When we first set up the Bluestocking Belles website, we had the idea to turn our blog into a gossip sheet, where we and other authors could spread gossip about characters from historical romances. The Teatime Tattler has now been going for six years, and this year it (or rather an unknown correspondent) plays a starring roll in our box set, Storm & Shelter.
In truth, as far as researchers can tell, newspapers totally devoted to scandal and gossip were a feature of 18th Century publishing, and reappeared in the 1820s. But in the Regency era, the antics of the upper classes were far more likely to be outed in cartoons posted in the windows of print shops, or in pamphlets devoted to a single story. Society news, and even scandal, does appear in the newspapers we have from those times, but in a column in amongst the war news, shipping news, reports on politics, weather reports, advertisements for everything under the sun, and all the rest.
That said, hundreds of papers came and went during the late Georgian period, from the end of the 18th Century to the ascension of Queen Victoria, so who knows?
Interested to know more?
- Town and Country reports on the real life Lady Whistledown.
- Bliss Bennet tells us about satirical prints in the Regency
- Maria Grace discusses what types of news appeared in the papers
- Regina Jeffers suggests reasons why the scandal sheets of the previous century might not have suited Regency tastes
Contest: Identify the Teatime Tattler Reporter
Guess the identity of the reporter snooping on the people trapped in the Queen’s Barque and the good people of Fenwick on Sea. You’ll find clues in the eight charming novellas in the collection Storm & Shelter.
All correct answers will be entered for the prizes listed below. The winners will be selected at random. Open internationally.
- Grand prize: $100 gift card
- Second: a made-to-order story by Jude Knight and Caroline Warfield
- Third: winner’s choice of an electronic copy of any of the earlier Bluestocking Belles’ collections.
The contest closes on 23rd April at midnight New York time, and prizes will be drawn on 24th April.