Elizabeth Keysian

Few settings are more romantic than a candlelit ballroom filled with masked dancers. During the Regency, masquerades still carried an irresistible reputation for glamour, secrecy and just a hint of danger. Although their greatest popularity had been in the previous century, fashionable society continued to delight in these enchanting entertainments.

Guests arrived wearing domino cloaks and elaborate masks, often accompanied by costumes inspired by mythology, history or exotic lands. It took me...

Without giving away too many spoilers, the principal villains in Lyon on the Loose committed a catalogue of offences that would have attracted the attention of the authorities. Depending on the evidence available, they could have faced charges including fraud, conspiracy, theft, assault and the unlawful taking of a carriage.

The Regency legal system was far harsher than that of the modern day. England was still living under the notorious "Bloody Code", when more than two hundred offences...

One of the inspirations behind Mundlingham Castle in Lyon on the Loose was Stokesay Castle in Shropshire: not quite a castle in the military sense, but something perhaps even more intriguing—a fortified medieval house.

Set in a peaceful valley near the Welsh border, Stokesay is one of the best-preserved fortified manor houses in England. Most of what visitors see today was built in the late thirteenth century by Laurence of Ludlow, a wealthy wool merchant who bought the manor in 1281. His...