Helen Halstead, author: Books

A Private Performance or Mr Darcy Presents His Bride
A sequel to Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice
~read an excerpt~

A Private Performance, cover of first publication

A Private Performance, cover of second publication

Helen Halstead self-published A Private Performance in April 2004. Later that year, she won the national Fast Books Award - Best Self-Published Novel of 2004.

A Jane Austen fan from age 13, Helen greatly admires the character of Elizabeth Bennet for her intelligence, ironic humour and courage. For the plot of her Pride & Prejudice sequel, she takes the reader into the world of the London Literati, as well as exploring the gracious life at Pemberley. There is plenty of humour with some hilarious incidents in the lives of the Bennet relatives.

The cover illustration of the self-published edition is by talented artist, Fontaine Anderson. Helen loves it for the way it conveys the wit and charm of her favourite literary heroine. It is the woman's own face on the mask.

A Private Performance was picked up by Random House Australia, much to the author's delight.This edition was published in September 2005, in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

The beautiful cover reflects the aspect of the novel concerning life at Pemberley, and flags the Regency genre.The book received wonderful reviews, and plenty of media attention. Serendipitously, its release coincided with the screening of the 2005 movie, Pride & Prejudice.

While her writing style has a strong 'Austen feel', with an ironic authorial voice and turns of phrase from the era, Helen say the style is her own. She developed it after writing twelve drafts, and thoroughly immersing herself in Austen's work.

This edition is available in bookshops in Australia and New Zealand, and from Australian on-line book-stores.

In May 2007, Ulysses Press published A Private Performance under the title
Mr. Darcy Presents His Bride. This edition was published in North America.

Mr. Darcy Presents his Bride is a book with more than one theme, as the different covers illustrate. This lovely cover reflects the glittering world of London society, the milieu which produces the main plot.

It is the same story inside - the text is identical to the Random House Edition. Readers have appreciated Helen's fidelity to Austen's portrayal of her characters. A brilliant marriage takes Lizzy into new experiences but as she continues to mature, she keeps the same personality which first captured Helen's imagination decades ago.

This edition is available in United States, Canada and on Amazon.com

"The characters remain to true to Austen's original creations and the novel is witty and entertaining with compelling storylines - a great read in its own right."- New Idea

The Imaginary Gentleman: A Regency Intrigue
~read an excerpt~

cover of The Imaginary Gentleman
The Imaginary Gentleman, published by Random House Australia in 2006

In 1806, the heroine, Laura Morrison, is alone on the wind-swept foreshore of Lyme Regis, as a storm is blowing up. She has a chance encounter with a mysterious gentleman, and it seems they have met before. In minutes, he will disappear so completely that Laura must come to question her own sanity. How is it that no-one else will admit to having seen him?
Readers and reviews alike have praised the strong portrayals of the characters, especially of Laura's family. Her beloved brother Edward, a wounded war hero, has a story of his own; her widowed sister Elspeth loves to wield the power which convention has given her but Laura defends herself with wit and spirit.
Through the layers of The Imaginary Gentleman - the power of the past to distort or strengthen character, the ruthless games people will play to protect their interests, the rich historical detail of the characters' lives - runs the persistent thread of page-turning mystery. One reader's story is that she was reading The Imaginary Gentleman in the car returning from a holiday. When they arrived home, she refused to get out and stayed in the car for two hours finishing the book. Her gem of a husband brought out a cup of tea for her.
A long fascination with disappearances led to Helen's idea for this book. Two possible scenarios intrigued Helen: that Laura is the victim of a conspiracy or that Mr. Templeton is in fact a product of her imagination. To keep both possibilities open involved absorbing lines of research. The conspiracy scenario called for juggling with the plot in order to keep the characters' behaviour within the confines of manners and social structures of the time, an area with which Helen was already familiar. The possibility that Laura is delusional led the author on a research trail reaching back to the second century, to build a picture of the underlying beliefs which framed medical theory in Regency times.

The Imaginary Gentleman is available in bookshops in Australia and New Zealand, and from Australian online booksellers.

"Halstead’s mannered dialogue, which also contains plenty of barbs, is aided by firmly defined characters." Dianne Dempsey, The Age, Saturday, 18/11/2006.

"A lively mystery romance told with elegant charm." Woman’s Day

Read the full reviews from The Age and Woman's Day.