The English Regency period – about the year 1800, the age of Jane Austen and Napoleon – appeals to the fannish sense of whimsy. You don’t have to know the dances, I teach them. Come in costume, or come as you are. Want to read up? Try one of Georgette Heyer’s Regency romances. Patrick O’Brian’s sea stories about Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin are wonderful too. If you look at fanzines, you probably saw my article “The English Regency and Me” in Mimosa. I tried to explain. Really.
