Wishing Everyone A Magical Winter Fantasy

I am honoured to have narrated three Christmas-themed books written by the late Barbara Metzger, much-loved writer of Regency Romance.

She had a unique gift for balancing romance between iconic characters – usually accompanied by irresistible dogs or cats – with mischievous wit, slapstick comedy and the redemptive power of fantasy.

Celebrate the magic of Christmas and welcome the new year by listening to her stories.

Listen to a sample and download AN ENCHANTED CHRISTMAS in USA

Listen to a sample and download AN ENCHANTED CHRISTMAS in UK

Listen to a sample and download FATHER CHRISTMAS in UK

Listen to a sample and download FATHER CHRISTMAS in USA

Listen to a sample and download GREETINGS OF THE SEASON in UK

Listen to a sample and download GREETINGS OF THE SEASON in USA

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.

A GREEN ROMANCE

“YOU DON’T HAVE TO UNDERSTAND HER TO LOVE HER”

“She’s insane,” Sir Alfred raged on. “She talks to fairies.
She lives in a dreamworld in that forest of yours”

MIDSUMMER EVE by Robert Edward Hughes c. 1908

An ecological Regency Romance is a rare thing.
Pippa Rathborne narrates Barbara Metzger’s
AN ENCHANTED AFFAIR,
which, like all good fairy stories, is rooted in reality, and infused with the author’s characteristic humour and compassion for people and animals.

No one believed, no one cared. Without that ancient forest, so full of history, so full of mystery, a bit more of the world’s magic would be lost.

A STREAM IN THE WOOD by Asher Brown Durand, 1865. Image: WGA

The audiobook of AN ENCHANTED AFFAIR by
Barbara Metzger, narrated by Pippa Rathborne
is available on Audible US, AUDIBLE UK,
Amazon and iTunes

Regency Superhero

He has a special power.
It is a curse as much as a gift. It must be kept secret.
The world is not ready for the truth.
Will he save the woman he loves from trial and execution in time?

“If you break that poor girl’s heart, I will tell the world you are a sorcerer,
a warlock, an aberration of evil, you and your father both.”

Truly Yours is the latest audiobook narrated by Pippa Rathborne
of one of Barbara Metzger’s Regency Romances, blending timeless comedy with fantasy.
In the best tradition of farce, the characters are recognizably human,
with the same needs and desires as our own, true to life.

“It is true! Not the way we had planned, but true!”

AVAILABLE NOW ON AUDIBLE US & UK

Charles William Vane-Stewart, 3rd Marquess of Londonderry by Sir Thomas Lawrence
oil on canvas, 1812 NPG © National Portrait Gallery, London

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

GREETINGS OF THE SEASON

“Let us try to forget for half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable ways of our fellowmen.”
Arthur Conan Doyle The Five Orange Pips

ESCAPE INTO THE ROMANTIC, FUNNY, HUMANE AND MAGICAL WORLD OF
BARBARA METZGER’S CHRISTMAS-THEMED NOVELLAS

AUDIOBOOK
READ BY PIPPA RATHBORNE

AVAILABLE TO DOWNLOAD FROM AUDIBLE, AMAZON AND ITUNES

“Please provide the world with more audiobook versions, please, please, please”
Daniela, a fan of Barbara Metzger‘s books

“Pippa: This is all you! You’re the one breathing so much life into the stories”
Jay Hartman, Editor-in-Chief, Untreed Reads Publishing

Click here to buy in UK

Click here to buy in FRANCE

Click here to buy in DE

click here to buy in USA

RELATED AND HIGHLY RECOMMENDED, AN OUTSTANDING COLLECTION OF
GHOST STORIES AND FANTASIES, THREADED WITH LOVE AND HUMOUR:

AN ENCHANTED CHRISTMAS

AND OTHER BOOKS BY BARBARA METZGER
READ BY PIPPA RATHBORNE

Winter Boucher, 1735. The Frick Collection, New York. Image: WGA

“To make a story live, you must live it yourself”
Noëlle Mackay Human Rites

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

Winter Magic

Winter by Boucher, 1735. Image: Wikipedia

AN ENCHANTED CHRISTMAS

Written by Barbara Metzger, read by Pippa Rathborne

The perfect anthology of ghosts, romances and fantasies to lighten the chilly winter darkness.

AN ANGEL FOR THE EARL

Written by Barbara Metzger, read by Pippa Rathborne

The sweetest love story ever imagined, set during the English Regency, combining fantasy and comedy, which will touch even the most cynical of hearts. A rare classic.

Skating couple, circa 1800

“The reason angels can fly is because they take themselves lightly.”
G.K. Chesterton

AN ANGEL FOR THE EARL

read by Pippa Rathborne

An Angel For The Earl is the most poignant of Metzger’s romances, a fantastical confection of screwball comedy, ghost story, Regency romp and country house mystery
with, at its heart, the wistful emotional truth of true love.

Listen, laugh and cry.

AUDIOBOOK AVAILABLE TO DOWNLOAD
ON AMAZON, AUDIBLE AND iTUNES

Fragonard Goddess Aurora Triumphing over Night 1755-56. Image: WGA

“Make friends with the angels, who though invisible are always with you. Often invoke them, constantly praise them, and make good use of their help and assistance in all your temporal and spiritual affairs.”
Saint Francis de Sales (1567 – 1622)

and, of course:

“Do you believe in fairies?….If you believe, clap your hands. Don’t let Tinkerbell die.”
J.M. Barrie Peter Pan (1904)

AUDIOBOOK AVAILABLE TO DOWNLOAD
ON AMAZON, AUDIBLE AND iTUNES