Wednesday, November 16, 2005

The Reluctant Governess


Books by Georgette Heyer have been my comfort reading since I was a girl. THE RELUCTANT GOVERNESS is by way of being a homage to her. I love the way her heroines always have a fault – not a bad one, usually something quite endearing – so I decided to make Belinda’s besetting sin jumping to wrong conclusions. This gave me some interesting and sometimes amusing situations.

I enjoy the interaction in families, so I set Belinda, an only child, in the midst of a warm loving family, and watched her cope with the scrapes her charges and their brothers got into, and got her into. I always have an animal in my books, so I added an enchanting puppy to the mix.

I set the book in Suffolk as I live in East Anglia. At the time of the story, 1812, smuggling was rife along the coast so I added that in as another ingredient.

Pamela Cleaver

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

My favorite Georgette Heyer by far is Frederica. Not only is the heroine such an indominable woman, but the children are absolutely wonderful. So many times children are either cloying or impossible, but the boys are a great pair--and Charis is loveable. The greatest part of Frederica, however, is the Alpha Male who ends up acting like his family wants just because Frederica is the only one who doesn't ask him to act that way and is surprised and grateful each time he does something kind. It's a delightful book--to my mind the "perfect" Regency.