Sharon Lathan |Traveling Through Derbyshire With The Darcys

Oh how I wish I could share with you all my personal adventures walking and driving over the pastoral hills and valleys of Derbyshire, England. But, alas, that is not the case. Among the many challenges I faced in writing my sequel series to Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice was the fact that this American girl has never stepped foot in the United Kingdom. Research in all its myriad facets became a way of life as I undertook the task of revealing life as it would have been lived 200 hundred years ago in Regency England. On the top of the list was the necessity to know as much about Derbyshire as I possibly could. This, after all, is where Pemberley is located and the county that the Darcys would have called home for uncounted decades prior. I needed to visualize the landscape, smell the indigenous flowers, hear the rumble of the River Derwent, feel the breeze on my skin, etc.

Thank goodness for the internet with its wealth of maps, photographs, tourist websites, and historical articles. As I examined endless pages, I not only got a firm grip on what the land would have been like two centuries ago, I fell in love with the history. It was then that I decided Darcy was going to take his new wife on a tour of his ancestral shire. While Lizzy and Darcy explore old churches, ruined castles, bustling villages, and grand Manors, the reader goes along for the ride. I endeavored to make it fun and romantic as well as informative.

Now, you need to read the rest of Sharon’s post and possibly win! click here to continue…