Nicola Cornick's Blog, page 37

Christmas at the Country House!

Today I am Rita's guest blogging over at Not Another Romance Blog on Christmas in the Country House! Please join me to explore old customs and celebrations, to hear what the Ashdown antlers look like decorated with tinsel and to win a copy of Mistress By Midnight!

©2010 Nicola Cornick. All Rights Reserved.

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A Bridge Too Far?

This is the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol in the South West of England. The idea of a bridge spanning the Avon River Gorge took shape in 1754 when William Vick, a local wine merchant, left £1000 in his will to be invested until the sum had grown sufficiently to pay for a bridge to be built. The investment matured and in 1829 a competition was arranged to design a bridge. There were 22 designs submitted but all of them were rejected by the judge, Thomas Telford, one of the greatest engineers of the day. Telford was subsequently asked to submit his own design, which was accepted by the trustees. However this decision was not well received, given that Telford had been the contest judge, and so a second design competition was staged. Isambard Kingdom Brunel was declared the winner in 1831 and it is his bridge that spans the Avon Gorge today. What only emerged recently however, discovered in some family papers, was that Brunel ran his design past his engineer father, Marc Isambard Brunel, who told him that it would be impossible to build such a bridge in a single span. Sir Marc put forward his own alternative design, which features a 300 foot Chinese pagoda to support the bridge in the centre. "You should do it like this," he said in one letter, including the drawing. The Asian influence on architecture and design was particularly strong at the time but Isambard decided to ignore his father's advice. His own bridge features two 86 foot towers at each side with chains that hold the bridge up. It's been standing since 1864 – one imagines that if Sir Marc and indeed Isambard himself had been alive to see it completed, the son might have been tempted to turn to his father and say: "I told you so!"

Do you think a 300 foot pagoda would have looked good in the centre of the bridge or do you prefer Isambard's version?

©2010 Nicola Cornick. All Rights Reserved.

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Regency Recipe of the Week – Chestnut Biscuits

This week I tried a new recipe – pasta with chestnuts and bacon. It was delicious, sweet and salt and very seasonal and warming, and I had half a packet of chestnuts left over so I had a look in my historical recipe books for something to do with them and came up with Antonin Careme's Small Chestnut Biscuits.

Antonin Careme was for a time the Prince Regent's own chef and you can read all about him in Ian Kelly's biography Cooking For Kings.

Roast 36 chestnuts in the cinders (or in my case buy them already cooked!), clean them and pound together six ounces of the chestnuts with two ounces of butter until the mixture is so fine it can be passed through a sieve.  Mix together four ounces of flour and three ounces of pounded sugar. Make a hollow in the middle and add two ounces of fresh butter, the chestnut mixture, an egg and a pinch of salt. Form into a smooth paste. Make them into rounds the size of a walnut and lay them on a buttered baking tray.  Glaze with an egg. Brown in a medium oven then crisp them up in a slow oven.

Eat warm with a cup of tea and enjoy!

©2010 Nicola Cornick. All Rights Reserved.

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Harlequin Open House!

Today it is Open House Party time over on the e-Harlequin website. Join me and lots of other authors and readers here to celebrate Christmas and for the chance to win a whole Christmas hamper full of books!

©2010 Nicola Cornick. All Rights Reserved.

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A Cad and a Bounder

I have just typed the word "cad" in my current manuscript, knowing it is anachronistic, but needing a word to describe a downright blackguard. Up until recently I thought the word "cad" was contemporary with the Regency period but I read just the other day that it was only coined after 1830. This knowledge came courtesy of the wonderful Jenny Haddon who in 2002 took us on a splendid Georgette Heyer Walk around London, visiting many of the sites mentioned in the books and throwing in plenty of other riveting aspects of Regency history as well.

The term "cad" then originally attached to Prince Felix Schwarzenburg who seduced Jane Digby when she was married to Lord Ellenborough, got her pregnant, took her off to Paris in 1830 and abandoned her.  He was apparently nicknamed "Cad" after his horse "Cadlands" and as the first cad gave his name to a scoundrel's behaviour. I read about Jane Digby in Mary Lovell's The Scandalous Life of Jane Digby. She was quite a woman. Her first affair was apparently with her cousin, whom she believed to be the natural father of her first son. After Schwarzenburg left her she had affairs with Ludwig I of Bavaria and Baron Von Vennigen, whom she subsequently married. She then took as her lover the Greek Count Theotokis and after him the Greek King Otto. She moved on to an Albanian general but walked out on him when he was unfaithful to her. She ended up marrying a sheikh who was twenty years her junior and lived happily with him until her death twenty eight years later.

The other word one sometimes c0mes across in romance books to describe a scoundrel is bounder. As far as I know it does not have such an interesting derivation as cad and is well and truly a late Victorian word, being coined first in about 1889 to describe someone who is outside the "bounds" of accepted society. It later came to have the connotation of a social climber as well, someone who was not of the first rank in society but was trying to "bound" up the social scale.

So back to the manuscript and the word blackguard, which dates from the 1520s although its original meaning is obscure, and scoundrel (1580). Interestingly the picture that came up when I put the word "scoundrel" into a Google image search is Han Solo, so here he is! Can anyone suggest any other words for a Regency villain? Or indeed any other scoundrels like Han Solo for whom we have a soft spot?

©2010 Nicola Cornick. All Rights Reserved.

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Word Wench Giveaway!

Today on the Word Wenches I am in conversation with historical author Susan Fraser King discussing her new release, Queen Hereafter, a novel of Margaret of Scotland. If you enjoy Scottish history, a beauty and the beast fairy tale love story and a wonderfully authentic background and setting, then this is the book for you! Susan is offering a signed copy of the hardcover version of Queen Hereafter to one commenter so come along over and join the conversation.

Meanwhile on the Read It Forward site there is the chance to win three sets of books donated by all the Word Wenches – award winning authors Jo Beverley, Mary Jo Putney, Joanna Bourne, Anne Gracie, Susan Fraser King, Cara Elliott, Patricia Rice - and myself! That's three sets of eight books! And on the  Word Wench site itself there is the opportunity to win a fourth set of books, simply by commenting on one of our December blog posts. Don't miss this chance to give yourself a big New Year gift!! Good luck!

©2010 Nicola Cornick. All Rights Reserved.

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Blog Winner!

Monty has chosen Jayne as the winner of the Christmas soaps and the backlist book! Congratulations Jayne and thank you very much to everyone who contributed their Santa wishlist! Have a great day, everyone, and I hope that St Nicholas brings you the gifts you desire!

©2010 Nicola Cornick. All Rights Reserved.

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St Nicholas Day Blog Giveaway!

Tomorrow, 6th December, is the feast day of St Nicholas, the saint who became synonymous with Father Christmas. To celebrate St Nicholas' generosity in giving away sweets and small gifts to children, I am giving away a very pretty set of three soaps that I picked up on my recent holiday in Wales. One soap is decorated with flecks of gold, a second is scented with frankincense and a third is perfumed with myrrh. In addition I am offering a backlist book of choice to the winner of the blog contest. You can read all about my backlist here and the winner can choose any book that he/she would like.  And my question to you is – what would you like Santa to deliver for you this year?

The blog contest will run until Wednesday of this week (December 8th) and will be drawn as usual by Monty the dog using his tried and tested biscuit method. Good luck!

Tomorrow I will also be blogging at SOS Aloha with Laurel McKee so please do drop by to say hello!

©2010 Nicola Cornick. All Rights Reserved.

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The Scandalous Women of the Ton

Firstly an enormous THANK YOU to all my readers for being such a wonderful bunch of people, for buying my new series, sending me such lovely emails and commenting on my blog. Mistress By Midnight has followed One Wicked Sin into the Bookscan chart this week and I am hugely grateful. It warmed up my week as I sit here shivering in minus temperatures!

A number of people have asked whether the Scandalous Women of the Ton is a trilogy or a longer series. I'm very happy to confirm that it is a six book series with books 4 and 5 out next year and book 6 in 2012.  Notorious, Book 4, will be out in August 2011. Desired, Book 5 will follow in December 2011. There will be lots of information on the new books coming soon to the website but in the meantime, here is a sneak preview.

Notorious tells the story of Susanna Burney, the Ton's most infamous heartbreaker, and James Devlin, the rake who broke her heart years before. When Susanna sets her sights on the man Dev's sister plans to marry, Dev will stop at nothing to thwart her plans. Between them, the rake and the seductress will set the Ton alight with scandal!

Desired is Tess Darent's story. Tess, the beautiful sister of Joanna, Lady Grant, has already been married and widowed four times and is rumoured to wear out her husbands in the bedroom! Now Tess is looking for husband number five and only one man is brave enough to step forward – dashing American sea captain Owen Purchase. Owen has known his share of adventure and has courted many beautiful women but will he be able to tame Tess?

Watch out for the covers, the blurbs and lots of extras coming to the website in the New Year! I very much hope that you will enjoy the continuing story of the scandalous women!

©2010 Nicola Cornick. All Rights Reserved.

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Blogging Update!

Yes, the UK is under the snow, giving me an opportunity to post a photo of my favourite historic house looking gorgeous as ever in the seasonal weather (see below!)

For those of you who would like to get into the festive spirit, Laurel McKee and I have posted a blog about Regency Christmas Customs at The Season! I loved the research for this one, reading through the diaries of people like William Holland the Somerset vicar, who complained of being woken at 5am on Christmas morning by the village carol -singers still drunk from the night before!

 The Ashdown House blog has also been reborn at the request of the National Trust who will be linking to it from the new Ashdown House web page. The AHB is the place where I explore lots of snippets of Ashdown and Craven history so if you love historic houses and would like to show your support for this stunningly beautiful house, come along and follow the blog! As an extra incentive, for all those fans of Prince Rupert of the Rhine out there (and I know there are lots of us!) I will be blogging about him, with pictures, fairly frequently!

©2010 Nicola Cornick. All Rights Reserved.

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