Georgette Heyer Biography
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Product Description
Book Description
The ground-breaking biography of one of Britain's best-loved and best-selling novelists.
Product Description
Georgette Heyer remains an enduring international bestseller, read and loved by four generations of readers and extolled by today's bestselling authors. Despite her enormous popularity she never gave an interview or appeared in public. Georgette Heyer wrote her first novel, The Black Moth, when she was seventeen in order to amuse her convalescent brother. It was published in 1921 to instant success and ninety years later it has never been out of print. A phenomenon even in her own lifetime, to this day she is the undisputed queen of regency romance.
During ten years of research into Georgette Heyer's life and writing, Jennifer Kloester has had unlimited access to Heyer's notebooks and private papers and the Heyer family records, and exclusive access to several untapped archives of Heyer's early letters. Engaging, authoritative and meticulously researched, Georgette Heyer: Biography of a Bestseller offers a comprehensive insight into the life and writing of a remarkable and ferociously private woman.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
25 of 25 people found the following review helpful
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
I've been reading Georgette Heyer's novels since I was in my early teens and they are still a pleasure to read nearly fifty years later. I was aware that Heyer refused to be interviewed and I knew next to nothing about the rest of her life so I looked forward to reading this biography. I was not disappointed as it is compulsive reading. The author is enthusiastic about her subject and hugely knowledgeable but this does not mean she glosses over Heyer's imperfections.
Here is all the background to Heyer's relationships, sometimes fraught, with her publishers and with her family and friends. I always wondered why she changed from Heinemann to the Bodley Head in the 1960s and it was interesting to read about the reasons behind the change. At that time `The New Georgette Heyer' was always top of my Christmas list and I was desolated if no new book was published in a particular year.
It was interesting to find out why Heyer herself refused to allow reprints of her modern novels - , `Barren Corn', `Instead of the Thorn' and `Pastel'. She did not consider them to be her best work. An early historical novel `The Great Roxhythe' went the same way and has still not been reprinted though Simon The Coldheart has been reprinted since Georgette Heyer died in 1974.
This book brought Heyer vividly to life for me and I felt as though I knew her by the time I had finished reading the book. She was a highly intelligent, witty person with great stamina and dedication to her work. She had a well developed sense of the ridiculous which must have been obvious to anyone who has read her books. At the same time she had diffidence about her abilities which at times prevented her from seeing how really excellent many of her books are. An Infamous Army for example is considered to be one of the best books of fiction or non-fiction about the Battle of Waterloo.
I had not appreciated how prolific Heyer was at times - writing more than one book a year and sometimes finishing them in a matter of weeks. Her publishers for many years never even bothered to read her manuscripts and just sent them sent straight to the printers. Heyer herself rarely revised to any great extent and the stories seemed to just flow from her brain into the typewriter fully formed. The novels which were based on historical events such as Royal Escape and The Spanish Bride took longer to write because of the research involved. She was rarely faulted on her historical accuracy though the author does point out one or two relatively minor mistakes in some of her novels.
The book has plenty of information about the author's sources, an index - though this is not interactive on the ebook version I read - a full list of Heyer's novels and short stories published in the UK and the USA. The publisher has clearly gone to some trouble to ensure that the illustrations display properly in the ebook version and these are very good. This has to be the definitive biography of one of our most popular authors and I would recommend it to anyone who has read and enjoyed her novels.
Here is all the background to Heyer's relationships, sometimes fraught, with her publishers and with her family and friends. I always wondered why she changed from Heinemann to the Bodley Head in the 1960s and it was interesting to read about the reasons behind the change. At that time `The New Georgette Heyer' was always top of my Christmas list and I was desolated if no new book was published in a particular year.
It was interesting to find out why Heyer herself refused to allow reprints of her modern novels - , `Barren Corn', `Instead of the Thorn' and `Pastel'. She did not consider them to be her best work. An early historical novel `The Great Roxhythe' went the same way and has still not been reprinted though Simon The Coldheart has been reprinted since Georgette Heyer died in 1974.
This book brought Heyer vividly to life for me and I felt as though I knew her by the time I had finished reading the book. She was a highly intelligent, witty person with great stamina and dedication to her work. She had a well developed sense of the ridiculous which must have been obvious to anyone who has read her books. At the same time she had diffidence about her abilities which at times prevented her from seeing how really excellent many of her books are. An Infamous Army for example is considered to be one of the best books of fiction or non-fiction about the Battle of Waterloo.
I had not appreciated how prolific Heyer was at times - writing more than one book a year and sometimes finishing them in a matter of weeks. Her publishers for many years never even bothered to read her manuscripts and just sent them sent straight to the printers. Heyer herself rarely revised to any great extent and the stories seemed to just flow from her brain into the typewriter fully formed. The novels which were based on historical events such as Royal Escape and The Spanish Bride took longer to write because of the research involved. She was rarely faulted on her historical accuracy though the author does point out one or two relatively minor mistakes in some of her novels.
The book has plenty of information about the author's sources, an index - though this is not interactive on the ebook version I read - a full list of Heyer's novels and short stories published in the UK and the USA. The publisher has clearly gone to some trouble to ensure that the illustrations display properly in the ebook version and these are very good. This has to be the definitive biography of one of our most popular authors and I would recommend it to anyone who has read and enjoyed her novels.
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
This sensitive and detailed account of the life and work of Georgette Heyer will be welcomed by fans of her books everywhere. Despite her enormous popularity, Georgette Heyer always refused interviews and rarely appeared at public events. However, this biography has the support and help of her family, which means the author had access to all the information/papers that are available and her love of the authors work also shines through and makes her a very sympathetic biographer.
Georgette Heyer was born in 1902 and had a very sheltered childhood. She was the eldest child of an affluent, middle class family. Her father a French master at Kings College School, who also organised charity theatre events and was a Shakespeare afficionado, and her mother a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music. She did not have a grand house, but it was comfortable and she was played music, read to, and very much loved. Her parents encouraged and stimulated, but did not pressure. Two brothers followed her, but Georgette had no formal education (often typical for girls of her class then) and did not attend school until she was thirteen.
As Georgette reached the 1920's, she was less of a Bright Young Thing than a traditionalist, who always looked back rather than forwards. At the age of only seventeen, she wrote "The Black Moth", which her father suggested be submitted for publication. It was published when she was just nineteen and has never been out of print. In 1920 she also met George Ronald Rougier, who later became her husband, after the sudden death of her father in 1925. His loss was a blow to Georgette - he was her closest ally and guiding light, but marriage and travel to Tanzania and then Macedonia with Ronald helped her to move on.
It does seem as though Georgette, for all her passionate historical romances, was essentially a very self contained person. Her new husband worked in mining and in Tanzania she was living a very remote and solitary life, but without complaint. Wherever she was, she simply continued working. They returned to England in 1930, where, in 1932, their only son was born. Ronald found it hard to start a career in England, they had dependents in members of Georgette's family, and money worries were to plague them for many years despite her success, as were problems with publishers.
This book has much detail about this intensely private woman and her career. Her sudden dislike of people she once championed, her inability to cope with money, her despair when forced to write and write in order to keep the wolves at the door. When war was declared in 1939 she declared, "I wish some German would come and drop a bomb on me. It would solve all my problems." Luckily it didn't and her life did improve, although she never really felt valued as a writer and often became frustrated with how she was perceived as an author and how her work was viewed. Despite her fear nobody took her seriously, her work was always popular - sometimes too popular - and she almost took Barbara Cartland to court when her early books 'borrowed' heavily from her work for example.
For all lovers of Georgette Heyer, this is a must read to understand and appreciate her work, life and books. She was a prolific and professional author and I am sure that this is how she would like to be remembered. Lastly, I read the kindle version of this book and the illustrations were included at the very end of the book. Highly recommended.
Georgette Heyer was born in 1902 and had a very sheltered childhood. She was the eldest child of an affluent, middle class family. Her father a French master at Kings College School, who also organised charity theatre events and was a Shakespeare afficionado, and her mother a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music. She did not have a grand house, but it was comfortable and she was played music, read to, and very much loved. Her parents encouraged and stimulated, but did not pressure. Two brothers followed her, but Georgette had no formal education (often typical for girls of her class then) and did not attend school until she was thirteen.
As Georgette reached the 1920's, she was less of a Bright Young Thing than a traditionalist, who always looked back rather than forwards. At the age of only seventeen, she wrote "The Black Moth", which her father suggested be submitted for publication. It was published when she was just nineteen and has never been out of print. In 1920 she also met George Ronald Rougier, who later became her husband, after the sudden death of her father in 1925. His loss was a blow to Georgette - he was her closest ally and guiding light, but marriage and travel to Tanzania and then Macedonia with Ronald helped her to move on.
It does seem as though Georgette, for all her passionate historical romances, was essentially a very self contained person. Her new husband worked in mining and in Tanzania she was living a very remote and solitary life, but without complaint. Wherever she was, she simply continued working. They returned to England in 1930, where, in 1932, their only son was born. Ronald found it hard to start a career in England, they had dependents in members of Georgette's family, and money worries were to plague them for many years despite her success, as were problems with publishers.
This book has much detail about this intensely private woman and her career. Her sudden dislike of people she once championed, her inability to cope with money, her despair when forced to write and write in order to keep the wolves at the door. When war was declared in 1939 she declared, "I wish some German would come and drop a bomb on me. It would solve all my problems." Luckily it didn't and her life did improve, although she never really felt valued as a writer and often became frustrated with how she was perceived as an author and how her work was viewed. Despite her fear nobody took her seriously, her work was always popular - sometimes too popular - and she almost took Barbara Cartland to court when her early books 'borrowed' heavily from her work for example.
For all lovers of Georgette Heyer, this is a must read to understand and appreciate her work, life and books. She was a prolific and professional author and I am sure that this is how she would like to be remembered. Lastly, I read the kindle version of this book and the illustrations were included at the very end of the book. Highly recommended.
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I don't usually read biographies but this one appealed because of a misspent youth reading Georgette Heyer's novels. This biography is very lively and well done - it's absolutely fascinating on the relationship between Georgette, her agent and her various publishers. It also made me want to reread the novels, particularly the lesser ones that I've shied away from, as well as her detective novels which I've never tried.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Okay
I am not a fan of Heyer's books but thought I'd try this biography to induce a bit more interest. It's not without merit and clearly based on a lot of research and access to... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Stephen Bishop
Excellent
I read this fat volume in less than 24 hours - I couldnt put it down! Georgette Heyer has always been my favourite author, and sadly underrated (mainly thanks to the trashy writers... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Mrs. Trudie A. Bamford
Top notch
Excellent- Georgette had an amazing life and it is described here in detail which I found interesting and amusing on many levels. Read more
Published 7 months ago by PerformanceArtist
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