Grosvenor Square in the Regency and Jane Austen and Ghosts

History

The location of the lord or ladies home in London is always something I spend time over. And each time I then research the square I use or re-research it. I have used Grosvenor Square a few times as well as others.

As Grosvenor Square was built during the Georgian era, setting it as the location of our heroes or heroines seems apropos. As the houses around the square were also rebuilt in the 20th century to look neo-Georgian, this too adds to its mystique as the setting for our leading characters. But last we have the fact that it truly was a square that the rich and influential lived around in period that lends itself to be home to our fictitious characters as well.

The square has long been one of the three or four most fashionable addresses in London, so obviously a place to plant one of or more of our Regency Lords or Ladies.

Sir Richard Grosvenor received a licence to develop the square in 1710 and began to do so by 1721. Houses along the square were built to five or seven bays width, and behind all the sides of the square were a mews.

Notable residents of the square in the Regency era that I write in would be the 11th Earl of Derby at number 23. His daughter married Gentleman Johnny Burgoyne, the General who surrendered his army to Benedict Arnold and General Gates at Saratoga in 1777 and one of the many examples where we have 'For Want of a Nail.'

For want of a nail the shoe was lost.

For want of a shoe the horse was lost.

For want of a horse the rider was lost.

For want of a rider the message was lost.

For want of a message the battle was lost.

For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.

And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

This was also the home to his son, the 12th Earl of Derby whose wife was an actress. (And after the war Gentleman Johnny of course indulged his own acting chops!)

Another very famous inhabitant of the square in the era leading up to the Regency is John Adams, while he was the first american ambassador to England. It established a long practice of an american presence at the square.

Another inhabitant of the Square near the Regency era was Thomas Raikes, author of the "Journal." #29 was the home to the Earl of Harrowby.

Interview

Once again I was Interviewed, this time at J.A. Beard's Unnecessary Musings. I have been interviewed a few times these last months. I will provide here the post of that interview for your entertainment in the next blog. Though please click on the hyperlink and have a visit at JA's site.

Jane Austen and Ghosts

The Kindle version has been out since last week. It is also available now at Barnes and Noble for your Nook, or at Smashwords. The iTunes edition should be available in the next few days and the proof copy of the trade paperwork is on its way so it will be available physically in print as well in a short while

You can purchase your copy today at Amazon for $4.99. Or you can purchase at Smashwords, or at Barnes and Noble.

New this week is the availability on the iBookstore for your iPad, and in Trade Paperback. I uploaded all of that yesterday and though it may take a few days to become available, you will have access to this by the end of the weekend, I am sure. The Trade Paperback is now available for $8.99 US and of course available in other currencies for other countries based on that US price. Digital versions across all platforms are $4.99.

Click here to be taken to the webpage on Amazon

A brief synopsis of the story:

In the world of moviemaking, nothing is as golden as rebooting a classic tale that has made fortunes every time before when it has been adapted for the silver screen. Certainly any work by Jane Austen made into a movie will not only be bankable, but also considered a work of art.

That is of course until the current wave of adaptations that unite her classic stories with all the elements of the afterlife is attempted to be created. That these have found success in the marketplace amongst book lovers may not be quite understood by those who make movies. But that they are a success is understood and a reason to make them into movies.

All that being said, perhaps it would also be fair to say that the very proper Jane, were she present to have anything to say about it, would not be pleased. Of course she has been away from this Earth for nearly 200 hundred years. But does that mean were she upset enough, she wouldn't come back?

Ellis Abbot found stories for tinseltown to make into movies. His most recent find were the batch of stories set in the regency world of Jane Austen. Jane Austen and Monsters.

Meeting with the various authors of those works, it did not seem that Ellis could get one coherent plot of script out of any of them. At least not until he got help from the best source of all.