Why the Regency, you might ask.

Cool clothes, manly men, spies and intrigue, and a rigid code of rules of conduct which could mean all the difference between success and ruin for both men and women.

It is a world very different from our own, but just think of the smouldering passions of Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice (especially the Colin Firth adaptation!) or the recent BBC Sense and Sensibility, and you will get an idea of the kind of eroticism that builds if you don’t just do it like bunnies or see it plastered all over the TV and billboards.

Of course, Regency romances a la Georgette Heyer have been supplanted by more racy fare. How spicy is too spicy in a Regency romance? How much comedy of manners do you prefer in your Regency? And how historically accurate do you want your Regency romance novel to be?

We would argue that so many have been done so badly recently, it is just a modern romance in fancy dress. Society was almost everything at that period of time, so racy women might well have existed, but even people with money had to observe certain social mores.

Then we have the Napoleonic War. Should it be mentioned, or left out? Why did Austen not mention it in her novels?

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