I don't always post the premise of a book because too many reveal the plot, in this case the premise is important:
This is a guide book for the modern reader or writer of Regency Romance, compiled using largely primary sources. It covers how to get to Bath from London, where to stay, and most important, what to do when you get there. From where to shop to be properly arrayed for balls to where to gain knowledge even of the mysteries of Galvanism, what was on at the theatre and which music was being played between 1810 and 1820. Your fancy is for the races? Find out which horses won which races discover, who visited Bath, and where to walk out in agreeable parks. And if the city of pleasure is not enough, there were the beauties of nature and stately homes to be visited nearby.
Reviewed by Francine:
I purchased the paperback version on the simple basis kindle is not the best medium as resource material - images etc.
Straight off this is a truly invaluable source of information for authors of Georgian and Regency novels in terms of history and a solid base for authors to work from. Believe it, almost every aspect of life in 18th and 19th Century Bath is featured in this book. Where to shop, where to while an afternoon, who is who and what is what, and how much it would cost! Sarah Waldock has striven to provide the perfect guide not so much for authors, as a guide to the history of Bath, its finer side, and its bleaker side, all with sense of authority and knowledge of the city's layout. One cannot promote the worth of this book in fewer words, than to say it is excellent. Therefore, it is a must purchase for authors who are unfamiliar with Bath and all it once entailed, though not as a bible of thou shalt not!
Author's imaginations should not be quelled by this guide book or others of its ilk. Nor let us hope such will be used by ardent die-hard amateur historians (wannabes and Regency bonnets) who will like as not wack authors with critiquing sticks based on facts listed within the book. Nonetheless it is an excellent template to work from.
After all, fiction is fiction, and when a heroine wishes to set up a school for young ladies, a millinery shop, a music Academy, or a hero deigns to own a house that never existed or other on one of the main thoroughfares, the fact of the listed named proprietors, doctors, etc, need not deter fictional input, i. e. fictional characters equals fictional novels set against historical backdrops. Whilst historical input is paramount for sense of time and place, one also has to remember the lost houses and inns of England, once there but long since gone and replaced or renamed. Renaming of inns and streets was popular across the centuries.
Reviewer asides:
Why I say guides are guides not bibles for authors, because during the mid Georgian period 1743 to mid 1800s (Regency era), Sally Lunn's ovens were bricked up when it became a private residence, but it had previously thrived as a bun, pie, and coffee shop from 1600s to 1743. It was later reopened as a bun shop and tea rooms when, supposedly, a recipe was found hidden within a chimney during major renovations after a house fire. Can you imagine a recipe hidden up a chimney? But like everything business wise in a "tourist hot spot", a little myth and legend adds interest for the tourists! I've witnessed the history pages at Sally Lunn's changing across the years, and each time a little more is added for good measure as in any tested and tried recipe for success!
