Debut author Bea Koch is one of the owners of The Ripped Bodice, the only independent bookstore in the US dedicated to romance. In addition to being a groundbreaking bookseller, Bea graduated from Yale with distinction as the last Renaissance Studies major and received an MA from NYU: Steinhardt in Costume History. She is the proud mother of dog Fitzwilliam Waffles. He has more followers on Instagram than she does.
This is not the Regency you thought you knew! Bea Koch's Mad & Bad is an important and enlightening new look at this classic era. --Maya Rodale, bestselling author of historical romance Bea Koch's Mad and Bad is a marvelous work of joyful feminist triumph that paints a nuanced picture of the British Regency era as women experienced it. From Caroline Lamb to Annie Lister to Mary Seacole, Koch's lovingly rendered biographies illuminate fascinating narratives of power, inequity, ambition, and passion. What a gift to have at our fingertips this excellent archive of mad, bad heroines, all of whom demand bother remembrance and careful study. I will return to its pages often, grateful for the historical tapestry Koch has gracefully woven. --Rachel Vorona Cote, author of Too Much Bea Koch presents a welcome assessment of the various forms of power and agency that women could wield in the male-dominated society of Regency England. --Roy and Lesley Adkins, authors of Jane Austen's England