I love writing historical romance, researching the backgrounds and working out
how my hero and heroine are going to resolve their dilemmas. Although the
majority of my books have Regency backgrounds, I have also used the English
Civil War, the Jacobite Rebellion, the building of the railways (
Working Man, Society
Bride) and the outcry for and against building the Crystal Palace in
Victoria's reign (
A
Desirable Husband). Romance can be found in the most unexpected places. For
instance, the conflict between Roland, the Earl of Amerleigh and Charlotte
Cartwright in
The Earl and
The Hoyden, just out in the UK, involves a quarrel over the ownership of a
Shropshire lead mine.
At the moment I am working on a series of linked books about
how law and order was (or was not) kept in Georgian times. There was no regular
police force and anyone who had been the victim of a crime had to find his own
way of bringing the perpetrators to justice. They frequently
used 'thieftakers', who had a bad reputation for being as bad as the thieves
themselves. These men would often track down a criminal, take his ill-gotten
gains from him and charge the real owner to restore them. Sometimes they even
tipped off the thieves and shared the profits. My heroes, all honest gentleman,
form a small group of private detectives, who are working to bring criminals to
justice, long before the phrase came to be used. In solving these mysteries,
each finds the love of his life.
My books are published in the UK first and later the American market. If you
would like to look at back titles, there is a list on my website:
www.marynichols.co.uk
Happy reading
Mary Nichols
© 2003-2026