05 Regency Christmas [Paperback]

"The Rake's Christmas" by Edith Layton is the poignant story of a young man, back from the Peninsular wars, saddened and a little self loathing, who throws himself into some half-hearted rakery in order to put the wars behind him. He is taken up by a truly accomplished rake, Lord Shelton. During a Christmas house party, the elder rake plays deus ex machina to young Ian, Viscount Hunt in order to bring him together with Miss Eve Thompkins. Eve is the daughter Shelton never had - the offspring of his true life-long secret and unrequited love. So, he stands in an almost fatherly way over Hunt, helping him to overcome his sombre loneliness and sad boyhood in making a match for him and Eve. Edith Layton is a favourite of mine and she packs a lot of emotion into just a few short pages.

Jo Beverley is a writer whose books I have been collecting with the aim of indulging myself. Why she and Layton and Balogh are not published in the UK is beyone my comprehension - such a shame! I was delighted with her contribution to this anthology. "A Mummer's Play" is the story of Col "Lucky Jack" Beaufort, by default the new Duke of Cranmoore. Justina Travers lost her fiance in the Peninsula when he was under the command of his close friend, Jack. Justina has some reason to suspect that Cranmoore may have been a traitor and, therefore, the cause of her fiance's death. She insinuates herself into Jack's first Christmas house party as the new duke by hiding herself amongst the mummers who come to perform. Her aim is to expose him as a traitor and murderer. The story takes place during the course of just one evening and, in just a few intense, emotional pages, Jo Beverley brings an almost unbearably high degree of tension and emotion as these two lonely, hurt but passionate people find an extraordinary and unexpected love and mutual redemption. Simply excellent.

Mary Balogh's contribution is, as always, as near to perfection as you can get. Hers is the story of three young orphaned children whose wastrel parents largely ignored them. Their maternal uncle, Viscount Morsey, and paternal aunt, Lady Carlyle, reluctantly leave London to come to the depths of the countryside to "do their duty" and make some half-hearted provision for their upbringing. It emerges that the two adults were once engaged but huge family problems, anger and recriminations tore them apart. The story is largely told through the eyes of the children and the theme of the story, as Lady Carlyle discovers, is that Christmas is about birth, parenthood, love, hope and commitment. In the context of this very brief piece, all five players find themselves turned into a loving family. Mary Balogh is pure magic. She writes such poignant, moving and emotional stories which are refined to pure gold. Wonderful.

Do find yourself a second hand copy of this anthology; reading it is simply a pleasure worth the effort.