Saturday, February 16, 2013

My Valentine to Walker and Company


by Maureen Osborne


It was an aimless transitional time for me, neither married nor divorced. I spent long hours wandering through the Strand Bookstore and my local library. On these meandering visits I would choose books at random. If the book’s spine looked interesting I would take the book home.
Then I came across a spine that I had not seen before with the logo that appears here. Walker and Company in the 1980s published many Regency romances by authors such as Jacqueline Diamond and Clare Darcy. On this particular day, it was Carola Dunn’s “Lavender Lady” published by Walker in 1983.

It was a wonderful, tender story about the rambunctious Godric family whose eldest half-sister, Hester, acted as matriarch to 2 girls and 3 boys. The story opens with a crash, literally, when a London buck is thrown from his curricle after his two showy horses are spooked by the Godric’s family dog. As we watch David and Hester fall in love as the family careens around them, a secret will break them apart until misunderstandings are mended. I started and finished the book in a day, and then read it again.

After that, I looked everywhere for the logo. Not caring who the author was, just knowing that it would be a Regency romance that I had to read, like “The Earl & The Heiress”, published in 1982 and found at the Strand for $2.00.

Barbara Metzger’s hero, the Earl of Wrenthe is beleaguered by a comely country miss who raises Maltese puppies as she tries to launch her beautiful, yet naïve sister Ferne into society. When the Earl gives a puppy to his paramour, he watches in dismay as Ferne seeing the woman in the park, corrects her in how to hold a puppy. When Noelle finds out, sparks will fly and of course they fall in love.

As I searched for more Walker books, I found others publishers and their authors. It was not long before my life had purpose again.


Maureen Osborne, who writes as Alison Bourne, is currently working on a multi-cultural historical romance mystery.

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for the great post, Maureen. What an inspirational story about finding what you need in what appears to be an unusual place.

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