Week 35: Plots: what period in history and why
Every period in history is fascinating. The Greeks, the Romans, Genghis Khan, William the Conqueror, Robin Hood, they all have stories to tell. However, I believe the Tudor period and the Regency period are the most popular for authors and readers.
The Tudor period was dominated by Henry VIII creating the Church of England, divorcing wife number one and removing the heads of wives two and five as the years went on. Bloody Mary lit fires under the heretics, and her sister Elizabeth brought peace and power to England, although Elizabeth did remove the head of her plotting Scottish cousin. Those larger than life Tudors and William Shakespeare have given inspiration to authors and playwrights around the world.
The Regency period was more romantic and prettier. It was a renaissance
of art, literature, architecture, fashion and music – and stiff class distinctions. We’d be lost without Jane Austen’s window into the times in which she lived, and Georgette Heyer’s wealth of historical detail in her books. Of Heyer’s fifty-five novels published during her lifetime, twenty-six are set specifically within the English Regency period and, incredibly, no one took their clothes off. I’m no prude, far from it, I am in awe this brilliant author, whose books are still in print, can still capture millions of readers and take them back to that romantic period.
World War One changed our history and our world in ways that nobody could have imagined. Empires crumbled, royal dynasties wiped out, massive social change – and women got the vote. I’ll sneak in my “Good on ya Kiwis,” to New Zealand, the first country to give women the vote.
In Perilous Love, Adrian and Gabrielle Bryce are thrown head-first into this huge upheaval when the Germans invade Belgium, sparking World War One. Their privileged lives disappear when they are betrayed, forcing them to run for their lives, suffering injury and witnessing death and atrocities. They reach safety as two very different people, to face charges of treason and a woman who’ll stop at nothing to see Adrian dead.
What do you think?
Read the next blog in the blog hop by going here.
Perilous Love
The Proposition
The Woman Behind the Mirror
Lies of Gold—Silver Historical for 2019: Coffee Pot Book Club
See, that lack of nudity and sex is what my mother hated about Heyer’s books. She used to make fun of them to little girl me, by reading aloud, making “clicking” noises with her tongue every time there was an ellipse… But I know many readers do enjoy her books.
So I write the kind of books my mom would want to read. She’s been gone quite a few years, but sometimes I feel her reading over my shoulder as I write.