Powder and Patch by Georgette Heyer

When I was a girl we had a family Saturday tradition. We'd get up, do the supermarket shopping and head into town to visit the market and run our errands. The last thing would be to go to WH Smiths (opposite Windsor Castle and I never failed to gasp as I came out, the view is breathtaking) to spend my pocket money.

Often I was in the middle of a series so I'd run over and pick up the next book, or I'd have a quick browse and find something that appealed, then go over and join the queue. That's when I'd start to read. I remember that at one time i got 20p (per week) and a book was 17.5p and a packet of crisps was 2.5p. (yes, I'm that old!) which did me nicely. I'd read during the 5 minute journey home in the car. With reluctance I'd put my book down while we did our chores (putting away the shopping and a quick tidy round of the house which was always tidy being a home run along military lines).

Then there would be sandwiches and coffee for lunch and we'd all settle down to read our new books. Yes, I come from a family of bookworms. Inevitably I'd finish mine very early, and having read all of my own books was always looking to read something belonging to my parents. For some reason I picked up the Louis L'amour cowboy books - both my parents read them avidly - in preference to my mum's vast collection of Georgette Heyer Regency romances. To this day I can't think why - she even made me a beautiful rag doll (with the most gorgeous embroidered face) with three Regency style dresses (and long drawers and lacy petticoat). We called her Venetia after one of the best of the Heyer novels. (My brother got her companion, the rather dashing Captain Brady. I still have mine, but I have no idea what happened to his)

Anyway, what this is leading up to is that at the time I wasn't older than 11, as after that I was at boarding school visiting Middle Earth regularly and devouring the James Bond books in preparation for my later career. And it took me about 30 years to cotton on to the fact that Georgette Heyer's Regency novels are easily - VERY EASILY - as good, if not better than, anything Jane Austen and her contemporaries published.

In my OCD way I've decided now to go back and read her novels in Published Order which means I'll be re-reading (and maybe reviewing) some of her best work. (yaay. They are: The Toll Gate, Bath Tangle, the aforementioned Venetia and the most marvellous An Infamous Army. A Lady of Quality I've already covered in this blog.)

This is another Regency Romance. And typically the two main protagonists are introduced early on. There's none of that guessing who will end up with whom nonsense here - the only question is how will it happen?

From the blurb.

"Philip Jettan's father wanted him shown the ways of women, the pleasures of society, the joys of gaming, the art of fashion and the clash of steel. The lovely and wilful Cleone wanted gaity and frivolity - and a man to match any with word or sword. Paris was the perfect backdrop for Philip's transformation - and Miss Cleone's education..."

And that's all you get. If you want to know more: read the novel for yourself!