest friend – happy birthday G! – not in the sense of her age but the length of time we have known each other. And it’s made me reflect on the huge importance of the kind of friends you can really be yourself with and who probably know you better than you know yourself. Those are truly special.

The Historical Rabbit

“The rabbit is a caressing animal and equally fond as the cat of the head being stroked.” From The Complete Rabbit Fancier,1823.

Nicola here. Today I’m blogging about rabbits and their relationships with humans. Perhaps it’s the second UK lockdown and the approach of winter that’s making me think about things that are warm and cuddly, or the fact that I was chatting on Facebook with some friends and one of them sent me a picture of her adorable house rabbits. So rabbits and their history it is.

First of all, where did the rabbit come from? Well, the European wild rabbit evolved about 4000
years ago in Spain. Two thousand years later, the Romans were the first to farm them, keeping them in wooden enclosures. The spread of the Roman Empire and the ability of the rabbit to tunnel under a wooden fence was largely responsible for spreading the wild European rabbit across the globe. Oddly, though, the rabbit appears to have died out in England after the Romans left; there is no Old English word for rabbit as far as we know, and the species was not re-introduced to the UK until the 12th century.

Meanwhile in France in the 5^th century, monks were busy inventing the rabbit cage or hutch and the habit of keeping rabbits for food and fur became widespread, reaching England once again/ There are a lot of place names in England with the word “warren” after them that take their name from the medieval practise of keeping a rabbit warren on a manorial estate. We know, for example, that there was a warren at Ashdown House in the middle ages and the bumps in the ground that indicate the system of burrows are still visible today – and still inhabited by the descendants of those original rabbits!

Medieval warrens were big business as one rabbit was worth more than a workman’s daily wage in the 13^th century. Often there would be a lodge near the warren where the warrener and his family lived. One rare surviving example is Thetford Warren in Norfolk, (pictured on the left) which these days is in the care of English Heritage. It’s an isolated spot and the lodge is a semi-fortified little building like a small castle. The warrener and his family lived on the top floor whilst the ground floor was used for all the paraphernalia of his work. His job was to protect the warren from animal predators and human poachers as well as to breed and raise the rabbits. The picture below and to the right shows a medieval warrener at work; the rabbits seem to be getting the better of him, as they are almost as big as dogs and are ignoring the nets set up to trap them!

By the 18^th century, rabbits were once again running wild in the countryside and became a food item for the poor. During the two World Wars of the 20^th century the government in the UK encouraged people to keep rabbits for food; my father-in-law completely refused to eat rabbit as an adult because he had eaten so much of it as an evacuee during the Second World War and these days it’s rarely eaten in this country for meat.

Which moves us on to nicer things – rabbits as pets.  Sources suggest that the keeping of rabbits as pets began as early as the middle ages when ladies kept rabbits in much the same way they kept lapdogs.

Breeding programmes developed early on, which resulted in the many and various different breeds that you find today. Paintings from the 15^th century show rabbits in a variety of different colours, even with white “Dutch” markings. The Flemish Giant was being bred in Ghent as early as the 16^th century and 17^th century writings refer to “silver” rabbits imported into England from India and China. The Lapin de Nicard was a forerunner of the dwarf breeds – it weighed only 3 and a half pounds like the tiny rabbit in the picture! In contrast, the giants are the size of a large dog. The English Lop rabbit, which became a famous breed, was first developed in the 18^th century. There was a positive explosion of rabbit breeds up to the 19^th century when the keeping of rabbits as pets and for show became very widespread. The rabbit fitted perfectly the ideal of a happy Victorian household - benign in temperament, fluffy and cute to look at.

According to Beeton’s Dictionary of Natural History, published in 1871, there were four different types of rabbit: “The warreners, parkers, hedgehogs and sweethearts. The first makes their burrows in open ground or warrens, the hedgehogs are found in thick hedgerows and wood covers (it’s not clear whether this was a rabbit or an actual hedgehog he was describing!) the parkers live on uplands and in gentlemen’s parks and pleasure grounds and the Sweethearts are the tame varieties.”

Rabbits pop up a lot in art and literature. The rabbit in art has a number of symbolic meanings, as a sign of both sensuality and of innocence. It appears with the Madonna in religious images but also on Playboy magazine. The white rabbit in Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is a representation of stress and fear in a hostile world – just reading about him dashing about makes me feel anxious! Bugs Bunny is a wise-guy type of rabbit, and Peter Rabbit and Benjamin Bunny in Beatrix Potter’s stories are mischievous. There is another side to rabbits as well – I hadn’t realised until I saw the film Fisherman’s Friends recently that the rabbit is considered unlucky to fishermen!

The rabbits in Beatrix Potter and in Watership Down have magical powers - they can talk. These days they possess this sort of dual identity as both cosy and magical creatures.

I was going to post a picture of my favourite toy rabbit here but unfortunately the puppy got to it and now it needs re-stuffing. It was Peter Rabbit who was, in fact, the first soft toy to be patented!

There are other superstitions about rabbits as well – a rabbit or hare seen running down a street means that a fire is imminent; Carrying a rabbit’s foot is a cure for rheumatism; saying “White rabbits” on the first day of the month is good luck. And finally there is the wise Romanian proverb: “With money one can even buy rabbit-cheese.”

Do you have a favourite literary rabbit or a rabbit superstition? To finish, here's a picture of a boy with a Regency Rabbit, painted by Henry Raeburn in 1814.

To Lady's Maid or Not to Lady's Maid

A Lady's maid delivering hot chocolate in the morning

Joanna here.  The other day I was thinking about a discussion on Twitter that talked about the life of a lady’s maid. This related somewhat tangentially to my own life since I am trying and failing to fix my clothes washer and have thus taken refuge in philosophy.

It is better than kicking the washer and swearing, I suppose.

The Twitter thread was touched off by a video of a woman getting dressed in the 1890s.

There were many frothy bits of clothing, all of which had to be tugged up or around or pulled over and then tied or buttoned.

Folks pointed out, rightly, that it would have taken a bit of time and a lot of wriggling and gymnastics to get the woman dressed. Look at all those layers, they said. Bet she had a maid to help.

Ask a Wench: Moments of Joy

Moments of Joy

By Mary Jo

This has been a difficult year just about everywhere.  A highly contagious virus, a lockdown, massive economic disruptions--I'm told that time travelers are being told to skip 2020 as they travel through time!

Yet people are adaptable, and even in dark times, we can find moments of happiness, some of which are actually a result of the lockdown.  Perhaps something that was once routine is now noteworthy, or we're finding that spending so much time at home is providing unexpected benefits.  The Wenches share some such moments. 

 

 

For me, one such event was something that was once relatively routine: going out to dinner with the Mayhem Consultant.  What made going out this particular time special was because we hadn't been out for dinner in months!  Maryland had been under strict lock down for months, and the governor had just loosened the requirements to allow restaurants to serve food as long as it was outside and staff and guests were masked (at least until the food and drink appeared.)

Winner

A quick Sunday post to announce that Bev is the winner of an e-book version of Anne Gracie's A Christmas Bride.

Thank you to Bev, and to everyone else who contributed to the discussion. 

Word wench readers are fabulous readers.

Regency Storage

Sandra O’Connor asks: “. . .exactly how large would the (storage) wardrobe generally be for a lady of the ton.”

Pat here: The wenches do try to answer reader questions as time permits, but we get so absorbed in our own research that the really good questions are left to languish until we come out of our writing caves. Since I just wrote The End on my draft, I reached into the question hat today. Sandra O’Connor has an excellent query about how ladies of the ton managed to store all those beautiful gowns and petticoats and whatnot in which we dress our heroines. Sandra, I owe you a book!

Sir Sean Connery - A Tribute

“Love may not make the world go round, but I must admit that it makes the ride worthwhile.” Sir Sean Connery (1930-2020)

As we mentioned in our recent newsletter, the Wenches were all very sad to learn about the loss of the wonderful actor Sir Sean Connery, the inspiration for many romantic heroes. We started to reminisce about our favourite memories of the roles he had played, and felt it would be a fitting tribute to this real-life Scottish hero if we shared them here:-

Mary Jo – Sean Connery was one of the most charismatic and compelling actors ever, and while his recent death at 90 wasn't cutting him off prematurely, he will certainly be missed.

I've seen him in any number of movies, including various James Bond films and a memorable turn as Indiana Jones Senior in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, where he was the father of the younger Indiana Jones, memorably played by Harrison Ford. But perhaps my favorite movie role of Connery was a brief, uncredited appearance as King Richard in Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves. When he appears at the end to Robin Hood and his men, it's as much a surprise to movie viewers to see that unmistakable face as it would have been for the forest bandits to see the real Richard. It's quite a moment, and Sean Connery played it to the hilt!

Anne Gracie Holiday Novella

The Christmas Bride   
Mary Jo here to interview our own Anne Gracie about her brand new, just released novella, The Christmas Bride!  Part of Anne's much loved Chance Sisters Series, it's a delightful holiday story that is pure Anne Gracie.  So…

MJP: What inspired you to write The Christmas Bride?

AG: When I first envisaged the Chance Sister series, I thought I’d like to play with the notion of four “sister” brides for four “brother/friend” grooms, but the early stages of a series or a book are always pretty fluid for me, and by the time I got to Jane’s story (The Spring Bride), I knew her much better, and I realized that she needed a different kind of hero, and that Ash wouldn’t suit. So he got left behind. Which kind of suited him at the time. But I got lots of emails from readers asking about Blake Ashton, who was one of the original four partners (in The Autumn Bride), and I agreed — he needed a story.

MJP:  Tell us about the hero, Blake Ashton.

AG:  Blake Ashton, or Ash as his friends call him, is brilliant with figures, which is why he's been able to become a partner in the Far East trading company Flynn & Co.. However Ash has a secret shame, and that's what keeps him from returning to England—it's been ten years. When he's more or less forced by his partners to come to England for a business meeting he intends to show his face and then return immediately to the Far East. But the best laid plans . . .

Planting the Seeds of Knowledge

Andrea here, musing today about medicine. It’s a subject much on our collective minds right now as we hope the best and brightest scientific minds around the world will soon come up with safe and effective vaccine to combat the deadly COVID virus. So, as we all could use some cheery thoughts, I’m talking today about one of the bright spots in medical history here in America during the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

We’ve made such inroads in combating diseases that once devastated populations, so I think we tend to forget how frightening and deadly so many forces of Nature—germs, microbes, bacteria, viruses—were in the past. As the Age of Enlightenment encouraged scientific inquiry and empirical observation, a new breed of physicians were beginning to look past the traditional ideas on illness—many of them left over from the ancient Greek philosophers—in order to understand how better to treat maladies.

I first met David Hosack in American Eden—David Hosack, Botany, and Medicine in the Garden of the Early Republic, Victoria Johnson’s marvelous book on America’s first botanic garden. Born in New York City in 1769, David Hosack was the son of a well-to-do merchant from Elgin, Scotland and his wife. He was educated at Columbia College, where he became fascinated with the study of medicine. He finished his studies at the College of New Jersey (now known as Princeton) and then went on to study medicine in Philadelphia, where he wrote his doctoral thesis on cholera. In 1791, he married and started a private practice in Virginia, but then returned to New York City a year later.

Ghostly Tales

Christina here and I’m continuing with the paranormal theme, even though Halloween is over. I love this time of year when the nights are getting longer and darker, and we (in the northern hemisphere) begin to light log fires and candles at night to dispel the gloom. It’s easy to imagine that the shadows around us are moving and there’s something, or someone, lurking in the corners, especially if you live in an old house. In other words – it’s the perfect time for ghostly tales!

Do you believe in ghosts? Spirits or lost souls who remain on earth because of unfinished business? I do, but I’ve never been fortunate (or unfortunate?) enough to encounter one myself. To tell the truth, I’m a bit of a scaredy-cat and would probably have had hysterics if I did come across anything paranormal, so perhaps hearing about it second-hand is the better option for me.

Treasured Timeslips

Nicola here. As the UK goes into a second lockdown, I’ve been inspired by Christina’s recent post about the Keeper Shelf to turn back to my bookshelves and find solace in old favourites. It was only as I was sorting out all my timeslip books that I realised what a collection I had gathered over the years and in a spirit of nostalgia I thought I would share my favourites and ask for your recommendations. At this time of year, with the spooky goings-on of Halloween, the darker nights and chilly days, it feels a perfect time to read tales of the supernatural. Perhaps it’s the old idea of the veil between the two worlds of the living and the dead being at its thinnest around All Soul’s Day (which is today). Certainly it feels like a good time to slip between time periods, to travel back – or forwards – to a different or alternative world.