{"id":3660,"date":"2026-02-26T09:31:33","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T09:31:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianregency.com\/blog\/?p=3660"},"modified":"2026-02-26T09:31:33","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T09:31:33","slug":"regency-reference-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vanessariley.com\/blog\/2026\/02\/26\/regency-reference-books\/","title":{"rendered":"Regency Reference Books"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Walk down Memory Lane<\/p>

\"Fire<\/a><\/div>\n

by Ruth Axtell<\/p>\n

I was recently emptying out and cleaning a bookshelf, one that held my non-fiction. I realized that most of my reference books are books I\u2019ve acquired over the years (decades) to aid me in researching whichever story I happen to be working on at the time. They are grouped by subject, so they are like a roadmap of my writing career.<\/p>\n

\"Winter<\/a>For example, along half a shelf were books on Sephardic judiasm, judiasm in the first centuries A.D., synagogues across Europe, the formation of the Methodist church, and portraits of the great 18th<\/sup> century revival. These books cover the period when I researched and wrote my first-ever regency historical, Winter Is Past<\/a><\/i>, a love story between a Sephardic Jew in London and a Methodist nurse. Talk about star-crossed lovers.<\/p>\n

Another shelf has books on the history of the American sailing ship, piloting, seamanship, and small boat handling, for a historical romance I did about a wooden boatbuilder (Lilac Spring<\/a><\/i>).<\/p>\n

Getting back to regencies, here are some of my favorite reference books, which I collected \"The<\/a>in those years preceding Google: Quacks, Fakes and Charlatans in Medicine<\/i> (used primarily in researching The Healing Season<\/a><\/i>, a story about a surgeon in regency times); Moers\u2019 The Dandy<\/i> (great resource for information on Beau Brummell and all those who aped him);\u00a0 Colley\u2019s Britons<\/i>, for a general history of the nation; and The War of Wars<\/i>, a very thorough history of the Napoleonic wars. The Streets of London from the Great Fire to the Great Stink<\/i> is a detailed description of street life in regency London (which I also needed in writing The Healing Season<\/i>). The London Encyclopedia<\/i>, which I was fortunate to get used, is a wonderful resource on just about any geographic building and landmark in London and its environs. I used a 16th century mansion, Osterley Park, within a short train ride from the center of London, for the country estate of one of my characters in The Rogue\u2019s Redemption<\/a><\/i>. I was able to tour the place in person, but if I hadn\u2019t, there it is listed in The London Encyclopedia<\/i>, complete with a print of it on page 568.<\/p>\n

\"London<\/a>For a different kind of London residence, there\u2019s a print and entry for the Millbank Penitentiary, built in 1821. It was pulled down in 1903, so you need a reference like The London Encyclopedia<\/i> to pinpoint what buildings did and didn\u2019t exist in London 200 years ago. I set my first regency in Belgravia, until a critique partner pointed out to me that this London neighborhood had not begun to be developed until AFTER the regency. Oops! Thank goodness for sharp-eyed and knowledgeable critique partners.<\/p>\n

John Russell\u2019s London<\/i>, is another fun, fact-filled history of London and its various neighborhoods over the centuries.\"London\"<\/a><\/p>\n

For regency fashion, I have Ackerman\u2019s Costume Plates 1818-1828<\/i>, which has detailed prints of late-regency gowns.<\/p>\n

This is only a portion of my historical research books, which I don\u2019t pull down from the shelves so much anymore. These days it\u2019s easier to \u201cgoogle\u201d an item in question. But having read these books cover-to-cover at one time or another certainly gave me a more in-depth knowledge of the 19th<\/sup> century than just googling disjointed pieces of information would have.<\/p>\n

What are some of your favorite reference books for history?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"War<\/a><\/td>\n\"Streets<\/a><\/td>\n\"Ackerman's\"<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Originally posted 2014-01-20 10:00:00. <\/small><\/p>

\"Listen<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Walk down Memory Lane by Ruth Axtell I was recently emptying out and cleaning a bookshelf, one that held my non-fiction. I realized that most of my reference books are books I\u2019ve acquired over the years (decades) to aid me in researching whichever story I happen to be working on at the time. They […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,3,9,1,15],"tags":[565,365,369,368,364,367,366],"class_list":["post-3660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-history","category-recommended-reading","category-uncategorized","category-writing","tag-history","tag-london","tag-osterley-park","tag-regency-medicine","tag-regency-reference-books","tag-sephardic-judaism","tag-winter-is-past"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanessariley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanessariley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanessariley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanessariley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanessariley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3660"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/vanessariley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3660\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3687,"href":"https:\/\/vanessariley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3660\/revisions\/3687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanessariley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanessariley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanessariley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}