An alert, very diligent, and loyal reader has let me know that my two latest audio books, The Last Hellion and Miss Wonderful, narrated by Kate Reading and scheduled for 12 May release, are now available for pre-order.
Next in production will be Mr. Impossible and Lord Perfect. We're aiming for a June or July release for these, the second and third Carsington books.
Miss Wonderful is here at Amazon.
The Last Hellion is here at Amazon.
In Lord of Scoundrels, Lord Dain refers to an event occurring between Candlemas and Lady Day. These dates may not mean much to many readers. Following is a short explanation, which I originally wrote for Two Nerdy History Girls. ***
In my book Lord of Scoundrels, Lord Dain refers to an event occurring before Lady-Day. He does not mean the singer Billie Holiday.
He’s referring to a Quarter Day, as do characters in many books. These are important dates in the British calendar, as the following page illustrates. It’s from a little instruction manual, The Guide to General Information on Common Things (1868).
According to Hone’s Every-day Book, Vol 1, “Lady Day is a holiday at the Public Offices, except the Excise, Stamp, and Custom.” He describes various religious festivals associated with the day, then goes on to note: “In England, Lady Day is only remembered as the first quarter-day of the year, and is therefore only kept by tenants who truly pay rent to their landlords.”
However, servants were customarily paid on quarter days as well. Though we tend not to use religious holidays as the marking points nowadays, we do continue to to divide the year into quarters for various financial transactions, e.g. quarterly reports.
William Hone explains Candlemas here.
Image: William Redmore Bigg,The Severe Steward, or Unfortunate Tenant (1800-01), courtesy Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection.
Clicking on the image will enlarge it. Clicking on the caption will allow you to read at the source, where you can learn more and enlarge images as needed.
Because readers seem to be very interested in the posts about locales and vehicles mentioned in Lord of Scoundrels*, I'm continuing the visual guide.
Athcourt, where Lord Dain resided, is on the fringes of Dartmoor. It’s based, however, on Hardwick Hall, which is in Derbyshire. But there are moors there, too, and Hardwick Hall certainly is atmospheric. I chose it because it looked like the sort of place Dain would have grown up in and because I had a picture of it in cross-section—so helpful in seeing the movie in one’s head. Since a great deal of action takes place in this house, the cross-section was invaluable.
You can see a black and white version of the cross section here.
The National Trust publication about Hardwick Hall includes a cross section in color, as well as many interior views, including the Long Gallery, down which Dominick runs au naturel. Below is a Victorian pseudo-Elizabethan view of the gallery, but it hasn't changed much.
*Yes, still celebrating the book’s 20th anniversary.
Images: North View of Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire and
Interior View of the Hall at Hardwick, by John Buckler (1813), courtesy Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection. Gallery image from The Mansions of England in the Olden Time, Vol 2, 1870 - See more at:
