Everyone begins with Austen, and rightly so. But she wrote six novels and then, most inconsiderately, died. The happy news is that two centuries of writers have been keeping the candles lit ever since. Allow me to introduce a few of the people whose books line my own shelves.

Georgette Heyer, who built the house we live in

If Austen is the period, Heyer is the genre. Writing from the 1920s onward, she more or less invented Regency romance as a thing one could love on purpose: the slang, the curricles, the impossible aunts, the heroes who drawl and the heroines who refuse to be cowed. Her research was famously meticulous and worn very lightly, which is the whole trick. Start with Frederica or The Grand Sophy and you will understand at once why every author since has been, in some fashion, writing in conversation with her.

Barbara Metzger, the wit of the ballroom

Now we come to my own favourites among the living tradition, and I shall not pretend to be impartial. Barbara Metzger writes the traditional Regency at its most sparkling — comedies of manners full of clever heroines, exasperated heroes, and the occasional meddlesome ghost or inconvenient dog. Her touch is light but never slight; underneath the laughter there is real tenderness. If you have just finished Heyer and feel bereft, Metzger is precisely the cure. We are rather proud to publish her here; begin with A Perfect Gentleman or An Enchanted Affair and see if you do not agree.

Joan Wolf, for when you want to feel something

Where Metzger sparkles, Joan Wolf deepens. She is one of the most respected names in the field, and her Regencies carry an emotional weight and a quality of characterisation that have won her devoted readers for decades. Her heroes and heroines are grown people with real interior lives, and her love stories earn every tear. When you are ready for a Regency that lingers after the last page, hers is the name to seek.

June Calvin, with a whisper of the gothic

June Calvin brings a faint, delicious shiver to the form. There is courtship and wit, yes, but also the suggestion of something just past the candlelight — a secret in the house, a ghost who may or may not be obliging. My Lord Ghost is exactly the sort of book to read by the fire with the curtains drawn, and Miss Henderson’s Secret rewards the reader who likes a puzzle with her romance.

Edith Layton, the stylist’s stylist

Edith Layton was a writer’s writer, admired by her peers for prose that did things most genre prose does not attempt. Her Regencies are lush, intelligent, and emotionally generous. Titles such as The Crimson Crown and The Silvery Moon show a craftswoman entirely at home in the period.

R.J. Koreto, when you want a body in the library

And for those of us who cannot resist a mystery, R.J. Koreto stitches genuine intrigue into the Regency frame. Winter’s Season: A Regency Mystery is a fine place to discover that romance and detection were always meant to keep company.