Extras: Mea Culpa
I make mistakes all the time. But my wonderful readers catch them within hours of publication. I love hearing about them (and we do fix them in future editions), so if you find any mistakes not yet listed, please contact me!
Mea Culpa, Duchess in Love
Kylie pointed out that on page 127, Gina is waiting with “ill-concealed patience” for Annie’s return. That should be impatience—though wouldn’t it say nice things about Gina’s personality if she were so patient that she couldn’t even conceal it? And Kylie caught another one too: On page 309, Gina thinks anxiously that she could have already […]
Read More →Mea Culpa, Pleasure for Pleasure
Gladys wrote with the dismal truth: Josie is another of my time-travelling characters. The truth is that she ought to be 17 in Pleasure for Pleasure, based on being 15 in Much Ado About You. 17! I couldn’t countenance it when I came to write her story, though it certainly would have been historically appropriate for a […]
Read More →Mea Culpa, The Taming of the Duke
Alas, I had a few particularly egregious errors in this book, and they’re of a nature I recognize, because my children hate being called by each other’s names: Imogen and Annabel switch places a few times. So many astute readers pointed out these particular errors that I won’t award the find to any particular reader. […]
Read More →Mea Culpa, Kiss Me, Annabel
Oops, I forgot to give poor Ewan a birthdate! Lovely reader Jacquie did the math and decided he must have been born in 1784. Stephanie notes that on page 209 Griselda stares down at Mayne with “all the arrogance of an elder sister.” Of course – as is made clear many times elsewhere – Griselda […]
Read More →Mea Culpa, Much Ado About You
Cherie wrote from England to point out a hideous historical error: on page 286, Lucius describes a portrait of three “children of a roundhead cavalier.” Well, the Roundheads and the Cavaliers were on opposite sides during the English Civil War! And that war took place between 1642 and 1651, so the children would definitely not be wearing […]
Read More →Mea Culpa, A Kiss at Midnight
Katharine wrote me to point out that her (Greek) husband just confirmed that “didascalos” is Greek for teacher, not student. I got the word straight from MY (non-Greek) husband, who when confronted with this terrible truth, looked guilty and said: “pupil, teacher, it’s practically the same thing.” Snort.
Read More →Mea Culpa, A Duke of Her Own
A reader named Khiah wrote me a very sweet note with regard to my mention of Sir Roland being knighted at Buckingham Palace. First problem: at this point it was known as Buckingham House; it didn’t become Buckingham Palace until Queen Victoria moved in. Second problem: the official residence was still St. James’s Palace, and […]
Read More →Mea Culpa, When the Duke Returns
Isidore wanders into the garden, where a blackthorn tree “was scattering seeds everywhere, like a child feeding birds in a dizzying circle.” Philip wrote me from England with the following observation: “Blackthorn may be a tree with seeds in North America, but in the U.K. it is a bush, commonly found in hedgerows. It does […]
Read More →Mea Culpa, Duchess By Night
Juliette pointed out that Monsieur Bonnier de la Mosson (whose collection of curiosities is mentioned on page 175) is a Mosson, not a Moson. Piper realized that on page 30, Villiers is talking about Harriet’s courage in wearing a nightgown and carrying a goose, and yet (very goosishly) he refers to her by Isidore’s title, […]
Read More →Mea Culpa, Desperate Duchesses
Frances pointed out that the Prince of Wales would be addressed as Your Royal Highness. Your Majesty is reserved for kings and queens. Now don’t forget that – as my mother used to say, when I wouldn’t eat broccoli, you never know when you’ll be invited to Buckingham Palace. Manners are important! Mpgis3 discovered that […]
Read More →Mea Culpa, Midnight Pleasures
Do you know what the bugbear of historical novelists is? Titles! Lord Pillypettle and Lady Sillytrisket, the Duke of Coddswillow and the Marquess of Biddle, or is it Marquess Biddle? Or should he be known by his proper name, Lord Jinglebutt? Those pesky things are impossible to understand and I constantly get them wrong. Constantly! […]
Read More →Mea Culpa, To Wed a Rake
Darn it, it seems that Emma’s home county ended up as Hertfordshire. It’s supposed to be Herfordshire (minus the ‘t’). Apparently there is a Herefordshire as well, but that’s closer to Wales. Sigh. “All her Christmas presents rolled into one.” But did they have Christmas presents before Prince Albert’s time? I admit to being unsure, […]
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