Downton Abbey revisited.

Big article today in the New York Times about America's obsession with Downton Abbey and the excitement building up to the new series.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/12/business/media/mad-for-downton-publishers-have-a-reading-list.html?_r=1&hp   This is all great news for me and for other writers who set their novels in that milieu and that period. My heroine, Lady Georgiana, is related to the royal family, 34th in line to the throne and through the course of my stories she hangs out with royal kin at Buckingham Palace  She sees her cousin, the Prince of Wales, become hopelessly enamored of a dubious American woman called Mrs. Simpson. And because her mother was of lowly birth, she is also a keen observer of the gulf between the haves and have nots.

I suppose I can understand this current fascination with upper class Britain and the time between the wars--in many ways our current situation mirrors it. We have a clear gulf between rich and poor, we have a deep recession with many people losing their homes and a general feeing of uncertainty.. And the life of British aristocrats is so deliciously decadent and so far removed from most of us that we love to take a peek at it.

I have to say that I love to write about it. During my life I've had a chance to take my own peek into that lifestyle. My husband's family used to own stately homes (Sutton Place included, but that was before my time) but I have met older relatives who talk fondly about pranks they played on the butler and dinner parties for a hundred guests. And I have met people who firmly believe that that era has not passed and still think of the world as "them and us"--with other classes only being created by God for their use to the aristocracy.

So it's all great fun and of course my books have the added attraction of a murder or two thrown into the mix. If you haven't read them yet, do give them a try. The latest is Naughty in Nice in which Georgie tangles with a murderer, a jewel thief and Coco Chanel on the Riviera!

The King's Speech

I saw the King's Speech a few days ago. I thought it was wonderful.Of course I never need an excuse to see Colin Firth.. although I liked him better with his shirt all wet as Darcy... in fact he was obviously the inspiration for the male lead in my Lady Georgie series.

The movie, of course, was filled with characters with whom I'm very familiar.I found myself watching and thinking, " no, he didn't really say that." As if the character were a friend or relative-- someone I really knew rather than somebody I spend a lot of my time writing about. It's interesting how real our characters become to us.

In my books Mrs Simpson takes great delight in making fun of the then Duke of York for his horrible stammer, and criticises his wife at her lack of style.She calls her the dowdy duchess. Of course the Duchess made it quite clear that she disapproved of Mrs Simpson and that Mrs Simpson would never be one of them.
When the Prince of Wales abdicated, putting her husband on the throne instead,the new Queen Elizabeth never forgave Mrs Simpson--to the extent that she had never allowed Mrs Simpson back in the country not even for her husband's funeral.

But as I watched the movie I couldn't help thinking irrereverently, that it was a good thing the King George didn't have to use my speech programme. You see, the program types every single thing that I say. So if I stumble or repeat myself those words show up on the screen. And I didn't realise until now that I mutter to myself as well. So things like, "no that's not the right word--what do I want to say ? No don't type that. Oh bugger ,"show up with monotonous frequency in the middle of things I'm writing.

Hopefully I'll be back to typing a week or so.