Non-Fiction Books
A HISTORY OF THE WATER CLOSET follows the development of the water closet, or toilet, beginning with privies in monasteries and ending with London's sewer system clean-up in the 19th century. Included are descriptions of the various types of chamber pots, toilet furniture, gadgets and mechanical devices invented prior to the toilet as we know it today. The final chapter of the book covers the emergence of indoor bathing, and early indoor plumbing in both England and France. A HISTORY OF THE WATER CLOSET, and 18th & 19th CENTURY ENGLISH WOMEN AT SEA by Marilyn Clay were both named to Amazon's Top 100 Best-Selling Ebooks list. Three REGENCY PERIOD FURNITURE Books by Marilyn Clay were also on Amazon's Best Seller list, with BAUBLES & NECESSITIES PERTAINING TO HER LADYSHIP claiming the #1 Best Seller spot in Antiques & Collectibles. MARILYN CLAY is an award-winning author and respected historian of the Regency period in English history. For sixteen years, she published THE REGENCY PLUME, an international newsletter filled with articles useful to writers, historians and people interested in all aspects of the 18th and early 19th centuries in English history. Essays by Marilyn Clay were published in ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ROMANTICISM: Culture in Britain from the 1780s to 1830s, a volume found in many University libraries. MARILYN CLAY's published historical suspense novels include DECEPTIONS: A Jamestown Novel, praised by The Library Journal and Booklist. To escape an arranged marriage, Catherine leaves England for Jamestown in search of her childhood sweetheart. What she finds in the New World nearly destroys her! Unexpected twists and turns will keep readers guessing! SECRETS AND LIES: A Jamestown Novel. When four English girls travel to the New World on a Bride Ship to marry settlers and start families, they are instead shocked to discover that someone in Jamestown wants them all dead! The final event shocks the entire colony! BETSY ROSS: ACCIDENTAL SPY set in 1776 Philadelphia, another popular historical suspense novel by Marilyn Clay. Quaker Betsy Ross sets out to uncover who killed her beloved husband John Ross, but is instead drawn into a dangerous underworld of spies and double spies. Can Betsy bring down the killer before he kills her, or her sisters? In print and e-book. Four books in Marilyn Clay’s Miss Juliette Abbott Regency Mystery Series are MURDER AT MORLAND MANOR, MURDER IN MAYFAIR, MURDER IN MARGATE and MURDER AT MEDLEY PARK are all available worldwide in print and Ebook. Kensington Books published many of Marilyn Clay’s Regency-set historical novels. All were translated to foreign languages. The titles include: Bewitching Lord Winterton, A Pretty Puzzle, Brighton Beauty, Miss Darby's Debut, The Uppity Earl, Felicity’s Folly, Miss Eliza’s Gentleman Caller, and The Unsuitable Suitor. Marilyn Clay’s newest Regency romance is titled THE WRONG MISS FAIRFAX. Two look-alike cousins in London lead a love-struck nobleman on a merry chase. If the confused gentleman cannot sort it out, he just might propose to the wrong Miss Fairfax. Marilyn Clay’s STALKING A KILLER is a contemporary murder mystery set in Dallas. Aspiring PI Amanda Mason must clear her own father from a murder charge before the killer strikes again. MARILYN CLAY is also the designer of the Romance Writers of America’s prestigious RITA award. Marilyn was presented the first golden statuette when the RITA award was unveiled. For more information on the author, visit her website at Marilyn Clay Author.
18th and 19th CENTURY ENGLISH WOMEN AT SEA is a lively and entertaining account of the type of women one would have normally found, legally or illegally, on board ship during this time period, namely—prostitutes; officers and midshipmen’s wives and other female passengers, and women masquerading as sailors or crewmen. Colorful but factual accounts of little-known incidents in the book are drawn from letters written by sailors and other men at sea, from diaries of such notable figures as Admiral Horatio Nelson, and from autobiographies written in the late 1700s by women such as Mary Lacy, who took to the sea masquerading as men, and lived to tell of their experiences. Noted historians who have published works on the same subject are quoted. MARILYN CLAY is the acclaimed author of over twenty books. Her most recent novels DECEPTIONS: A COLONIAL JAMESTOWN NOVEL, A PETTICOAT AND LAMBSKIN GLOVES and BETSY ROSS: ACCIDENTAL SPY are all set in Colonial America and are available both in print and as e-books. Marilyn Clay's newest novel STALKING A KILLER, a contemporary murder mystery, is also available in print and as an e-book. For more information on the author, visit the Marilyn Clay Author website. For information on Marilyn Clay's international newsletter, THE REGENCY PLUME, visit The Regency plume website at http:theregencyplume.tripod.com/
REGENCY PERIOD FURNITURE, Volume One contains over 235 photographs and descriptions of Regency-era furniture such as Recamier sofas, settees, gilt-wood chairs, a Regency wheelchair, eighteen photographs of pianofortes, spinets, and a rare lyraflugel; japanned benches and window seats, draperies, rout chairs, corner chairs, a cylinder bureau bookcase, butler's sideboard, pie-crust tea tables, a teapoy table, Pembroke tables, drum tables, a lanterloo table, ladies writing desks, a rare Military bed used by a British General and his lady; a Harlequin desk, a Carlton House desk, Grecian sofas, a child's bed, a day-bed, a chiffonier, coal bins, chamber pot, actual Regency room settings, plus color plates of furniture from Ackermann’s Repositories dated 1811-1815 and much, much more. Volume One also contains articles reprinted from The Regency Plume Newsletter famous English furniture makers, and a Glossary of Furniture Terms used during the Regency period. Author Marilyn Clay is the publisher of The Regency Plume, an international newsletter focused on the English Regency period. The Regency Plume was in circulation from 1991 through 2006. Each issue contains well-researched and documented articles written by authors and historians of the Regency period. All back issues of the newsletter are still available for purchase from The Regency Plume website. In addition, Marilyn Clay is the author of over a dozen historical novels including Deceptions: A Colonial Jamestown Novel, published in hardcover in 2010 and now available from major online retailers in both print and digital editions; A Petticoat And Lambskin Gloves, originally published in hardcover in 2012, now available in print and digital editions online; Betsy Ross: Accidental Spy, (released in 2013) available in print and ebook online, and Stalking A Killer, (2014) also available in print and ebook formats, plus six Regency romance novels, no longer in print but available as ebooks online. Two of Marilyn Clay’s non-fiction titles, History of the Water Closet and 18th and 19th English Women At Sea (now available in print) were named to Amazon’s Top 100 Best-Selling Ebooks lists in two categories and remained on those lists for many weeks. A former University Editor with The University of Texas at Dallas and for many years, a professional commercial artist, Marilyn Clay designed the Romance Writers of America’s RITA award statuette and received the first RITA award ever presented at the RWA Conference in San Francisco when the RITA was unveiled. The author currently resides in Oklahoma. You are invited to visit her website at: Marilyn Clay Author.
REGENCY PERIOD FURNITURE Volume Two . . . Baubles & Necessities Relating to Her Ladyship contains over 200 high-quality photographs of Regency-era silver tea caddies & spoons, silver tea sets & coffee pots, rare period jewelry, four antique sedan chairs, a syllabub cup, bed warmers, a silver salver, enameled keepsake boxes, knife boxes, vinaigrettes, a candle snuffer, needlework tools, Grandfather & Grandmother clocks, ormolu clocks, urns, vases, gilt figurines, Wedgwood pottery, an 1803 brass door knocker, crystal chandeliers, Regency-era light fixtures, ladies worktables, sewing tables, pouch tables, a brass soapbox, lady's writing set, a Cheval glass plus articles from The Regency Plume Newsletter on Regency-era stitchery, A Glossary of Fabric terms, and Wedgwood: Potter To The Queen. Also included are color plates of ladies furniture, including beautiful window treatments, from the 1811-1815 issues of Ackermann's Repository. Author Marilyn Clay is the publisher of The Regency Plume, an international newsletter focused on the English Regency period. The Regency Plume was in circulation from 1991 through 2006. Each issue contains well-researched and documented articles written by authors and historians of the Regency period. All back issues of the newsletter are still available for purchase from The Regency Plume website. In addition, Marilyn Clay is the author of over a dozen historical novels including Deceptions: A Colonial Jamestown Novel, published in hardcover in 2010 and now available from major online retailers in both print and digital editions; A Petticoat And Lambskin Gloves, originally published in hardcover in 2012, now available in print and digital editions online; Betsy Ross: Accidental Spy, (released in 2013) available in print and ebook online, and Stalking A Killer, (2014) also available in print and ebook formats, plus six Regency romance novels, no longer in print but available as ebooks online. Two of Marilyn Clay’s non-fiction titles, History of the Water Closet and 18th and 19th English Women At Sea (now available in print) were named to Amazon’s Top 100 Best-Selling Ebooks lists in two categories and remained on those lists for many weeks. A former University Editor with The University of Texas at Dallas and for many years, a professional commercial artist, Marilyn Clay designed the Romance Writers of America’s RITA award statuette and received the first RITA award ever presented at the RWA Conference in San Francisco when the RITA was unveiled. The author currently resides in Oklahoma. You are invited to visit her website at: Marilyn Clay Author.
REGENCY PERIOD FURNITURE, Volume Three . . . Furnishings & Other Items Relating to Gentlemanly Concerns contains over 150 photographs w/descriptions of items used by Regency-era gentlemen such as a 19th C. fishing reel, a Beau Brummell dressing table, leather wig stand, straddle chairs, drunkard’s chair, cock fighting chair, library armchairs and reading chairs, library tables and a rent table, silver spurs with an 1810 mark, a collection of hunt and game tables, a Wellington chest of drawers, library step chairs, circular book stands, trestle bookcase, kidney, horseshoe, kneehole desks, a British military officer's document box, officer's gun case, a midshipman's chest dated 1810, terrestrial globes, collection of snuff boxes, a rare gout stool, wine coolers, cellarettes, a wine canterbury, inkstands, a gentleman's corner washstand, cork screws and smoking and fireplace tools plus an illustrated Carriage Compendium and article on early carriage disasters. Also included is a Map of Regency London showing the locations of major Cabinet-Makers of the time and a Glossary of Furniture Terms. Author Marilyn Clay founded and published THE REGENCY PLUME NEWSLETTER for 16 years. She is also the author of over 20 published books, including historical novels set during the Regency period, and Colonial American period. Two of her non-fiction titles, 18th and 19th Century English Women At Sea and History of the Water Closet were named to Amazon's Top 100 Best Selling Ebooks and remained on those lists for many weeks.