Georgette Heyer

16 August 1902 - 4 July 1974. British novelist well-known for her historical romances. She especially established the subgenre Regency romance. Heyer's Regencies were inspired by Jane Austen.

Life

Heyer was born in 1902 in Wimbledon, London, where she mostly grew up. Her father, George Heyer, was a school teacher at King’s College School with much aspiration but also support for his daughter’s literary ambitions. Heyer’s mother, Sylvia, was the daughter of a Thames tugboat owner. Georgette was the only girl and the eldest of three children. Her birth was followed by that of Boris in 1906 and Frank in 1911.

At the age of 23 and shortly after her father’s death in 1925, Heyer married Ronald Rougier, a mining engineer. She continued to use her birth name as a pen name for her books though. Two years after the marriage, Heyer followed her husband to Tanganyika where he worked. One year later they moved to Macedonia for same reasons. There, Heyer nearly died due to an erratically administered anaesthetic in a dentist’s chair. Unhappy in his career, Ronald quit his mining work, and they moved back to London in 1929, which was only possible through Heyer's writing success. After Ronald had had a failed partnership venture, the family moved to Horsham, Sussex, where Ronald opened a sports shop. However, Heyer now was the main provider of the family, writing one crime and one historical novel per year between 1934 and 1941. In 1932, she gave birth to Richard, their only boy and child. Only little is known about her private affairs for she was opposed to any form of publicity and refused to answer questions regarding her private life by merely stating: “You will find me in the books”. Being a lifelong smoker, Georgette Heyer died of lung cancer on 4 July 1974 at the age of 72.

Literary Work

At the age of 17 Heyer wrote her first novel, The Black Moth. It is a historical adventure tale which she first told her sick brother Boris during a convalescent holiday to entertain him. Her father, impressed with his daughter's imagination, encouraged her to write down the story. He sent it to the literary agent Leonard P. Moore who arranged the necessary steps for its publication by Constable in 1921. The novel was an instant success. Many more best-selling novels followed, 57 literary works in total. Through her own love for one particular period of British history, Heyer forged a new subgenre of historical novel – the Regency. Her stories stand out through and impress with its well researched and detailed knowledge of the former living conditions, its nimble-witted dialogues and its plastic characters.

Bibliography

Historical novels

The Black Moth (1921), The Transformation of Philip Jettan (1923), The Great Roxhythe (1923), Simon the Coldheart (1925)

These Old Shades (1926), The Masqueraders (1928), Beauvallet (1929), The Conqueror (1931)

Devil’s Cub 1932, The Convenient Marriage (1934), Regency Buck (1935), The Talisman Ring (1936)

An Infamous Army (1937), Royal Escape (1938), The Spanish Bride (1940), The Corinthian (1940)

Faro’s Daughter (1941), Friday’s Child (1944), The Reluctant Widow (1946), The Foundling (1948)

Arabella (1949), The Grand Sophy (1950), The Quiet Gentleman (1951), Cotillion (1953)

The Toll-Gate (1954), Bath Tangle (1955), Sprig Muslin (1956), April Lady (1957)

Sylvester:Or the Wicked Uncle (1957), Venetia (1958), The Unknown Ajax (1959), A Civil Contract (1961)

The Nonesuch (1961), False Colours (1963), Frederica (1965), Black Sheep (1966),

Cousin Kate (1968), Charity Girl (1970), Lady of Quality (1971), My Lord John (1975)

Crime novels

Footsteps in the Dark (1932), Why Shoot a Butler? (1933), The Unfinished Clue (1934), Death in the Stocks (1935)

Behold, Here’s Poison (1936), They Found Him Dead (1937), A Blunt Instrument (1938), No Wind of Blame (1939)

Envious Casca (1941), Penhallow (1942), Duplicate Death (1951), Detection Unlimited (1953)

Contemporary novels

Instead of the Thorn (1923), Helen (1928), Pastel (1929), Barren Corn (1930)

Short stories

Pistols for Two (1960)

Sources

Hodge, Jane Aiken. The Private World of Georgette Heyer. London: The Bodley Head, 1984.

http://www.abfar.co.uk/bibliogs/gh_bib.htm

http://www.georgette-heyer.com/bio.html

http://www.historicalnovelsociety.org/solander%20files/dixon.htm