No Cold Showers, Please, We're British: Elizabeth Chater's Regencies

In just a generation, the erotic content of romance fiction has gone from demure curtsies to Four Cold Showers, from Nothing Spoken to Anything Goes. How to explain, then, the eternal allure of the Regency Romance, which leaves all to the imagination, where everything you need to know about sex is conveyed through a glance or the flutter of a fan. The answer, I think, is that it's all about sexual tension, communicated through the impeccable manners and exquisitely nuanced conversation of civilized ladies and gentlemen. But if you think Regencies are quaint and "so yesterday," the fact is that readers just can't get enough of them.

Among the most popular Regency authors I know of is the late Elizabeth Chater. E-Reads has over a dozen, and though they are all hugely popular with fans, one of their favorites is The Elsingham Portrait.

You'll need no cold showers after reading Elizabeth Chater, yet you'll learn as much about what goes on behind closed doors as you would from the explicit sex scenes of a contemporary novel.

- Richard Curtis