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

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

No Charm Equal

There is no charm equal to tenderness of heart.
Jane Austen Emma

Timeless comedy, irresistible characters and true love unite in Barbara Metzger’s famously witty Regency fantasies read by Pippa Rathborne.

ALL TITLES ARE AVAILABLE TO DOWNLOAD. CLICK ON ICONS FOR LINKS TO FULL DETAILS AND AUDIO SAMPLES OF EACH BOOK.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PIPPA RATHBORNE ALSO NARRATES AUDREY HARRISON’S
PASSIONATE REGENCY ROMANCE

CLICK ON ICONS FOR LINKS TO FULL DETAILS AND AUDIO SAMPLES OF EACH BOOK,
ALL AVAILABLE TO DOWNLOAD ON AUDIBLE, ITUNES AND AMAZON
NARRATED BY PIPPA RATHBORNE

A Suspicious Affair

A SUSPICIOUS AFFAIR
BY BARBARA METZGER
READ BY PIPPA RATHBORNE

George Romney, Lady Anne Barbara Russell Image: WGA

The latest of Barbara Metzger’s Regency Romances to be published as an audiobook
is an amusing murder-mystery.
Metzger is a benign humorist who writes engaging, witty comedies, not chick lit or erotica, though bodices are ripped, occasionally, and the characters are full-blooded under their gorgeous period costumes.

Available to download on Audible, Amazon and iTunes

Death and Sex, elegantly dressed, eternally attracted: Johann Rudolf Schellenberg, Illustration from Freund Heins Erscheinungen in Holbeins Manier (1785)
Image: Gemmell Collection

The 18th Century’s flair for creepy elegance set the style of modern horror and detective stories, dressing primal terror in fashionable clothes and ambience.

Among other things (electricity, drag, the novel, consumerism, good taste, gay culture, mixed sex social clubs, the Fourth Estate, individual rights, nationalism, sugar and opium addiction, the United States) we owe our resort to irony and the cult of the self to our 18th century and Regency ancestors.

We wouldn’t be blogging or taking selfies without them. It’s not their fault that the child of Reason and Liberty didn’t mature well. It’s ours.

AUDIOBOOK NOW AVAILABLE TO BUY ON AUDIBLE, AMAZON AND iTUNES

Saved by Scandal

Saved by Scandal
(Signet Regency Romance)
by Barbara Metzger,
read by Pippa Rathborne

AUDIOBOOK now available worldwide on Amazon, Audible and iTunes

The Enduring Appeal of Regency Romance
by Pippa Rathborne
Part One
Part Two
Part Three

Love’s true kiss, slapstick and a wandering corpse

The darker the times, the lighter the entertainments.

LADY WHILTON’S WEDDING
by Barbara Metzger,
read by Pippa Rathborne

AUDIOBOOK now available worldwide on Amazon, Audible and iTunes

Portrait of Lieutenant General the Hon. Sir Charles Stewart, K.B., in hussar uniform by Sir Thomas Lawrence.
The 1814 ‘Londonderry’ version of Lawrence’s portrait of the future 3rd Marquess of Londonderry, wearing the medal he was awarded for service as a commander in the Peninsular War.
Lawrence was the visual propagandist of Regency romance and glamour. He gave all his sitters the gloss of celebrity makeovers,
and made every portrait look like a love affair in paint. Image: Wikipedia

Other titles by Barbara Metzger read by Pippa Rathborne, available to buy and download on Amazon, Audible and iTunes:

A PERFECT GENTLEMAN
AN ENCHANTED CHRISTMAS

The Enduring Appeal of Regency Romance
explained by Pippa Rathborne
Part One
Part Two
Part Three

Where today can you find

a perfect gentleman?

by BARBARA METZGER
read by PIPPA RATHBORNE

Regency Romance, screwball comedy, erotic thriller, gothic murder mystery – ‘Anything Goes’ in Barbara Metzger’s novel, A Perfect Gentleman, a timeless entertainment starring a glamorous, red-haired proto-feminist banker and her aristocratic blond bodyguard – now available worldwide as an audiobook.

Kersting Paar am Fenster (Couple at the Window) c. 1815. Image: Wikipedia

Charm as commodity

An actor of over 50 years’ experience remarked to me the other day, after we’d rolled our eyes at all those Old Etonians monopolizing the best acting parts: “They teach charm at Eton”. 

Charm in this mechanical, acquired manifestation is not unattainable by the poor. Centuries ago, penniless actors imitated aristocratic manners until they played the part so well, the aristocrats paid the actors for lessons.

Charm could be included on every school syllabus, and blow apart the edifice of privilege. It is simply the art of persuasion. It is social confidence, the suspension of disbelief in being denied your will, the unabashed enunciation of words and the twinkling in your eyes when you ask a man or woman to do the last thing they want to do. It makes the coquette indistinguishable from the bully.

Eton, the cradle of entitlement, is the new “Company of Youth”, the notorious Charm School of the Rank Organization in the 1940s and 50s.

So now the rich, privileged boys and girls whose ancestors used to show off in country house theatricals are masquerading as rogues and vagabonds and putting poor actors out of business.

The poster boy for subversive aristocratic charm was not an Etonian; like Winston Churchill, Byron was an Old Harrovian

Travel through time by clicking here for A HISTORY OF REGENCY ROMANCE written by Pippa Rathborne

For most women, the competitive marriage market, for all its humiliations and disappointments, was the lesser of two evils, the other being poverty. It was very like modern film and theatre casting (who’s related to whom, who’s got big money and connections and the most powerful agent/matchmaker behind them….).

Lord Byron understood the modern concept of publicity and exercised hard to perfect his public image

It’s all fake – a theatrical illusion, charming on the outside, an “antiqued” commodity. Nostalgia for period Romance and the mythical Perfect English Gentleman is as popular as ever, answering an atavistic patriarchal need whether we like it or not:

AVAILABLE TO BUY ON AUDIBLE, AMAZON AND iTUNES: THE AUDIO VERSION OFA Regency Romance by Audrey Harrison

read by Pippa Rathborne

AVAILABLE ON AUDIBLE, AUDIBLE UK, AMAZON AND iTUNES

LISTEN TO THE RETAIL SAMPLE AND BUY THE CAPTAIN’S WALLFLOWER HERE
or FREE with Audible Trial

A HISTORY OF REGENCY ROMANCE written by Pippa Rathborne

 

Regency Romance

THE CAPTAIN’S WALLFLOWER
A Regency Romance by Audrey Harrison
read by Pippa Rathborne

AVAILABLE ON AUDIBLE, AUDIBLE UK, AMAZON AND iTUNES

LISTEN TO THE RETAIL SAMPLE AND BUY THE CAPTAIN’S WALLFLOWER HERE
or FREE with Audible Trial

The irresistible posthumous charm of the Regency still launches a thousand fictions and fashions today, from home interiors and garden porches to high waisted dresses and slim fit trousers.

On the Threshold by Edmund Blair Leighton, 1900. Image: Wikipedia

Darcy declaring his love to an astonished Elizabeth in one of C.E. Brock’s elegant pen and ink illustrations to the 1895 edition of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.