Alice Fraser writes a guide to her Bugle creation, D'Ancey LaGuarde

Listeners to hit satirical podcast The Bugle have long been teased by the latest works from the bestselling – and entirely fictional – romance novelist D'Ancey LaGuarde.

Now comedian Alice Fraser, who created the prolific writer, is to create a real book offering a guide to all the lascivious period thrillers – often with a supernatural twist – that LaGuarde is said to have penned

They include The Highlands Laird’s Christmas Miracle, We Made It One Night, Three’s a Crowd, They Came From Above, The Femme Falcon, A Cowboy Called Home and the classic Little Red Riding Werewolf.

For an idea of LaGuarde's style, the blurb for her story The Dim Menagerie reads: 'Violet is a sassy suffragette with an anachronistic vocabulary and an elasticated corset... and amnesia. She doesn't need a man, but she can't remember why..."

The D'Ancey LaGuarde Reader is already more than halfway funded on the Unbound publishing platform just 12 hours after the project was launched.

As well as extracts from LaGuarde’s back catalogue, the new title will also offer crucial questions about creating fiction, such as ‘what to wear when writing?’, and  answers to  tricky romance questions, and a fiendishly difficult  quiz.

News Quiz regular Fraser promotes LaGuarde’s output in the fake ads section of The Bugle, which she has frequently co-hosted with Andy Zaltzman since John Oliver left to become a comedy superstar in the US. She also hosts the spin-off podcast The Gargle, described as a news satire show with no politics. 

Before comedy, she wrote her honours thesis on the narrative rhetoric of romance novels, giving her the insight required to analyse the many works of the self-published romance maven.

Rewards on Unbound start from £10 for the ebook or £30 for a signed hardback.

Published: 22 Jun 2023