‘By Any Other Name’ is another collaborative effort by Jennifer Ellis (Persephone) and HW Coyle (Nancy Cole). This title has never been published anywhere else.

Set in France at the dawn of the French Revolution, ‘By Any Other Name’ is a lighthearted action/adventure story about a brother and a sister who find their respective roles are not at all suitable to their natures, leading them to assume guises that defy the social and moral conventions of the day, very often with humorous results.

The story is not a farce or a comedy of errors. Like all of works my Anglo-Irish co-conspirator and I sketch out, it is firmly based in the culture and history of the day. ‘By Any Other Name’, however, is styled after the writing of Georgette Heyer, a noted Regency author who’s 1928 breakout novel, ‘The Masqueraders’ featured a brother and sister who cross the gender lines in order to escape persecution in the wake of the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion.

Even if you are not a history buff I expect you will enjoy the story. And who knows, in addition to being entertained you just might learn something along the way.

As always, both Jenny and I thank those who find the time to enjoy our stories and leave comments in their wake. It’s always nice to hear what you, our readers have to say.

Nancy Cole
a.k.a. HW Coyle

A brother and sister, unlike each other in every way possible except for a propensity for adventure and natures at odds with their birth are caught up in the heady early days of the French Revolution before the cry of ‘liberté, égalité, fraternité’ became an insatiable howl for blood.

The Honourable Bertram Rushmoor and his sister Lady Georgette are more then mere spectators to the events following the fall of the Bastille. Bertram, following in his father’s footsteps, is dispatched to Paris as an unofficial agent of His Majesty’s Foreign Office. His mission? To mingle with the new power brokers there and discover what, exactly they hope to achieve and how their efforts will effect His Majesty’s government. The manner in which he does so is as unusual as his charter, for he often dons the guise of Belle, the flighty daughter of an English noble.

For Georgette an opportunity to travel to Paris is a godsend. Her insatiable desire for freedom and a dislike of the English class system drives her to don a mask as unconventional as her brother’s. As George, a dashing rake who fears no man she is able to enjoy life on her terms. Yet this freedom comes at a price, for it places her outside the bounds of her society, one that consigns a woman such as her to life in a gilded cage. Georgette dreads the thought of marriage to a man selected for her based solely on his title and position, a man who would deny her the freedom to express herself as she sees fit. For her the ideal mate would be a strong man, one able to measure up to her demanding standards whilst giving her the freedom to be herself.

Both find an unlikely ally in Paris in the form of Edward Primrose, an American who earned a reputation and a fortune as a privateer during America’s war for independence. For Bertram, Edward’s friendship with Anton Langeur, an outspoken leader in the newly formed National Assembly provides him with a means of mingling freely and unobtrusively with men such as Abbé Sieyá¨s, Comte de Mirabeau, Georges Danton and a provincial upstart named Maximilien Robespierre. For Georgette, Edward presents her with both an opportunity and a challenge, for despite her unusual habits and feigned disinterest he pursues her with a tenacity that is as endearing as it is frightening for a young woman who has reservations about giving herself over to another.

Events around them draw this unlikely trio into the adventure of their lives, one that pits bother and sister against each other and their own convictions.

The inspiration for this story comes from Joel Richard Paul’s book ‘Unlikely Allies: How a Merchant, a Playwright, and a Spy Saved the American Revolution’ which includes accounts of the real life adventures of the Chevalier d’á‰on, a spy and diplomat for the French King who carried out his duties as both a male and a female as well as the stories of Georgette Heyer whose romantic farces such as ‘The Corinthian,’ ‘The Masqueraders’ and ‘These Old Shades’ all centered on characters who find it necessary to take on the guise of the opposite gender.