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

Mourning becomes her

 Regency Fashion Plate of woman and child in Mourning Metropolitan Museum of Art

‘What was one more opinion about the future of European politics
compared to the fate of two little boys?’

The audiobook version of Barbara Metzger’s celebration of adoption and stepfamily love,
a precious gift wrapped inside a Regency Romance, narrated by Pippa Rathborne

FATHER CHRISTMAS

Now available on Audible UK, Audible US, Amazon and iTunes,

“That’s the best present of all! It’s one of my Christmas wishes come true!”

LISTEN TO PIPPA RATHBORNE ON AUDIBLE

‘Even the longest journey comes to an end except, perhaps, the journey to self-awareness.’ Barbara Metzger

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.

The mightier weapon

There is a deadly epidemic.

Miss Rosellen Lockharte was dying...
Rosellen wrote Last Will and Testament across the top of a clean page. Then she stopped to think….
She’d write letters instead.

ANOTHER OF BARBARA METZGER’S ENCHANTING COMEDIES
NARRATED BY PIPPA RATHBORNE
AVAILABLE ON AUDIBLE, AMAZON AND iTUNES

My dear Susan, I might never have had a beau or a babe
or seen a balloon ascension,
but I did have a friend.

“Pippa Rathborne is pitch perfect”
A listener’s review on Audible, May 11th, 2022

Lady Wallace in Bridgerton

As Lady Wallace in Bridgerton, Season 2, Episode 6 “The Choice” 2022

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

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

The Reluctant Interviewee

“What have you been doing?”

By far the hardest part to act is being yourself. I have never been convinced that actors and writers should have to talk about themselves. While there is at least one actor refusing to wear a mask during the pandemic, some of us prefer to keep our masks on. It feels safer and more polite.

In a recent video interview about the impact of lockdown on my work, there was no need to say that I have been separated from a hairdresser for over a year.

The featured image is: Woman holding a mask and a pomegranate
by Lorenzo Lippi, c.1650,
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Angers