The Regency Buck

I’ve gone a complete Regency binge of late, and having only read Georgette Heyer when I was a teenager I can’t remember a hell of a lot about the stories. I do remember there were rakes and dandies and lovely fiesty heroines.

In the last 6 weeks I’ve read: The Talisman Ring, The Grand Sophy, Frederica, Sylvester the wicked uncle, and Arabella. I can’t remember any of them, except maybe The Grand Sophy because I remember the dog. Maybe my priorities in retaining details of novels were different back then.

Time reading them has been lovely, and with BBC1 Sanditon now playing on tv it feels like I have been transported once again to nineteenth century England.

I’m currently reading the ‘Nonesuch’ and it has to have what I consider (and many others consider) one of the most annoying female characters Georgette Heyer ever wrote. Miss Tiffany Wield is a an annoying brat of 17 year old whose temper tantrums and general unlikeability contrast greatly with the books heroine and Tiffany’s governess – Miss Ancilla Trent. A woman from a genteel background only bought to seek an independent living by the circumstances of her family’s impoverishment. In contrast to her, the hero is Sir Waldo Hawkridge, called ‘The Nonesuch’ for his superior sporting ability, talents and of course extreme wealth. He doesn’t have a title but it doesn’t matter because he’s rich! Not a lot happens in the novel, but watching Ancilla resisting the urge to fall in love and Waldo’s general good natured amusement is utterly delightful.

I’m almost finished reading the story, and I can’t wait for them to kiss, but I know when they do I’ll also want to go back a few pages and read it all over again.

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