Coral Jewelry in the Regency Era
Have you ever looked at nineteenth century portraits and noticed all of the coral jewelry? After you’ve looked through a few dozen...
top of page
Excessively Diverted
Heather Moll's Blog
- Jan 15
Cats during the Regency
My son keeps a cat and when he asked me if people in Jane Austen's time kept cats as pets, I had to think about it. I know that dogs were...
32 views6 comments
- Jan 1
Fireworks in the time of Jane Austen
Surely the idea of an evening out watching a fireworks display, possibly one set to music, is a modern notion, right? There is to be a...
23 views2 comments
- Dec 11, 2022
Derbyshire well dressing
When I visited Derbyshire in the summer of 2019 I saw a local custom that I just had to incorporate into a story set at Pemberley. In An...
24 views2 comments
- Nov 6, 2022
Book Review: Sister Novelists
Have you heard of Jane and Anna Maria Porter? Well, if you're a fan of nineteenth century fiction, you should. The Porters—contemporaries...
27 views0 comments
- Oct 23, 2022
Handwriting in the Regency
"Oh!" cried Miss Bingley, "Charles writes in the most careless way imaginable. He leaves out half his words, and blots the rest." "My...
44 views0 comments
- Aug 21, 2022
Ratafia Cakes in 2022
After my young helper didn't care for the last regency thing we baked (Georgian Chocolate Tart) because it wasn't sweet enough, I thought...
76 views2 comments
- Jul 17, 2022
Regency Income: 500 versus 10,000 per year
Jane Austen always informs us about the financial status of her characters. It wasn't a taboo topic like it often is today. James Morland...
270 views2 comments
- Jun 26, 2022
Someone call an apothecary
When you read a regency and someone falls ill and calls for an apothecary, do you wonder, “Why don’t they call a real doctor?” We modern...
34 views4 comments
- Jun 12, 2022
Mourning Jewelry: creepy or cool?
I feature a piece of jewelry in every full-length Regency novel I write. Usually, jewelry is associated with glamor and wealth, or is a...
77 views4 comments
- May 22, 2022
Single women in Georgian England
Elizabeth Elliot from Persuasion “had the consciousness of being nine-and-twenty to give her some regrets and some apprehensions: she was...
59 views4 comments
- May 15, 2022
Carriage and Horse Accidents in An Affectionate Heart
As delightful as it might sound to us to ride in an open carriage, driving and riding in Georgian England wasn’t as carefree as you might...
34 views0 comments
- Apr 24, 2022
What's a turnpike road?
In An Affectionate Heart, Elizabeth speaks to Darcy for the first time at the pedestrian path next to a tollgate, and later in the book a...
73 views2 comments
- Feb 27, 2022
Jane's "nidgetty" cap
Jane Austen's letters to her sister Cassandra are filled with irreverent humor. In December 1798, Cassandra was visiting family in...
67 views2 comments
- Dec 12, 2021
A Regency Masquerade
What do The Sylph (1778) by the Duchess of Devonshire, Cecilia (1782) by Fanny Burney, and Belinda (1801) by Maria Edgeworth have in...
493 views2 comments
- Nov 14, 2021
What are "Tea Things"?
Drinking tea, making tea, or using "tea-things" are often mentioned in Austen. Elizabeth Bennet hopes that after the tea things are...
61 views2 comments
- Aug 29, 2021
What does precedence even mean?
Precedence might seem strange to us in the twenty-first century, especially for those of us in places without hereditary titles. But the...
199 views3 comments
- Jun 13, 2021
Paste or Real? It doesn't matter!
If you hear "paste jewelry", do you think ugly knockoff or, worse, Elmer's glue? Paste jewelry was popular among Georgian society and was...
444 views4 comments
- Apr 18, 2021
Regency Mac and Cheese
In Nine Ladies, our regency time traveler to 2011 has to navigate a strange world with strange customs, and one of them is grocery...
178 views5 comments
- Mar 21, 2021
Neatness Counts in Crossed Letters
It’s rare to get “real” mail. Something handwritten that arrives in the mailbox. Not junk, not a bill, but words put to paper for my eyes...
168 views0 comments
bottom of page