Are Gareth, Joss, or any of the other characters in the novel inspired by or based on specific individuals? Joss was already firmly in place, but I named his beloved sister Sophy as tribute. Several months later, I realised that I’d got the name Doomsday out of a thing that went round on Twitter: Charles Dickens’ list of cool names for potential characters included a Sophia Doomsday, and clearly, it had lodged in my mind. At this point, Joss, the hands-on Vice President (Operations) of a smuggling family, popped into my head, and off I went. (Clearly something Poldarky: highwayman, pirate, smuggler?) Then I started musing on how smugglers in romance are usually either beetle-browed villains or masquerading heirs to dukedoms, but during the Napoleonic Wars, it was a grey industry that benefited a lot of people at a time of economic blockade and swingeing taxation. Then I had to work out what sort of person would be called Joss Doomsday. I tried out a few first names that would go with it Joss sounded right. Which is to say, I was musing on the next book, and the name Doomsday came into my head. What was your inspiration for The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen? Her latest book is The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen and she recently talked about it with Daryl Maxwell for the LAPL Blog.

She has written over twenty-five novels since then, and her books have been translated into eight languages.

KJ Charles spent twenty years as an editor in British publishing before fleeing the scene to become a full-time historical romance novelist.

Wanted, A Gentleman by K.J. Charles