Jenny Hambly

Regency Romance

Jenny Hambly

A la Ronde

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It is not often you come across a sixteen-sided house!

In my latest novel, Sophie, Lady Lewisham fulfils her desire to travel abroad. Whilst researching ladies who travelled in Georgian times, I came across Jane and Mary Parminter. They were cousins who conducted their own grand tour and then returned to Exmouth and built A La Ronde in 1796. The unusual shape of the house meant that they would always have light from the sun. They built a gallery lined with shells which can now only be fully seen by virtual tour.

A glimpse of the shell grotto.

When you stand in the centre of the house and look up at the cupola dome and the gallery, you feel the clever and innovative design, as all the rooms radiate from it.

The guide suggested the wall-paper represented the underwater world, rising to the surface and the shell grotto.

Small nooks and crannies link the rooms and not a jot of space is wasted.

Of course no ladies of refinement would have been happy without their instruments!
I enjoyed this silhouette picture which reveals the family at leisure.
He looks right at home!
I do like a nice bonnet!

There are hidden doors and locks throughout the house as when the house was built there was a real threat of invasion from France so the Parminters built escape routes into their design.

Jane Parminter insisted in her will that the house should only be lived in by unmarried kinswomen. She realised how lucky she had been to be an independent woman at that time and wanted to ensure others could follow her. This was not to be, however; her cousins Jane and Sophia Hurlock passed it to their niece Stella Reichel who handed it over to her brother!

If you are ever in Devon, it is well worth a visit!

Review

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The Governess (Sisters of Woodside Mysteries #1)

The Governess by Mary Kingswood

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This book was a pleasure to read. The reader very quickly becomes immersed in the Regency era through the authenticity of the writing, period details, and dialogue. I was strongly reminded of Jane Austen in the period correct language, attention to character development and plot details.

A gentleman gambles away the family fortune, leaving four of his five daughters in severely straitened circumstances. This trope is a familiar one and it is always interesting to see how this premise unravels and is resolved. In this case, all of the sisters opt for genteel employment. This story follows Annabelle, who makes the decision to be a governess with both stoicism and integrity.

Her charges bring a liveliness to the story and Annabelle’s character is further revealed as she handles them all very adroitly, with intelligence, empathy, and understanding. Indeed, she deals with all the interesting array of characters in the novel with a firm touch, without ever stepping outside her character or appearing to be an overly managing female.

The plot unravels at a pace that allows for the development of a natural affection and understanding between the two main characters, which is both challenged and deepened as the romance is complicated by a mystery that must be solved; was the earl’s first wife murdered and if so, by whom? As in all the best mysteries, there emerge many characters who may have had a motive for her death. The apparent gentleness with which the reader moves through the story does not lessen the realisation that very serious events are afoot but rather than descend into hyperbole and hysteria, Kingswood stays true to the tone of her situations and the nature of her lead characters.

I thought it a very clever device to use the letters to keep the close relationship of the sisters in mind, allowing their voices and something of their personalities to be revealed, and encouraging the reader to want to know more about their situations. What is not said becomes as important as what is. It is this subtlety in the writing of Kingswood that draws you in and holds your interest.

All the loose ends are neatly tied up at the end, my only very small quibble is that I felt the pace of this was at times, a little slow. Overall, a thoroughly enjoyable read that any lover of traditional regencies will love, and I look forward to reading more about the sisters.








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Are we ever really in control of our destinies?

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Authors are in the privileged position of fashioning their characters’ destinies. That is the theory anyway. (I have discovered that sometimes they seem to forge a path of their own as they develop!) Although the concept of control was not consciously at the forefront of my mind when I began writing Rosalind, when I read the first draft through, it became clear it was a fundamental motivational force.

Lord Atherton likes to think he is in control of his actions but when we meet him, he is avoiding his responsibilities and the inevitable curtailment of the relative freedom he has enjoyed. Ironically, it is not until he accepts his role in society, that he will be able to exert any meaningful control on the world around him. This is something his father was well aware of, and the control that the late Earl failed to wield over his son in life, will be achieved after his death. But even as we see him gradually accept the mantle of his duties, he is tormented or annoyed by not being in control of the actions of others around him.

Lady Rosalind imagines that her reckless actions at the beginning of the story are a way of her taking some sort of charge over a life that has been forever changed by the death of her own father. Of course, the truth is very different. She reacts with resentment when Lord Atherton takes a hand in her destiny by offering her employment, even though she is in dire need of it. In accepting the position of companion, she is forced to face up to the reality that from now on her basic needs will be dependent on an employer, someone she must please regardless of her own wishes.

This is the situation the majority of us are in. It seems to me that Rosalind and Lord Atherton were destined to be together, but it could not come to pass until they gained some control over their inherent strengths and weaknesses. It is self-knowledge that finally allows them to accept and embrace their destiny. In the end, we can only control ourselves, something Lord Rutley never achieves, with disastrous results. There is no such thing as one destiny, we all have many possible destinies, but only through self-knowledge can we make the most of the opportunities that come our way.