The Virtue of Scandal

Richard Redgrave The Governess oil painting, 1844. Detail. 
Victoria and Albert Museum, London

“You’re a governess?”
To save her younger brother from poverty and her country from invasion,
Simone must sound like anything but an English governess.

The audiobook version of Barbara Metzger’s
Regency Romance
THE SCANDALOUS LIFE OF A TRUE LADY
is now available on Audible UK, Audible US, Amazon and iTunes
narrated by Pippa Rathborne

Simone and Harry are meant for each other.
But there’s a problem:
She can see the future
He can taste the truth

“I propose to hire you as an actress.”
“I am no actress.”
“For one hundred pounds.”
“I can learn.
What role shall I play?”
“Why, my mistress, of course.”

“The truth is rarely pure and never simple.” Oscar Wilde

A lady never tells

Jean-Jacques Bachelier White angora cat, chasing a butterfly 1761 Versailles, musée Lambinet

Regency Lady Detective

“This is my investigation”

A Seacoast Promenade Fashion for October 1809. Fashion plate engraving from La Belle Assemblée.

“Maylene says it’s all a matter of logic and reasoning,
but I always believe there’s another force guiding her, a talent.”

Miss Treadwell’s Talent by Barbara Metzger,
narrated by Pippa Rathborne,
is now available as an audiobook
on AUDIBLE US, UK, GERMANY & FRANCE,
AMAZON & iTUNES

Lady Caroline Lamb in page’s costume, painted by Thomas Phillips, 1813

Dash it, would this dinner never end?…
There was not even going to be one of the baroness’s bogus journeys beyond for entertainment.

collaborators

The aspiration, and fatal flaw, of actors, is their desire to please. Behind our masks, we want to be understood. We want to be understood not as ourselves, but as a hundred other selves, some better than us, some worse.

“Once again Pippa Rathborne makes magic. One can always trust her to infuse her performance with nuances that you know the author intended. Her voice is unique , her characterizations are distinct (Buried Treasure, amazing!)” A Five Star review by Mary, a listener on Audible.

Photo © January 2022 MHP

Legacy and Trust

“I think, my dear, that you can’t ever believe him until you do believe in yourself. For if you’ve no faith in yourself,
you can’t have faith in any other person, can you?”

AUDIOBOOK
OF THE LEGACY AND OTHER STORIES
BY EDITH LAYTON
NARRATED BY PIPPA RATHBORNE
AVAILABLE NOW AT AUDIBLE US, AUDIBLE UK, AMAZON AND iTUNES

“Once again Pippa Rathborne makes magic. One can always trust her to infuse her performance with nuances that you know the author intended. Her voice is unique , her characterizations are distinct (Buried Treasure, amazing!)”
A Five Star review by Mary, a listener on Audible.

“I know it’s not what’s done, but I think it’s what I have to do—don’t you?”
She waited, expectantly. She knew what she yearned to do, and it was a mad thing.

Emma Hamilton by George Romney, oil on canvas, c. 1785
© National Portrait Gallery, London

AUDIOBOOKS NARRATED BY PIPPA RATHBORNE ARE ON SALE AT AUDIBLE

Captain Kidd in New York Harbor, oil on canvas by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris c.1920
Image source: Wikimedia

Tell me no lies

This is the story of a man with an itchy conscience. He has a special gift, some might say a curse, for knowing truth from lies.

In our age of Untruth, he suffers for all of us.

The latest romantic comedy by Barbara Metzger to be narrated by Pippa Rathborne is led by an endearing but damaged hero and heroine,
both escaping from troubled pasts, who are healed, after many comic struggles, by love and laughter.

AVAILABLE TO BUY ON AUDIBLE UK & AUDIBLE US

‘”Lud, you’re not going to play the harp, are you?” There was nothing worse, in his opinion.’
Barbara Metzger, The Wicked Ways of a True Hero

The Marchioness of Northampton Playing a Harp by Henry Raeburn, c.1820

AUDIOBOOK AVAILABLE ON AUDIBLE, AMAZON AND iTUNES

 

A way out of lockdown…

through listening to the fantastical, comical
and zoological adventures
of Aurora Halle McPhee,
read by Pippa Rathborne

The audiobook of Barbara Metzger’s
Regency romantic comedy
A Worthy Wife,
read by Pippa Rathborne,
is now on sale on Audible, Amazon and iTunes

There are a limited number of complementary review copies available. Please leave a comment here if you would like one.

Buy and download from Audible here:
US edition
UK edition
FR edition
DE edition

Portrait of a Lady in Turkish Fancy Dress by Greuze, c. 1790.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art. (Image: Wikipedia)

The Regency created its own romantically sexy myth long before it was appropriated by later generations.

“John Arthur Douglas Bloomfield, 2nd Baron Bloomfield,
already a career diplomat at the age of seventeen, a pillar of the Establishment
trying desperately to look like poet, libertarian political writer
and social outcast Lord Byron,
painted at full Romantic throttle by Thomas Lawrence, 1819.
National Portrait Gallery. (Image: Wikipedia)”

Extract from THE ENDURING APPEAL OF REGENCY ROMANCE
by Pippa Rathborne

A Perfect Match

Two more of Barbara Metzger’s romantic entertainments, read by Pippa Rathborne,
blending classic traditions of Restoration and screwball comedy
with a timeless sympathy for people,
are available to download on Audible, Amazon and iTunes.

The thrills of courtship and the consummation of marriage in Wedded Bliss are threatened by thuggish rivals, attempted assaults and kidnappings, all constantly interrupted by a family of irresistibly high-spirited children and puppies. In trying to educate their children, the hero and heroine learn about themselves.

Sir Thomas Lawrence The Children of Lord George Cavendish, 1790. Image: Wikipedia

Lady Whilton’s comically complicated wedding is the elegant backdrop to one of Metzger’s
most moving love stories about a rare second chance to find happiness.
This is the remastered edition of the original recording.

G.F. Kersting Couple at a Window [Paar am Fenster] c. 1815. Image: Wikipedia

FREE REVIEW COPIES OF THESE TITLES ARE AVAILABLE FOR A LIMITED PERIOD UPON REQUEST.
PLEASE USE COMMENT SECTION BELOW IF YOU WOULD LIKE A CODE EMAILED TO YOU FOR A FREE AUDIOBOOK OF ANY BARBARA METZGER ROMANTIC COMEDY READ BY PIPPA RATHBORNE

Mesmerized

The Beguiling of Merlin by Burne-Jones, 1874

The Dragon and the Unicorn:
The Perilous Order of Camelot (Volume 1)

by A. A. Attanasio, narrated by Pippa Rathborne,
is available to buy on Audible, Amazon and iTunes

The evolution of Merlin and of Ygraine and Uther Pendragon, the parents of Arthur, the Once and Future King, re-imagined through a unique blend of mythology,
science fiction and ancient history.

 I got to looking forward to the next installment, for the aesthetic rush of your performance that invariably left me feeling uplifted, strengthened. Somehow – magically! – your artistic élan brightened my own mundane history. That’s the authentic power of art! Thank you for bringing that power to my novel.

I am mesmerized by the voice you have given this novel          

 A. A. Attanasio describing Pippa Rathborne’s narration of
THE DRAGON AND THE UNICORN

Natural light

Vickie Lester’s Hollywood based novel It’s In His Kiss in audio serialization on BEGUILING HOLLYWOOD

Photograph by MARTIN HÜBSCHER PHOTOGRAPHY © 2015

Listen to IT’S IN HIS KISS by Vickie Lester:

PROLOGUE

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

AND MORE…

Being more yourself

Pippa Rathborne narrates Margaret Eleanor Leigh’s picaresque adventures across three continents in search of personal Utopia which turns out to be….

THE WRONG SHADE OF YELLOW

A witty, and ultimately moving, memoir in the great tradition of independent women travellers, available as an audiobook on iTunes, Audible and Amazon.

Burtzi and the Castle of Methoni, Messinia, Greece by Flyax (Creative Commons 3.0 Licence) via Wikimedia Commons

“Loving life is easy when you are abroad. Where no one knows you and you hold your life in your hands all alone, you are more master of yourself than at any other time.” Hannah Arendt

The Wrong Shade of Yellow is available for downloading on iTunes, Audible and Amazon.