Jennifer Kloester's Blog, page 2

Frederica – an interrupted novel part 1

“Miss Heyer is one of the finest writers operating today and it is well past time for this to be declared firmly and openly. She, too, probes into the souls and hearts of her characters but because she knows people, she does not have to rely on simplified text-book Freudianisms to do so. She is aware that ethics, a sense of personal honor, courage and social decency play an enormous role in determining Why People Act The Way They Do

Philip G. Freshwater, Book Review Editor, Sacramento Bee, 1965

The 1965 Heinemann first editionThe 51st novel!

There are many reasons to love Georgette Heyer’s 51st novel, Frederica, for it is a delight. The opening chapter alone is worth the reading for its witty conversation between Lady Buxted and her brother, Lord Alverstoke. Heyer so perfectly depicts the relationship between the hard-hearted, grasping sister and her world-weary, cynical brother. Watching Lady Buxted attempt to cajole Alverstoke into holding a ball for her daughter at his house instead of at hers in order to save her “all the fuss and botheration” is superb entertainment. And the dialogue between brother and sister is among Heyer’s best (which is saying something!). Each character – whether present in the scene or mentioned in passing – is so well delineated that they become real upon reading. Indeed, Heyer’s needle-sharp depiction of Lady Buxted is worth quoting in full for its brilliant, yet succinct picture:

Lady Buxted’s disposition was not a loving one. She was quite as selfish as her brother, and far less honest, for she neither acknowledged, nor, indeed, recognized her shortcomings. She had long since convinced herself that her life was one long sacrifice to her fatherless children; and, by the simple expedients of prefixing the names of her two sons and three daughters by doting epithets, speaking of them (though not invariably to them) in caressing accents, and informing the world at large that she had no thought or ambition that was not centred on her offspring, she contrived to figure, in the eyes of the uncritical majority, as a devoted parent.

Georgette Heyer, Frederica, Bodley Head, 1965, p.17.

In her usual inimitable style the first chapter reflects Georgette’s remarkable ability to lay the foundations for so much of what is to come in Frederica. As she so often achieved in her novels, whatever the main protagonists may be at the beginning of the book it is certain that they will be transformed by the end. In Frederica the changes to be wrought upon her hero by unexpected events will drive the story and ensure myriad scenes to delight the reader. By his own admission, the Marquis of Alverstoke is not a family man. He has “no proper feeling” and tells his sister frankly that she has no more affection for him than he has for her. He has seen too much of the world, is unimpressed by his affairs with designing women, has developed a reputation for being hard and selfish, and is undeniably bored with much of the life he leads. Little does he know that his world will soon be turned upside down by the arrival of the Merrivilles!

The 2005 Arrow edition of Frederica.“A Nice Piece for you”

Even before she had begun writing it, Georgette already had a fair idea of what her story was to be about. The new novel was to be her second for her new publisher, the Bodley Head, and the CEO, Max Reinhardt, was eager ro receive her next manuscript. The Nonesuch – her first novel with the Bodley Head and published the year before – had been a great success. It had hit the bestseller list upon its release in October 1963 and had sold over 36,000 copies in its first two months. In less than a year since joining the firm Georgette and Max had become good friends and he was keen to follow up her success with a new novel in time for autumn publication. In February 1964, Georgette wrote to him with some details of her planned story:

“here is a Nice Piece for you. Beautifully vague, too, because the mixture has not quite blended yet, though it’s coming into shape fast, now that I’m better acquainted with the Merriville family – not to mention their embarrassing dog. I suppose you don’t happen to know how a schoolboy could contrive to get himself unbeknownst into a balloon? No: well, Ronald says he couldn’t conceal himself amongst the sandbags, but I do WANT little Felix to be carried off in a balloon – waving joyously to his brothers and sisters, followed, on the ground, by my longsuffering and very fashionable hero, driving his curricle, and retrieving him, probably, somewhere in Kent.”

Georgette Heyer to Max Reinhardt, letter, 22 February 1964

The 1968 Pan edition of Frederica“Miss Heyer’s lightest vein”

It is easy to see from her letters just how much Georgette knew about her story and characters before she ever put pen to paper. As was her habit, she almost always conceived her characters in advance of her writing; often thinking them out while playing “endless games of solitaire”. Once she knew who the story was to be about, she then devised various situations into which to drop her dramatis personae. She was a master of comedy and enjoyed writing the imbroglio endings that had become one of the hallmarks of her clever historical novels. In Frederica Georgette created one of her rare happy families: the Merrivilles. With her eponymous heroine very much in charge, Frederica brings her beautiful sister, Charis, and her two younger brothers, Jessamy and Felix, to London with the aim of entering the ton and finding Charis a suitable husband. Knowing the Marquis to be a distant cousin and believing him to be married she writes to Lord Alverstoke in the hope that he will acknowledge their family relationship and that his wife will assist her in achieving her ambition for Charis. Of course, Alverstoke is not married and reluctant to assist the family in any way – that is until he sees Charis! Georgette had the story clearly in mind when at Reinhardt’s request she penned a brief blurb in February 1964:

This book, written in Miss Heyer’s lightest vein, is the story of the adventures in Regency London of the Merriville family: Frederica, riding the whirlwind and directing the storm; Harry, rusticated from Oxford, and embarking with enthusiasm on the more perilous amusements pursued by young gentlemen of ton; the divine Charis, too tenderhearted to discourage the advances of her numerous suitors; Jessamy, destined for the Church, and wavering, in adolescent style, between excessive virtue and a natural exuberance of spirits; and Felix, a schoolboy with a passion for scientific experiment.

In Frederica, Miss Heyer has created one of her most engaging heroines; and in the Marquis of Alverstoke, a bored cynic who becomes involved in all the imbroglios of a lively family, a hero whose sense of humour makes him an excellent foil for Frederica.

Georgette Heyer to Max Reinhardt, letter with blurb for Frederica included, 22 February 1964

“several thousand copies of Frederica

Reinhardt was delighted with the outline of Georgette’s new book and liked it so well that he used it as the blurb for the first edition As he told his bestselling author in early March 1964: “The blurb is fine and you realise of course that with those two paragraphs alone we have already booked orders for several thousand copies of Frederica. The trade are very happy with you and with us.” Knowing that Frederica was underway, Reinhardt immediately began putting things in place for the spring catalogue. It was important to whet the booksellers’ appetite and a new “Georgette Heyer” guaranteed a high subscription figure. Even without publicity and despite her determined reclusiveness the 1960s, Heyer had become a huge bestseller and so famous that her birthday was recorded in The Times.

Lufra was described as a “shaggy hound” Photo: Wikimedia Commons The Baluchistan region is administratively divided among three countries, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran. “He is a hound, not a collie; and what I told you was not Barcelona, but Baluchistan! Baluchistan, Frederica!”“A Baluchistan hound”

Frederica is progressing slowly: I am getting to know the people in it, & have just introduced a pleasing hound, who will probably harry the cows in the Green Park, by way of adding his mite to the troubles besetting Our Hero.

Georgette Heyer to Max Reinhardt, letter, 31 March 1964.

Among Georgette Heyer’s many excellent novels are a number of canine characters whose role (no matter how small) in their particular book is often crucial to the story. In Frederica Georgette created a dog that would become a general favourite with her readers. Named “Lufra” after the brave hound in Sir Walter Scott’s poem, “The Lady of the Lake”, because of his courage in saving Jessamy from a bull, Frederica’s dog has an adventurous history. Georgette describes Luff as a “large and shaggy dog, of indeterminate parentage” with an affable temperament and a “disposition to be friendly”. He is a beloved member of the Merriville family none of whom is truly able to exercise complete control over him. It is this aspect of his doggy personality that Georgette uses to such brilliant effect in Frederica. Of course, to those readers in the know, Lufra will forever be the “Baluchistan Hound” whose bad behaviour in the Green Park not only brings Frederica to the Marquis’s door but also creates one of Heyer’s memorable comic scenes. Georgette loved dogs and always thought of them as excellent judges of character. Whenever a dog is present in a Heyer novel, the reader can be sure of discerning a character’s worth from how well or badly the dog reacts to them.

“I am very, very dangerous, in fact”

For the first few weeks of writing, Frederica progressed well. Georgette was writing when she could but had encountered various interruptions which meant that this novel – unlike her previous fifty – would not be written quickly. This was frustrating, but, knowing that Max had included Frederica in his autumn catalogue she was determined to get the book finished. Georgette was also aware that she had promised Woman’s Journal the manuscript for serial publication. They had offered a £3000 advance and were keen to make a big splash as Frederica would be their 21st Georgette Heyer novel to be serialised in the popular magazine. In late April Georgette wrote to Max Reinhardt in response to his request for a photo of her which the Bodley Head could use on their stand at the London Book Fair. Something of the stress she was feeling is apparent in her reply:

I have retired into seclusion, & I don’t wish to be ruffled by photographers yet. I’m writing a book — did anyone tell you? So just be a Good Little Publisher, & lay off for a bit! I am extremely edgy at the moment, for not only have I been fighting off a cold for days, with lowering drugs, but yesterday was a total loss, thanks first to the activities of the carpenter, who came to make an adjustment to my desk, & second to the Black-Out—which lasted here until 10.45. As I had to remove everything from my desk on Sunday night (& as it is  the Norwegian Miniature Office this means not only typewriter & reams of paper & notes, but al stack of reference books as well), because the carpenter Faithfully Promised to come First Thing & did not, in fact, turn up till 12.0, by the time he left, just before 9.0, I was in a state of seething exasperation. The Black Out put the lid on it.

I am very, very dangerous, in fact.

Georgette Heyer to Max Reinhardt, letter, 21 April 1964

A Norwegian Miniature Office Desk – possibly similar to the one at which Georgette wrote her novels.An interrupted novel

Frederica would take far longer to write that Georgette intended. Unlike most of her previous novels, this book was not finished in two or three months. Despite having started it in February, at the end of May Georgette wrote to her publisher to say that she had only

perpetrated some 48,000 words, & am now staring at the thing & Asking Myself (a) What the hell is this all about? [I don’t know] (b) Will this work live? [NO] (c) What the hell is going to happen? [God may know: I don’t] (d) Do I WANT to write the damned thing? [NO! – or anything else!]

Georgette Heyer to Max Reinhardt, letter, 30 May 1964

The reality was that Georgette was not well. Less than a month later, on 29 June 1964 she was rushed to Guy’s Hospital in excruciating pain. Kidney Stones were diagnosed and an operation scheduled. For the first time in her life, Georgette could not fulfill her contract and finish her book. Frederica was to be an interrupted novel.

Guy’s Hospital, London, Photo: Dr Neil Clifton, Wikimedia Commons

False Colours – double the fun – Part 2

One of famous illustrator Alan Kass’s beautiful book covers. This one is the 1977 Fawcett edition.Direct from Georgette’s pen

It is rare to have a synopsis of a Georgette Heyer novel direct from Georgette’s pen, but among the letters she wrote to her friend and former publisher, A.S. Frere, the one for False Colours has survived. It is long (1650 words) and very detailed. It also includes many of Georgette’s characteristic side remarks and interpolations. As always, when writing to friends she wrote very much as she spoke and with her characteristic and, at times, self-deprecating humour. She wrote the synopsis in mid-April 1963 without having begun the novel. Just nine days later she had written the first 40,000 words of the manuscript. Georgette would turn 61 in August but the years had not diminished her ability to write compelling stories and write them incredibly fast. False Colours would eventually be over 104,000 words long and yet Georgette wrote it in just two months. Perhaps because she always had a clear idea of both the plot and her main characters before beginning a new book, the writing just flowed. Certainly, the synopsis – orginally written for her new publisher, Max Reinhardt, but first sent to Frere – accurately reflects the book that was to become False Colours. Here are the first three paragraphs of Georgette Heyer’s synopsis:

“The time is Jun-July 1817; the setting first in London, & thereafter in Sussex, at Ravenhurst (fictitious), ancestral home of Our Hero. The plot concerns identical twin brothers, & the imbroglio into which they plunge springs from the urgent need to rescue entrancing, but wholly irresponsible Mama from her financial difficulties. She is Amabel, Lady Denville, a widow of 15 months standing, modeled on Georgiana, Dss of Devonshire (whom I have stated firmly she is thought to resemble). Like Georgiana, she never dared disclose the full sum of her debts to rigid husband; & like Georgiana she borrowed money from all & sundry, feeling, every time she borrowed from Peter to pay Paul, that she was in funds at last.”

“The twins are 24 years old. The elder, Evelyn, Earl of Denville, was thought by Father to be about as volatile as Mama, for which reason he left his estate in Trust – sole trustee being his almost equally rigid brother, Henry, Lord Brumby – ex-Ambassador – either until Evelyn reached the age of 30, or until Uncle thought him fit to cope. In fact, while he enjoyed undisputed possession of a large income, he couldn’t touch his principal without his uncle’s consent. The younger twin, hero, is the Hon. Christopher (Kit) Fancot, who entered the Diplomatic Service 3 years before the story opens, & is one of Lord Stewart’s suite, in Vienna. The story opens with his unexpected arrival in London, on leave, in the middle of the night. He has had one of those twin-feelings that all is not well with Evelyn, & soon learns from Mama how right he was. He also learns that Evelyn went off, ostensibly to Ravenhurst, ten days before, having said he would return within a week. No one has the least idea where he is, but as he sent faithful groom back to London before leaving Ravenhurst for an unknown destination, it looks as if one of his wild moods has descended on him. Mama discloses that before he went away he had proposed to the Hon. Cressida (Cressy) Stavely, a 20 year old girl, who is intelligent, & – fortunately! – possessed of a strong sense of humour, reason for this sudden plunge into matrimony: Poor Mama’s debts MUST be discharged, & Uncle has said that if only Evelyn would sober up, & marry a Suitable Girl, he is more than willing to wind up a Trust of which he never really approved. I should add that Uncle has always regarded Poor Mama as a Menace, & would only sell out to pay her colossal debts under conditions wholly unacceptable to her. Cressy’s reason for consenting to this marriage de convenance is the sudden acquisition of a young stepmother, who wants to get rid of her, being wildly jealous. Cressy feels that she’d better clear out – for her own comfort, & also her father’s. So she accepted Evelyn’s offer, & so did father – subject to consent of dragon of Grandmama. Kit arrives in London on the eve of a family dinner-party at the Stavely mansion, at which Evelyn is to be presented to Grandmama – who is already prejudiced against him.

Of course, you’ll never guess what happens. I’ll put you out of eager suspense. Mama gets one of her brilliant ideas, & coaxes & bullies Kit into impersonating Evelyn “just for one evening!” But – again of course! – it turns out to be for much longer. And WHAT DO YOU THINK? In due course he falls in love with Cressy, & she with him. Take a stiff brandy, & read on!”

Georgette Heyer to A.S. Frere, letter, 15 April 1963

The 1984 Signet cover for False Colours.The twins – Kit & Evelyn

Georgette wrote only one novel featuring twins. Kit and Evelyn Fancot are identical in looks but completely different in temperament. Kit features in the novel far more than Evelyn, of whom we hear much but only meet in the last third of the book. Both young men are endearing, but it is Kit who takes centre stage, having to impersonate his brother in order to save the family from scandal and Kit who falls in love with the girl Evelyn is meant to marry. Even though he is not in the story as much as his brother, Georgette declared that “Evelyn is going to be fun”. She has him overturn his curricle and then rescued by a genteel family with a beautiful daughter (who is not only named Patience but is surprisngly like Patience Chartley in Georgette’s previous book, The Nonesuch) and the rest – as they say – is history. Here is Heyer’s account of Evelyn and Patience from her synopsis – complete with a pithy observation about the likely success of their union:

“He came round, as he raptly informs Kit, to find an Angel bending over him. This was Patience, the eldest unmarried daughter of the house, with whom he instantly fell in love. I have not the smallest intention of bringing this character on to the scene, being in full agreement with Poor Mama, who, after listening to Evelyn’s rapturous description of her, confided to Kit & Cressy that she sounds a very insipid sort of girl. Evelyn is always falling in love, & out of it, but this is the Real Thing. I shouldn’t think myself that the marriage would be a success, but his family believe Patience may be just the job, & who am I to know better than they do?”

As always, Georgette’s characters lived for her – perhaps because she thought of them as real people. Just one more reason why her characters live for her readers.

The 2005 Arrow edition of False Colours.Highlights

Although False Colours does not often rate in readers’ Top Ten Favourite Heyer Novels, the book has many highlights that make it worth reading and re-reading. Among these are the marvellous Mrs Alperton – a former prostitute who arrives at Ravenhurst hoping to blackmail Evelyn (who is really Kit) for breach of promise after he has apparently neglected her daughter Clara. It is obvious that Georgette enjoyed writing these chapters and especially bringing the unflappable Cressy into the scene to save the day – much to Kit’s astonishment and gratification. Another highlight is the twins’ mother, Lady Denville, whose glorious naiveté and good intentions are the cause of the entire imbroglio. Married when she was just seventeen to a man of stern mien and severe habits, poor Amabel has no idea about money or debt. All she knows is that, like the Duchess of Devonshire upon whom she is based, she must keep her debts a secret from her husband. It is, however, the wonderfully named Sir Bonamy Ripple who almost steals the book. Georgette described him as “one of my more felicitous creations” and indeed he is among her best comic characters. Vividly brought to life by Heyer’s clever pen, Sir Bonamy is a gourmand and a true hedonist. He is also enormously fat, immensely wealthy and unstintingly generous. He has been Lady Denville’s cicisbeo (gallant admirer) for years and the scene at the end of the book where he meets her after bedtime and is not wearing his corsets is hilarious. Georgette was very pleased with Sir Bonamy. Her is her account of her “absurd dandy” whom Lady Denville so artfully and sweetly manipulates into offering her marriage and thereby solving most of the book’s problems:

Sir Bonamy Ripple, an immensely fat, wealthy, & absurd dandy, who was one of her [Lady Denville’s] original suitors, & has been her faithful cicisbeo ever since – regarded by her husband with indifference, & by her sons as a good joke. Do not even away with the idea that this pleasing character is produced like a conjuror’s rabbit! He is mentioned in the first chapter, & makes an appearance soon after.

I feel this decision of Mama’s should produce a very good scene, for I rather think she jockeyed Sir Bonamy into the marriage. I don’t think he really wanted to marry her, or anyone else. It had suited him very well to be on cicisbeo-terms, & to fancy himself a bachelor-for-her-sake. He had been lending her money, without interest, for years; besides getting the heirlooms copied for her.

Evelyn, who can see no fault in Mama, is against the marriage, but Kit – who has reached the stage of wondering why no one ever spoke of Poor Papa – feels it is the only solution, since Mama has no money-sense whatsoever, & will infallibly run up fresh bills all her life. So he & Cressy set out to convince Sir Bonamy that the Devotion of a Lifetime is at last winning its reward, & that he is going to be wonderfully happy. Fortunately he is as persuadable as he is good-natured, so All End’s Well, & the whole gang lived happily ever after.

Georgette Heyer to A.S. Frere, letter, 15 April 1963.

Georgette greatly approved of Arthur Barbosa’s elegant covers for her books.A jacket from Barbosa

With False Colours well under way, in May Georgette had a visit from her Arthur Barbosa. By 1963 Barbosa had been designing her book covers for almost ten years ahving begun with The Toll-Gate in 1954. Georgette loved his elegant designs which she felt represented her work far better than the jackets produced by Pan for her paperbacks. For years she had found the Pan book covers inappropriate and on one occasion almost salacious. Only a month earlier she had written to Elizabeth Anderson, the Rights and Contracts manager at Heinemann (who licensed the Pan paperbacks), to acknowledge Pan’s long overdue response to her concerns:

I am glad to note that PAN propose to improve the quality of the cover-pictures. Will you please request them to avoid, in future, the somewhat salacious touch which characterized at least one of these? It has never been my practice to try to interfere with the production side of my work, but I have been meaning for some time to protest against any suggestion that a book written by me will be found to contain lurid sex-scenes. I find this nauseating; I have ample evidence that my fans are revolted by it; and I have enough sense to realize that new readers, attracted by a sex-suggestive cover, will suffer nothing but disappointment if they are misled into buying the book.

Georgette Heyer to Elizabeth Anderson, letter, 23 April 1963

It is worth noting that for most of Heyer’s career, even if she had wanted to include sex scenes in her novels, censorship laws would have prevented her from doing so. It wasn’t until 1959 that the Obscene Publications Act was passed amending the laws governing cases such as author Walter Baxter’s who, with Frere, in the mid-1950s had been distressed to have to face court over Baxter’s book, The Image and the Search. It wasn’t until 1960, that the new laws would be tested with the legal suit against D.H. Lawrence’s book Lady Chatterley’s Lover, which would result in a victory for authors, publishers and reader. The right to include sex scenes in novels would not tempt Georgette Heyer, however, to change the habit of a lifetime. She preferred to write witty, elegant comedies of manners and Barbosa’s beautiful wrappers suited her perfectly. As she happily told Max Reinhardt:

“I have just had Barbosa here, with a design for the jacket, & I write to tell you that I like it very much, & think it stands out as an unmistakable Heyer-novel. He tells me that Heinemann always urged him to depict a Beautiful Female, which he refused to do, knowing that he would surely earn himself a blast from me. I know nothing about the commercial properties of wrapper designs, but I do think this one should stand out, lending itself nicely to Displays. I do know that Harrods Book Dept. are enthusiastic about Barbosa’s jackets for my books, so I hope you’ll agree that this one fills the bill.”

Georgette Heyer to Max Reinhardt, letter, 13 May 1963

Arthur Barbosa – illustrator Arthur Barbosa

Artur Ernesto Teixeira de Vasconcelos Barbosa (1908-1995) was born in Liverpool to a half-French mother and a Portugese father. His father was a vice-consul with a distinguished lineage but, despite his Continental ancestry, his son Arthur (he preferred the English version of his name) would go on to become a quintessential Englishman. Arthur disliked the modern tendency towards familiarity and thus would always be known to friends and acquaintances as “Barbosa”. He was educated at St Edward’s School, Oxford, before going on to the Liverpool School of Art, the Heatherley School of Fine Art and finally, the Central School of Art. A talented artist and illustrator, Barbosa began to successfully exhibit his work while still a student. He also had a penchant for interior design and, at the age of only twenty, designed the interior of St Andrew’s Church in West Kirby, Wirral, Merseyside. In the 1960s Barbosa would design the interiors for Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton’s yacht Kalizma and actor Rex Harrison’s house in Portofino, Italy. Barbosa would become best-known for his iconic illustrations for Georgette Heyer’s book jackets and for his covers for George MacDonald Fraser’s Flashman novels.

The quote is apposite but the truly excruciating Penguin cover is not.A copy for Max Reinhardt

Dear Max

There is a certain difficulty attached to the autographing of books which one didn’t bestow on the applicant. Angela Thirkell used to overcome it by writing: “I wish that I had given this book to X–;” but if I were to copy her (which God forbid!) it would be a gross lie. You can’t think how glad I am that you had to pay handsomely for it! I shall merely say that I am happy to know that wish to place a copy of it amongst your personal books – however much I may deplore your taste in literature!

Yours ever,

Georgette

Georgette Heyer, personal dedication to her publisher, Max Reinhardt, on the fly-leaf of False Colours.

False Colours – double the fun – Part 1

‘Though like Ronald, you don’t know Anything about Anything, I feel your instinct may inform you that this is just the sort of nonsense which suits my particular brand of humour’

Georgette Heyer to Max Reinhardt, letter, 1963

The 1963 Bodley Head first edition of False Colours with its jacket by Barbosa.Heyer moves to Bodley Head

In 1963, Georgette Heyer left Heinemann, her publisher for nearly forty years, and moved to the Bodley Head. It was a move that she had come to see as inevitable after her close friend and publisher, A. S. Frere, had been pushed out of any active role at the firm. In 1961 the company had approached bankruptcy and Frere was one of several people who wanted to sell Heinemann to the American publisher, McGraw-Hill. The deal fell through, however, (it was strongly felt by some in the company that Heinemann should remain an English publisher) and Frere lost his position as chairman. He was appointed president instead and “kicked upstairs” into what amounted to little more than a token role. He was no longer in charge and his direct relationships with authors he had nurtured and befriended over many years were effectively severed. In late 1962, fed up with no longer having an active role at Heinemann, Frere resigned as president and moved to the Bodley Head which was owned and managed by his friend, Max Reinhardt. With Frere went Georgette Heyer, Graham Greene, Eric Ambler and George Millar. Their departure was a serious loss to Heinemann and both Georgette Heyer and Graham Greene expressed sadness at the way things had unfolded:

“Very many thanks for your letter – & for my enjoyable lunch! The occasion was a gloomy one, but I am so glad to have met you; & I hope that my secession from the ranks won’t preclude our meeting again. You were very persuasive, but my decision wasn’t reached without a great deal of thought. In fact, to be asked to think any more about if almost makes me drum with my heels: Frere has been preaching Thought, Consideration, & Caution ever since I told him that I should leave the firm when he did. I don’t doubt I should get on beautifully with you, but there is more to all this than the personal friendship angle. A lot of very murky water has been flowing under the Heinemann bridge, & I don’t like it. It can serve no useful purpose to enlarge upon what I said to you yesterday, so I will merely say that I am sorry, but my mind is made up.”

Georgette Heyer to Derek Priestley, letter, 9 January 1963.

“…after thirty-two years with Heinemann, it has taken me many months to make up my mind, but a publishing firm to an author means a personal contact, a personal sense of confidence reciprocated, and this I can no longer find in a company of whom the directors are nearly all unknown to me.”

Graham Greene to A.S. Frere, letter 16 October 1962.

Graham Greene left Heinemann in 1962 photo Fortepan Wikimedia CommonsGeorgette Heyer left Heinemann for Bodley Head in 1962.The departure of Georgette Heyer and Graham Greene was a serious loss for Heinemann.A new novel for her new publisher

Two days after writing to Derek Priestley to assure him she would not resile from her decision to leave Heinemann, Georgette wrote her first letter to her new publisher. Max Reinhardt was the part owner and Managing Director of the Bodley Head. A tall, solidly-built man and very charming, he was also a talented bridge-player, a member of the Savile and Garrick Clubs, had lived at Albany and was a good friend of Frere’s – all things guaranteed to win Georgette’s approval! In time she and Ronald would become good friends with Max and his American wife Joan. Although her first two letters to her new publisher began with the formal “Dear Mr Reinhardt” Georgette soon abandoned the practice and by April her third letter told him frankly: “on second thoughts I’ll alter that to Dear Max, because now we have entered into what I hope will prove an enduring association the sooner we abandon formality the better it will be for both of us.” A congenial publisher (and likely advised by Frere), from the beginning Reinhardt knew just how to respond to Georgette. In February 1963, shewrote to him with news of her new novel: “at the moment I can only give you the title, which is False Colours, & my assurance that I do know what it’s going to be about!”

Georgette was intensely loyal to her adored friend, A.S. Frere and followed him to Bodley Head..In 1963 Max Reinhardt became Georgette’s publisher. They would remain good friends until her death in 1974.Two of the most important people in Georgette Heyer’s life.A detailed synopsis

Georgette knew exactly what the story was to be about and on 15 April wrote out a detailed synopsis of the planned novel. She had originally intended to send the blurb to Reinhardt, but  – perhaps feeling a little unsure of her new publisher – changed her mind and instead sent it to Frere with a humorous explanation:

I have had a shot at writing a précis of the book for M.R.’s perusal, but I thought the result would very likely cause him to suffer a stroke, so I didn’t send it to him. Instead, I will favour you with an account of What this Book is About. An Easter Treat, ducky! Perhaps, in addition, you would like me to come & read my first chapter aloud to you?

Georgette Heyer to A.S. Frere, letter 15 April 1963.

At almost 1700 words the précis is a remarkably detailed account of the book that would become False Colours. Georgette had an extraordinary ability to see her story and characters in full before she even put pen to paper (or, by now, fingers to typewriter!). While she might have doubted her new publisher’s reaction to her plan for the novel, Frere had no such qualms. He immediately sent her synopsis to Max, exactly as Georgette has written it. A week later her new publisher sent her a proposed blurb for the book cover based on her outline. Heyer was impressed and, assuming that he had written it himself, told Max that he had made her book “sound positively scintillating”. It is perhaps unlikely that Reinhardt wrote the blurb himself although he does seem to have actually read False Colours. In later years his former secretary, Belinda McGill, reported that Max “was not a great reader and that it was Joan who probably read the novels and told her husband about them”. By mid April Georgette had written 40,000 words and despite “a sticky start” told Max that:

“I seem to be getting on fairly well with False Colours – should be getting on much faster if I would overcome a bad bout of insomnia. I did sleep for 4 hours last night, so perhaps this scourge is on the wane. A week ago it was so bad that I came very close to breaking what has so far been an inflexible rule: No Drugs.”

Georgette Heyer to A.S. Frere, letter, 15 April 1963.

The 1971 Penguin paperback with an historically accurate costumed cover that pleased Georgette.No Drugs

Now in her early sixties, Georgette could no longer maintain her old regimen of staying up all night to write. Twice in the 1950s a doctor had prescribed Dexedrine for her influenza and she had discovered to her surprise that the medication had a useful side effect. If she took a tablet in the evening she could once again stay up and write all night. Heyer had no knowledge of what we would today call “uppers” and (despite some reviewers’ incorrect assertions) she did not rely on drugs to write her novels. Only two of her fifty-six books fell into those two short-lived dexedrine weeks. In what was to be the final decade of Heyer’s life her work would be interrupted by various episodes of ill-health, but her love of writing and telling wonderful stories always prevailed.

Remarkably, despite having written 49 novels in 40 years, False Colours and the two books that would come after it would each have new plots. This time the story was to be about identical twins – Evelyn and Kit Fancot – whose delightful but utterly impecunious mama is the cause of their problems. Heyer based Lady Denville on the historical Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire (1757-1806). While her husband is alive, Lady Denville (like her historical counterpart’s) must try to keep her extravagant lifestyle and enormous gambling debts from her husband. After Lord Denville dies, it falls to her sons to try and save her from financial disaster. In creating Lady Denville, Heyer had in part been inspired by a request from actress Anna Neagle who had asked Georgette if she would “write a nice middle aged part for her”. Neagle’s husband, the producer, Herbert Wilcox, hoped to turn False Colours into a television series with Anna in the starring role. Though she would have been perfect as the entrancing Lady Denville, the projected series didn’t happen. The book, however, was a huge success, with a second printing ordered even before it was published. Released in October 1963, within two months False Colours had sold 50,000 copies and Georgette had another hit on her hands. (Next week’s blog will include parts of Heyer’s synopsis for False Colours)

Anna Neagle longed to play the part of Lady Denville in a planned TV series of False Colours.

The Nonesuch – Heyer’s last book for Heinemann

A few weeks ago Mrs Rougier told me that she has made a start on a new novel. The  provisional title is NONESUCH. I have no idea when it is likely to be ready, but she is a fast worker and I have little doubt but that the manuscript will be ready for publication in the early autumn.

A.S. Frere to Derek Priestley, letter, 26 March 1962

The 1962 Heinemann first edition of The Nonesuch“fantastic demands”

Just two months after the publication of A Civil Contract in October 1961, Georgette had begun turning her mind to a new novel. She had two ideas for the book but was not sure which one to write. Among her letters from the period is one she wrote to her close friend and publisher, A.S. Frere. He and his wife, her adored Pat Wallace, had just returned from their holiday in the south of France and Georgette wrote them a long letter in which she penned this one all-too tantalising sentence as to what the new story might be about:

Darling-Frere, I cannot think whether I will write Manifold, or Gideon – but one or the other I must write, if the fantastic demands of the I.R. are to be met. Come & dine with us both of you , & I will be incredibly boring about My Art.

Georgette Heyer to A.S. Frere, letter, 21 December 1961.

Unsurprisingly, in the era of super-tax as high as 95 pence in the pound, Georgette and Ronald still resented the Inland Revenue’s (I.R.) depredations on their income. And there were other financial problems beleaguring them, including the problem of Heron, the company set up to hold her copyrights, as well as the money accruing in the company account which they could not touch without a large tax bill. But these worries were for the future and not to be thought of when Georgette was planning a new book and her son’s wedding. The book was to be The Nonesuch and the wedding was to be in June.

“Manifold or Gideon”?

Manifold, of course, would eventually appear as the name of her next hero’s principal residence which Georgette would describe as his “very beautiful house in Gloucestershire, which has been in his family for generations.” Gideon might have been anyone but the knowing reader will instantly recognise the name as the one given to Georgette’s handsome young Lifeguardsman in her 1949 novel, The Foundling. Captain Gideon Ware has long been a favourite among Heyer readers. As cousin to The Foundling’s hero he is only a secondary character in the novel but still plays a vital role with several memorable appearances. All of this has left many readers longing for “more Gideon”, which makes the mention of the name in Heyer’s letter an intriguing clue. The wish has often been expressed that he should have his own novel and perhaps it was this Gideon to whom Heyer was referring in her letter to Frere. We will never know for sure, but whether she did or didn’t think of writing a book about Gideon Ware, in the end she chose to write a book in which the word Manifold refers merely to a great house and one which, in the end, plays no actual role in the novel she was to write. As she told Frere at the end of her letter: “Do you want to know about the NONESUCH – Well, ALL RIGHT! I wasn’t going to tell you, so you needn’t start a Donald Duck before you’re hurt! How could I tell you what I don’t know, Stoopid?” This as her way of telling her publisher that the book was in the making but not yet begun!

The Prince of Wales Hotel in Southport where Georgette and Ronald stayed in March 1962. photo Wikimedia Commons.Inspiration from the north

In March 1962, Georgette and Ronald travelled north to Lancashire, there to attend a Water Enquiry at Accrington and the Northern Optical Conference in Southport. Ronald’s law practice was mainly centred in water rights and utilities (hence one of the plot threads of Detection Unlimited) and in 1959 he had been made a Queen’s Counsel (QC). A year later he had received a Privy Council Appointment as Chairman of the General Optical Council, the regulator for the optical professions in the UK. He was proud of the role but it meant having to sometimes travel out of London and attend a variety of official functions, conferences and banquets. Georgette’s strong sense of loyalty meant that she was at times required to accompany him to these social events even though she intensely disliked gatherings of this kind. As she told a friend: “All the banquets and congresses I can’t get out of–plus a succession of Expensive Full Evening Dresses, with pale gloves no use after the first wearing, none of which I have the least other use for.” Excrutiatingly shy and never truly comfortable at large social events full of unfamiliar people, Georgette did her best to socialise but often found that her “face soon ached with its Pleased Smile.” There were benefits, however, not least of which was meeting some interesting and charismatic people – some of whom (as was her habit) she undoubtedly put into her books. At one such dinner during the Lancashire trip she was delighted to meet the town’s mayor who turned out to be “a Honey”:

…we went on to Southport, to attend the last few days of the Northern Optical conference. This wasn’t as grim as I’d expected. For one thing, Southport is quite a good sort of place; and to go on with the Prince of Wales Hotel there is first-class. It was extremely exhausting, however, not the least wearing features being the Absolute Necessity of fitting the right names to the right faces. Very few of the delegates came out of quite one’s own drawer, so great care had to be taken not to offend tender susceptibilities. We were given the V.I.P. treatment, too, which meant that my face soon ached with its Pleased Smile. No respite, either – since nearly all the worthy people were staying in the P. of W. However, I had an unexpected reward. At the Banquet, I found myself (as I had gloomily prophesied) seated on the Mayor’s right – and he turned out to be a Honey! He informed me at the outset that he was a plumber, and he had the instinctive savoir faire which characterized Bevin, and is so endearing. I may mention that he won my heart at the outset by telling me that “Ee, he was glad to have me beside him, because he had wanted, at the Ball on the previous night, to coom a bit closer to me, because he couldn’t hear all I said, but enough to show him that I was “a natural-born ‘umorist!” so was he! We had a splendid time – and a lovely talk about cricket, with particular reference to Brian Statham. His poor little wife was scared white, but doing her best to live up to him. I sat and talked to her for a little while after dinner, and when I said how sick she must be of being charming to hoards of strangers, she confided that it was all right when they were nice people, but she didn’t like it when they were stook-oop. I said that such persons weren’t worth a thought, to which she replied wistfully that that was what the mayor said, only the fact was she wasn’t much of a one for the Social.

Georgette Heyer to A.S. Frere, letter, 20 March 1962.

Georgette elegant in black gown and long white gloves with Ronald behind. The Mayor is likely the gentleman in the centre with his “little wife” to his left.“3 or 4 families in a country village”

Inspired by her trip to the north of England and no doubt by some of the people she met in Southport (could one of the ladies in the above photo have possibly inspired her characters of Mrs Underhill or Mrs Mickleby?) Georgette set her new novel in Yorkshire’s West Riding, a little way east of Lancashire. Set well away from the swirl and glamour of London society, in writing The Nonesuch Heyer followed Jane Austen’s recommendation to her niece that “3 or 4 families in a country village is the very thing to work on”. Heyer’s fictional village is called Oversett, which she described as being: “rather closer to Leeds than to Harrogate, and not above twenty miles from York”. The story was to be Austenesque in several ways for there is prejudice here and a (rather inane) misunderstanding between hero and heroine; the heroine is an older female who has (like Anne Elliot) resigned herself to a life without love and marriage; both sense and sensibility are on display throughout; the very spoilt Tiffany Wield has as many complaints as Mary Musgrove; while Patience Chartley is as good and as modest as poor Fanny Price. Oversett would prove to be a kind of microcosm of Regency society with its wealthy and not-so wealthy families, its social hierarchy, factions, prejudices and gossip. Gossip plays an important role in the novel which is centred on the ways in which the wealthy families in the village react to the news that Sir Waldo Hawkridge – the Nonesuch of the title – is on his way to Oversett to inspect his recently-inherited house, Broom Hall. The news causes a great stir in the village and the reader learns much about the different residents’ characters and outlook from their various reactions to the great man’s projected visit.

The 2005 Arrow edition of The Nonesuch“An out-and-outer”

Not since Beau Wyndham in The Corinthian have Heyer readers been treated to such a complete “out-and-outer” as Sir Waldo Hawkridge – also known as “the Nonesuch”. According to Grose’s 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue a nonesuch is “one that is unequalled” Apparently the term was often used ironically, but this was definitely not the case when referring to Sir Waldo. whose elegant appearance, sporting prowess, equestrian skill and manly bearing made the sobriquet entirely apt. But there is much more to Sir Waldo than his expertise in fashion, fishing, shooting, hunting, riding, driving, boxing, and etiquette, for the Nonesuch is also a philanthropist. Carrying on in the footsteps of his late father, Sir Thurstan Hawkridge – also a benevolent humanitarian – Waldo has already created one orphan asylum and, upon inheriting Broom Hall, intends to put the estate to good use and open another. He brings with him to Yorkshire his younger cousin, Julian, Lord Lindeth, who is both handsome and congenial. Uninterested in fashionable life and eager to spend time with his splendid cousin, Julian is almost as eligible a catch as the hugely wealthy Sir Waldo and it is he who catches the eye of the very spoilt, very headstrong beautiful young heiress, Tiffany Wield. Tiffany, too, is a nonesuch – though cast in a very different mould from Sir Waldo! Tiffany is unequalled – both in the book and in all of Heyerdom – in her propensity for throwing tantrums and behaving badly whenever she does not get her own way. Fortunately for all those forced to endure Tiffany’s bad behaviour, there is one person who is able to exert some control over her.

A very superior governess“The New Governess” by Edmund Blair Leighton. Picture Wikimedia Commons.

Ancilla Trent is the heroine of the novel. The daughter of a large family, well-bred but not wealthy family she has deliberately chosen not to be a burden. She is twenty-six, Intelligent, honest, well-informed and very good at her job. As “a very superior governess” she is able to command the extraordinary salary of £150 a year. In an era when a housemaid earned a mere £6 a year, this really was a remarkable amount to pay to a governess. Such are the difficulties in managing Tiffany, however, that Miss Trent earns every penny of it. In most cases, a governess was not well-paid for her work and, as Jane Austen points out in Emma it was not a desirable occupation. This is how she describes Jane Fairfax’s decision to support herself by becoming a governess: “With the fortitude of a devoted novitiate, she had resolved at one-and-twenty to complete the sacrifice and retire from all the pleasures of life, of rational intercourse, equal society, peace, and hope, to penance and mortification forever.” During the Regency a governess was usually a woman paid to live in the family home and take sole charge of the children’s care and education. She was often a gently-born female whose financial circumstances compelled her to take one of the few jobs available to such women at the time. For many it meant a lifetime of drudgery, submission and snubs, throughout which they were expected to maintain a cheerful disposition and undertake all manner of tasks outside the schoolroom. For such work they could be paid the princely sum of £50 a year (many received less and a very small number like Ancilla received more). Some governesses were fortunate in being accepted into the broader family circle where they were treated, not as an equal, but neither as a servant; a role similar to that of the family chaplain or private tutor. It was not an easy role and in The Nonesuch as Sir Waldo finds himself drawn more and more to Miss Trent, he becomes less and less able to reconcile her obvious virtues and abilites with the menial role she is forced to fulfill. Ancilla is very good at her job, however, as this early encounter with her difficult pupil shows:

Miss Trent regarded her thoughtfully. “Well, it’s an odd circumstance, but I’ve frequently observed that whenever you boast of your beauty you seem to lose some of it. I expect it must be the change in your expression.”

Startled, Tiffany flew to gaze anxiously into the ornate looking-glass which hung above the fireplace. “Do I?” she asked naively. “Really do I, Ancilla?” “Yes, decidedly,” replied Miss Trent, perjuring her soul without the least hesitation.

Georgette Heyer, The Nonesuch, Pan, 1975, pp. 22-23

Difficulties

As she wrote the novel through March, April and into May, Georgette found that she was not altogether happy with The Nonesuch – although she liked the title. It had been “written under difficulties”. These related to her elderly mother, Sylvia, who had frequently been ill and needed a good deal of her daughter’s time and attention. Georgette gave these as best she could, but it was not easy when she was writing her novel with a deadline. Early in May she wrote to Frere to say:

I shall hope to be able to send you THE NONESUCH by the first week in June, but I make no rash promises! You know that I am anxious to finish it by the end of this month, but it’s going to be a tight squeeze, and when I have finished it I am having it retyped – which might add on another week, I imagine.

Georgette Heyer to A.S. Frere, letter, 9 May 1962.

Her son Richard was being married on 2 June with the reception at Georgette and Ronald’s Albany flat. Of course, this meant additional pressure to finishThe Nonesuch. Georgette managed it somehow and as able to leave on 8 August for her annual holiday as planned. She received the galley-proofs for The Nonesuch just as she was leaving for Scotland and finished correcting them on 16 August 1962. It was her sixtieth birthday and they were at Greywalls where they planned to stay until 10 September. she was on holiday at Greywalls. Unfortunately, this was not to be. Although Georgette and Ronald were expecting their son Richard and his new wife Susie to join them on their summer holiday the day before they were due to arrive at GreywallsGeorgette received a telegram with the news that her mother had suffered a stroke. She and Ronald immediately returned to London and arrived at the hospital to discover Sylvia Heyer partially paralysed and bereft of most speech. Sylvia was eighty-six years old and, though she and her only daughter had not always seen eye-to-eye, Georgette loved her mother.

Sylvia Heyer who died only a month after publication of The NonesuchGeorgette was at Greywalls when she received news of her mother’s stroke.Sadness

For the next two months Georgette endured the emotional challenges and physical demands of her mother’s illness. Two months after the stroke that had robbed her of so much, on 27 November 1962, Sylvia Heyer died. Georgette was devastated. Perhaps she and her mother had not been true kindred spirits, but in those later years they had become close. Although her mother sometimes irritated her and Georgette could not always understand Sylvia’s response to her writing, ever since her father’s death in 1925, Georgette had supported her mother. In her turn, Sylvia, at first somewhat dismissive of her daughter’s writing, had come to appreciate her books and was always one of her first readers. It was unfortunate that she often liked those of Georgette’s books which her daughter did not think as good as others of her novels which her mother did not like so well. Perhaps this was inevitable between two such different personalities. But they had a shared history which mattered a great deal to Georgette. It also counted that her mother had loved her husband – Georgette’s adored father. Sylvia had never remarried after George’s death, perhaps because there had never been anyone for her but him. Georgette had been 22 when her father died; she was 60 when her mother passed away, but neither death was easy for her. Not long after Sylvia’s death, Georgette received a letter of condolence from her old friend, Isabella Banton, who had been her landlady at the flat in Hove in 1941-42. In a remarkably candid letter, Georgette expressed her feelings at her loss:

Dear Isabella

Yes, it was Mama: how nice of you to have written! She died of uraemia [kidney failure], following on a thrombosic stroke, which she suffered on August 22nd, eight days after I had gone to Scotland. Since then, life has been an ever worsening nightmare; & although the actual end was peaceful, it had been preceded by every hateful circumstance she most dreaded,& had always hoped would never befall her. Until the last fortnight she always knew me… Only a monster could have wished her to linger on, but her death leaves me feeling shattered, & strangely lost. Exhausted, too.

Georgette Heyer to Isabella Banton, letter, 3 December 1962.

Her last book with Heinemann

In a strange way perhaps it was fitting that the book which came out just before her mother’s death was to be Georgette Heyer’s last book published by Heinemann. He rmother’s death marked the end of an era. Frere’s departure from Heinemann also marked the end of an era. The following year, in company with her fellow authors, Graham Greene and Eric Ambler, Georgette Heyer followed her friend and publisher to The Bodley Head. They would publish her last seven novels.

Dear Mrs Rougier

I thought you would like to learn that we have had ordered a reprint of THE NONESUCH. The book has been having a great success, particularly during the last month when it has been selling at the rate of 1500 copies a week – this in addition to a very handsome subscription at the time of publication. We have now printed in all 57,500 copies.

Derek Priestley to Georgette Heyer, letter, 31 December 1962.

“Queen and huntress”

Here is Ben Johnson’s poem, which Julian, Lord Lindeth, quotes to Tiffany on their first meeting:

Queen, and huntress, chaste and fair,Now the sun is laid to sleep,Seated in thy silver chair,State in wonted manner keep : Hesperus entreats thy light, Goddess excellently bright.Earth, let not thy envious shadeDare itself to interpose ;Cynthia's shining orb was madeHeaven to clear when day did close : Bless us then with wishèd sight, Goddess excellently bright.Lay thy bow of pearl apart,And thy crystal shining quiver ;Give unto the flying hartSpace to breathe, how short soever : Thou that mak'st a day of night, Goddess excellently bright.Ben Johnson

A Civil Contract – Hidden Depths part 2

“I ought to be arranging all these matters, but how can I, when that bloody book is sitting in the typewriter, no more than half done, & me afflicted with a sort of paralysis? I utter a parrot-cry: “I must finish my book!” when R[onald]. ventures to make enquiries about my plans; & follow this up by sitting at the typewriter & staring stupidly at the half-finished page in it.”

Georgette Heyer to Pat Wallace, letter, 18 July 1960. She would dedicate the novel to Wallace.

Perhaps her greatest novel, A Civil ContractA complex novel

It is not surprising that Heyer found A Civil Contract a challenging book to write, for in many ways it is her most complex novel. A deeply emotional story, it is multi-layered in its characterisation and replete with historical detail. Unusually for Georgette, it is a book with a clear historical timeline, covering the seventeen months from January 1814 to June 1815 and culminating with the financial panic after the Battle of Waterloo. She wrote it in 1960, more than twenty years after writing her two most historical novels: An Infamous Army (1937) and The Spanish Bride (1940). In her late fifties Georgette’s memory was still remarkable and the historical detail so important to the very human story of A Civil Contract appears to have been effortlessly distilled into the narrative. But there is more than the military history so vital to her story. Here is a window into the problems of agriculture; encounters with Coke of Holkham; mention of the Corn Law riots; an account of the Prince Regent’s relationship with his estranged wife, Princess Caroline; his unhappy dealings with his rebellious daughter, Princess Charlotte – whose escape from Warwick House (as told by the real-life Miss Mercia Elphinstone at fictional Jenny’s party) – caused such a scandal; a description of Carlton House; an account of the Procession of the Allied Sovereigns; and the disastrous effect of the historical Dr Croft’s “reducing diet” on pregnant women, with its clever nod to his disastrous treatment of Princess Charlotte only three years later, among other things. With the lightest of touches, Georgette weaves her tightly-controlled and compelling story in and around a solid structure of Regency history.

Princess Charlotte, whose stormy relationship with her father the Regent is touched on in A Civil ContractPrincess Caroline, the Prince Regent’s estranged wife, makes a grand entrance at the theatre in A Civil ContractPictires: Wikimedia CommonsA Love triangle

Not since 1937, when she had written about “the triangle of one girl and 2 men” in An Infamous Army, had Georgette included a love triangle in one of her novels. The plot of A Civil Contract, however, was to have a love triangle at its centre – only this time it would be one man and 2 women driving the action. The man is Adam Deveril, the new Viscount Lynton, whose only hope of saving the family estate is to marry an heiress. Unfortunately, Adam is already in love with the beautiful Julia Oversley, daughter of a moderately well-off earl. The woman he must marry is plain Jenny Chawleigh, the daughter of a fabulously wealthy, strong-minded, generous and (at times) vulgar Cit. Julia is 18, emotional and passionate with a head full of romantic ideals. Adam is 26, and has been in the army since his teens. A man of honour with a strong sense of duty, Adam also has a strong romantic streak and to him Julia is the “embodiment of a dream”. He loves her enchanting nature, her beauty and her sweetness while she thinks of him as a knight in shining armour. Adam and Julia believe themselves to be passionately in love and each is heartbroken when forced to accept that without money they can never marry.

Beautifull Julia Oversley embodies Adam’s romantic dream.But plain practical Jenny Chawleigh will prove to be a better partner.Pictures: Wikimedia CommonsA marriage of convenience

Faced with financial ruin, at first Adam is appalled by the suggestion (from both Mr Wimmering, his man of business, and Julia’s father) that he marry an heiress in order to save the family fortune. Though he knows he must give up all hope of marrying the woman of his dreams, the proposal of a marriage of convenience goes against everything Adam holds dear. Even knowing that such marriages are surprisingly common does not lessen his distaste of the idea. It is not until he is visited by Mr Jonathan Chawleigh – the rich businessman who wishes his only child, Jenny, to marry a nobleman – that Adam is truly confronted with the advantages of such a match. He has told Mr Wimmering that “I don’t contemplate putting myself up for sale”, but his sense of obligation to his name and heritage, as well as to his two sisters for whom he must provide, compel him to reconsider. He accepts an invitation to dine at the Chawleigh’s magnificent residence in Russell Square. Here, amidst an opulence of furnishings, gilded mirrors, and objets d’arts, he meets Jenny. She has been at school with Julia and has met Adam before but, having eyes only for Miss Oversley, Adam has only the vaguest memory of Jenny. Unsurprisingly, at first this meeting is awkward and embarrassing. Even at 20 Jenny is shy and though she proves to be pleasant and intelligent Adam quickly perceives that she is also

“as unlike Miss Oversley as she could be. There was no brilliance in her eyes, no allure in her smile, no music in her flat-toned voice, and not the smallest suggestion of the ethereal either in her person or in her bearing. Where Julia seemed to float, she trod with a firm, brisk step; where Julia could be enchantingly arch she was invariably matter-of-fact. She enjoyed a joke, but did not always perceive that one had been made; and she looked as though she had more sense than sensibility.

Georgette Heyer, A Civil Contract, Pan, 1974, p.59.

Jenny Chawleigh’s dream is that Adam will one day love her. Picture: Wikimedia CommonsA love so deep…

At first glance A Civil Contract may not appear to some readers to be a romance. For me, however, it is a deeply romantic book which reflects its author’s understanding of how a relationship can develop into one of lasting happiness and mutual content. It is this life that Jenny and Adam will build together. It is a life that comes, in part, from Jenny’s deep love for Adam, but also from Adam’s efforts to accept and appreciate her. The novel has much to say about love and its different manifestations. Jenny’s love for Adam is very different from Julia’s: Jenny’s allows her to subsume her own needs for Adam’s whereas Julia’s needs must always come first. Jenny has loved Adam from the very first but she hides her this from him because she knows he cannot – at least initially – return her feelings. Her love for him means that she will do all she can to keep Adam from hurt or discomfort. This is a self-sacrificing love and one of which some readers may disapprove, but it is also a love felt and expressed by a highly intelligent woman. Despite her claim that she lacks sensibility, Jenny is acutely perceptive, especially of other people’s emotions and it is this that drives much of the story. From the first she tells Adam: “I’m not the wife you wished for, but I’ll do my possible to behave as I should.” Jenny knows that for their marriage to be a success she will have to give – something that Adam himself will come to acknowledge in one remarkable conversation with Julia: “it’s she who gives, and I who take – but I can at least give her loyalty.” Jenny has an understanding far beyond Julia’s; she “studies to please” Adam, takes a genuine interest in his ambitions and strives to help him achieve them. She is, in the truest sense of the word, a “helpmeet” and she is willing to do whatever she can for him because she loves him. As she tells Adam’s sister, Lydia, late in the book,

“you thought I wished to marry a man that didn’t want me – was head over heels in love with another woman – just for the pleasure of getting a handle to my name!” Jenny broke in fiercely. “Well, I didn’t! I married him because there was nothing else I could do for him!”

Georgette Heyer, A Civil Contract, Pan, 1974, p.252.

A dream of love

Jenny’s dream of love at first seems impossible, but as the story unfolds, we gradually see that it is Jenny and not Julia who will make Adam the better wife. The theme of dreams plays an important role in A Civil Contract and here, more than in other of her books, Heyer allows her characters to reflect openly on their dreams. Jenny’s dream is that Adam will love her as he loves Julia and while she knows that this can never be, some part of her dream does come true and she recognises this at the end of the book: “She hid her face in his shoulder, thinking that she too had had an impractical dream.” For Adam, Julia is “the embodiment of his dreams” and on the day of her wedding to the Marquis of Rockhill he imagines her walking up the aisle on her father’s arm and knows that “he had reached the end of all dreaming. Whatever the future might hold there would be no enchantment, no glimpse of the isle of Gramarye he had once thought to reach.”

She is not any common Earth,
Water or wood or air,
But Merlin's Isle of Gramarye,
Where you and I will fare!
"Puck's Song" by Rudyard Kipling (the final verse)

Like Jenny, however, he also recognises the impracticality of his dream, and later he sees clearly how much better off he is with Jenny than he would ever have been with Julia. Heyer’s prose in A Civil Contract, is superb and in many ways the love depicted in the novel is her most realistic:

“He was not her lover, but perhaps, she thought, dropping over the edge of sleep, she could become his friend. Friendship might hold no place in a girl’s dreams, but dreams were insubstantial: escapes from reality into the glorious impossible.To consider the likely future was not to dream: it was to look forward: the essence of a dream was to ignore probability and one knew it, even at the height of fancy, when one imagined oneself the beloved of a slim young officer, whose eyes, weary with suffering, held so much kindness, and whose smile was so charming. No thought of friendship had entered plain, plebeian Jenny Chawleigh’s quite hopeless dream; but friendship was not to be despised after all: it was a warm thing, perhaps more durable than love, though falling such a long way short of love. One ought never to dream, though Jenny drowsily. It was better to look forward, and to picture oneself the trusted confidant of one’s shining knight rather than the objject of his romantic adoration. But he wasn’t really a shining knight, she thought, snuggling her cheek into the pillow and sleepily smiling: only her darling Adam, who had to be tempted to his dinner, couldn’t bear to have anything in his room disarranged, and disliked breakfast-table conversation.”

Georgette Heyer, A Civil Contract, Pan, 1974, p.250-251

When Julia’s romantic dreams cannot be fulfilled she marries the much older Marquis of Rockhill.
Picture: Wikimedia Commons“I can’t live if I’m not loved!”

Heyer develops the all-important contrast between Jenny and Julia throughout the novel. Little by little the reader comes to see all the ways in which, as Adam himself eventually concludes: “I am much better off with my Jenny”. Julia’s character is volatile and at times childish. Despite an ability to be kind and generous to others, she is at base a self-centred young woman full of idealistic yearnings who declares passionately, “I can’t live if I’m not loved!” She believes herself in love with Adam but when told they cannot marry she enacts a highly emotional scene in which her self-delusion and love of the dramatic are made clear. Julia declares that she will live in poverty if it means being with Adam and he accepts her avowal as a sincere but naive example of her love for him. In reality, however, Julia has no notion of what it would mean to live outside of the privileged world in which she has been raised. As the novel progresses it becomes evermore apparent that Julia is no realist but a fantasist who must be shielded from many of life’s realities. She does not really think of Adam’ s feelings but only of her own. Heyer brilliantly depicts Julia’s gradual evolution and uses her interactions with Adam in a set of story-beats which each time turn from Julia to Jenny and which always show Jenny to greater advantage. It is Jenny and not Julia who genuinely desires the country life that Adam actually wants. Julia would never have coped with living most of the year at Fontley and in every situation where Julia would likely have become hysterical or demanding, Jenny is calm, thoughtful and kind. In the end Julia marries the Marquis of Rockhill – a man old enough to be her father. Like Jenny he too sees clearly and and understands exactly what he has signed on for in marrying Julia.

The statue of the Duke of Bedford with his plough in Russell Square. Agriculture is a vital theme in A Civil ContractJonathan Chawleigh “Favoured a mode that had been for many years worn only by respectable tradesmen”.Mr Chawleigh “tried to steal the whole book”

Many thanks for the Contract – which looks well, I think, don’t you? Bits of it read quite well, & at last I feel that I did well by Mr Chawleigh –who, indeed, tried to steal the whole book, & had to be firmly pushed off the stage.

Georgette Heyer to A.S. Frere, letter, 19 August 1961.

An emotional book, A Civil Contract is also very funny. Among its cast of memorable characters, Mr Jonathan Chawleigh stands out as one of Heyer’s most brilliant creations. Blunt, honest and ignorant of tonnish ways, he is also acute, hardheaded, generous and kind. A loving and protective father, his wealth has given him immense power and at times this is displayed to disastrous effect. Jonathan Chawleigh is depicted with such skill that we see in him all of the contradictions and hypocrisies of the class system. Yes, he can be vulgar, but so can Adam’s mother. Yes, he can lose control of his emotions, but so can Julia. Throughout the novel, Mr Chawleigh’s sterling qualities shine through. In the beginning, he appears to Adam to be everything that Adam most dislikes; by the end of the book, however, Adam has learned a great deal about life and love and what really matters. He has also come to understand and appreciate Mr Chawleigh in ways he had never imagined to be possible:

“Mr Chawleigh,” interrupted Adam. “I owe you a great deal, I have a great respect for you – indeed, I have a great regard for you! – but I’ve not the remotest intention of letting you rule my household!:

Georgette Heyer, A civil Contract, Pan, 1974, p.266.

The London Stock Exchange. Georgette made good use of the financial panic at the time of Waterloo.“A slight yen to do that”

“the culminating point the financial panic in London over Waterloo. I have always had a slight yen to do that – & to see Major Percy driving in a hired hack to Carlton House, with the two Eagles sticking out of the windows.”

Georgette Heyer to A.S. Frere, letter, 15 February 1960.

It is Mr Chawleigh who puts in motion the culminating scenes of the novel by instructing Adam to rush up to London in order to sell his government consols. Mr Chawleigh, by some means known only to the City of London men, has learned – as he thinks – of the British defeat at Waterloo. The news has caused the price of consols to fall and so he is desperate for Adam to sell his stock before he loses too much of his private fortune. However, Adam’s army experience kicks in and instead of selling his stock he buys more and makes a sizeable profit. Heyer was drawing on history in depicting this marvellous scene and there is no doubt that some people did make substantial profits from the brief financial panic surrounding Waterloo. Compared to some investors who purportedly made millions, Adam’s gain of £20,000 was relatively modest amd more akin to what the famous financier, Nathan Rothschild made at that time. There has long been a myth that Rothschild cornered the market because he had early information about the outcome of the battle. This is not true. Nor is it true that some investors had carrier pigeons to bring them news from Belgium – though that is another popular myth. The earliest recorded information about the outcome of the Battle of Waterloo came from a Mr C (likely not Mr Chawleigh, though it is a delightful coincidence!):

“Newspapers of the week that followed Waterloo reported that a ‘Mr C of Dover’ was present in Ghent when the news reached Louis XVIII on Monday 19 June and that he hurried to London, which he must have reached during the night of Tuesday to Wednesday – perhaps as much as twenty-four hours before the official word of the victory. This Mr C therefore has the distinction of having been the first person in London to know the French had been beaten – so far as the known, contemporaneous historical record states. But there is nothing in that record to connect Mr C with Nathan Rothschild.

Brian Cathcart, “Nathan Rothschild and the Battle of Waterloo” An excellent article which can be found here.

Beyond her glorious climax of Adam making his fortune, Georgette takes Adam back to Fontley where he is reunited with Jenny, encounters Julia at her most unreasonable, and discovers that the life he has – against all of his earlier wishes – is in fact the life which makes him the happiest. As Jenny (and Georgette) so rightly notes:

“After all, life was not made up of moments of exaltation, but of quite ordinary, everyday things. The vision of the shining, inaccessible peaks vanished: Jenny remembered two pieces of domestic news, and told Adam about them. They were not very romantic, but they were really much more important than grand passions or blighted loves: Giles Jonathan had cut his first tooth, and Adam’s best cow had given birth to a fine heifer-calf.”

Georgette Heyer, A Civil Contract, Pan, 1974, p.348.

A Civil Contract – hidden depths Part 1

The 1961 Heinemann first edition with its elegant Barbosa cover depicting Fontley Priory.First, a confession

First, a confession: the first time I read Georgette Heyer’s 1961 novel, A Civil Contract, I didn’t really like it and, unlike Heyer’s other novels, it was some years before I reread it. When I did read it again, I discovered how much I had missed on that first encounter. Since then, every subsequent re-read has delivered new and enriching insights. This, I now know, is a common experience among Heyer readers: the favourite novel of one’s teens or young adulthood may not be the favourite in one’s more mature years. Things invisible to the youthful eye can easily move to centre stage as life brings us new and often salient experiences. One of the hallmarks of Heyer’s genius is this ability to write books that shift and change with age. New understandings and fresh perceptions of her novels’ characters and their relationships is one reason why her books continue to sell almost fifty years after her death. Today, A Civil Contract is one of my absolute favourite Heyer novels and one to which I frequently return for its flawed hero and truly valiant heroine. It is a deeply emotional book and one in which Heyer gives full rein to her powers of observation and her understanding of human nature. A story about class, wealth, desire, and the power of love, it has a bittersweet romance at its centre that sometimes divides readers in their response to the book. This is a book with an unusually (for Heyer) specific timeline and a story that reflects many of the realities of social life during the Regency – particularly attitudes to class and the consequent social divisions. It is superbly handled with a perfect blend of history, humour, pathos and emotion. In many ways A Civil Contract is Georgette’s most mature work. In terms of its literary merit it sits high in the canon beside her other great achievements including (among others)These Old Shades, Venetia, Sylvester, The Unknown Ajax, Cotillion, The Talisman Ring, Friday’s Child, Black Sheep and Frederica.

The 1973 Pan edition with a remarkably apt cover picture.“I have a book germinating in my head”

Georgette did not publish a novel in 1960. Instead she published Pistols for Two – an anthology of her Regency short stories. She had undergone surgery for a benign breast tumour late in 1959 and her elderly mother had also needed a great deal of support which made Georgette’s agent, Joyce Wiener’s, idea of an anthology very welcome. Pistols for Two had met her eager fans’ demand for their “annual Georgette Heyer” and given the author a much-needed respite from writing. But, by November 1960, she wrote to her friend and publisher, A.S Frere to tell him that “I have a book germinating in my head”. At some point she must have been reading the seventeenth-century polymath, John Selden’s famous book, Table Talk, which his secretary had published in 1689. Among Selden’s many aphorisms and witty remarks was the statement that “Marriage is nothing but a civil contract”. It is from this that Heyer took the title for her new novel. Halfway through November, she again wrote to Frere to inform him that:

I think the next effort will be A Civil Contract – but this information is not yet for publication. I have a book germinating in my head, but I haven’t finally decided to write it. If I do write it, it will be neither farcical nor adventurous, & will depend for success on whether I can make the hero as charming as I believe he was! And also, of course, if I can make a quiet story interesting. The period would be 1814-1815, & the culminating point the financial panic in London over Waterloo. I have always had a slight yen to do that – & to see Major Percy driving in a hired hack to Carlton House, with the two Eagles sticking out of the windows. I’ll let you know definitely in a week or two.

Georgette Heyer to A.S. Frere, letter, 15 November 1960.

Soldiers of the 52nd Regiment of Foot – Adam Deveril’s regiment in A Civil Contract Wikimedia Commons Joseph Constantine StadlerGeorgette’s charming hero

Heyer’s charming hero is 26 year-old Adam Deveril, a captain in the 52nd Regiment of Foot and a veteran of the Peninsular Wars. Until the unexpected death of his father, Bardy, Viscount Lynton, Adam has spent much of his adult life in the army and abroad. Called back to England to take his place as the new head of the family, the young viscount is appalled to discover that his charming, yet profligate father, has played fast and loose with the family fortunes and they are on the brink of bankruptcy. Adam is a man of steadfast honour, kind, practical and gentle, with a charming smile and endearing personality; he is also in love. Wounded the previous year and sent home for surgery and convalescence he has lost his heart to the beautiful Julia Oversley, Lord Oversley’s enchanting daughter. Unfortunately the lack of money means that Adam must give up his dream of marrying Julia and instead decide how to pay off his father’s many debts and provide for his widowed mother and two sisters. The only solution appears to be to sell his assets including the family estate of Fontley Priory, home of the Deverils since 1540. An alternative solution, put to him first by his man of business and second by Lord Oversley, is for Adam to marry an heiress. However, the idea as put to him by Julia’s concerned father fills Adam with repugnance:

“if you whistle down the wind the best chance you’ll ever have offered you to save Fontley, provide for your sisters, and bring yourself off clear of debt, I shall think so much the worse of you that I shall be glad, instead of sorry, that you’re not my son-in-law!”

He saw Adam stiffen, and said in a milder tone: “I know it’s a mighty hard thing to do, and not the match anyone would have chosen for you, but the ugly truth is, boy, that you’re in the devil’s own mess! I say with all sinceirty that you owe it to your name to seize any honourable chance that offers of bringing yourself about.”

“Honourable?” Adam ejaculated. “Selling myself to a wealthy Cit’s daughter? Oh, no! Not myself: my title!”

“Pooh! No need for any Cheltenham tragedies! It’s a fair bargain, and one that’s being struck more often than you know.”

Georgette Heyer, A Civil Contract, Pan, 1973, p.55.

The very popular audio book of A Civil Contract brilliantly read by Phyllida Nash. Here is Adam with his beloved Fontley in the background.A question of class

In many ways A Civil Contract is a book about class. Georgette had herself grown up in a socially hierarchical society with an upper class who considered themselves superior in many ways to those born lower down the social ladder. She knew firsthand the attitudes, contradictions, snobberies, hypocrisies and assumptions endemic in a highly class-conscious society and she depicts these to great effect in A Civil Contract. The novel is one of her most nuanced, for each character is flawed and complex. A superficial reading might lead readers to think that Heyer is promoting the idea that class carries with it certain inevitabilities: that those born to the upper class have “finer sensibilities” than those further down the social ladder, that the “well-born” are schooled in controlling their emotions and that their breeding means they will always be well-mannered no matter the circumstances. As in Austen, however, a close reading reveals clear dichotomiesthroughout the novel. Nothing is clear-cut and first glances can be misleading. The beautiful, well-born Julia has little control over her feelings and, despite declaring her love for him, does not hesitate to cause Adam emotional distress, whereas plebeian Jenny never fuly confesses her love for Adam to anyone but constantly suppresses her emotions for his benefit. The Dowager feels herself infinitely superior to the Chawleighs and even shudders in their presence but she is hypocrite enough to accept their money if it will secure Fontley and enable her to live comfortably for the rest of her life. While Mr Chawleigh’s working class origins apparently make it impossible for him to understand Adam’s “finer feelings”, he is one of the book’s most laudable characters. Where Adam’s own father “so much preferred the Prince [Regent’s] society to that of his family that very little of his time was spent at home”, Jenny’s papa is devoted to his daughter, fiercely protective, generous, affectionate and thoughtful and wants only what is best for her. Mr Chawleigh’s “vulgarity” is constantly offset by his intelligence, generosity and insight. Adam’s breeding does not make him superior to Jenny. Indeed, Jenny Chawleigh is one of Heyer’s most moral characters and there are many moments when her integrity and honour exceeds Adam’s. There is real balance here and throughout A Civil Contract Heyer does a superb job of depicting the complexities of character and plot. Class is not the sole indicator of a person’s worth.

A Civil Contract is one of Heyer’s most complex novels and repays rereading.“A delicious, human and unromantic book”

Jane Aiken Hodge called A Civil Contract “a delicious, human and unromantic book”, but for those who believe in friendship as the best foundation for a lasting relationship then there is indeed a romance to be found within its pages. More on this aspect of the novel next week.

Georgette Heyer – the Biography, Ten Years On

This week marks the tenth anniversary of the publication of my biography of Georgette Heyer. It is still in print and a continuing testimony to the beloved author’s enduring popularity. I loved writing this book, though it took me over four years to write and more than ten years of research. I was inspired to write the biography by the discovery during my PhD research of several untapped archives of Georgette Heyer’s personal and business letters that dated from when she was only eighteen and had just received the contract for her first book. The realisation that, in writing her excellent biography, The Private World of Georgette Heyer, Jane Aiken Hodge had not had the benefit of these newly-discovered letters was also an incentive to write a new account of Heyer’s life. As Jane herself said about writing that first biography:

“Unfortunately, hardly any letters survive from before the 1940s, when she herself was in her forties and had been a best-seller for years.”

Jane Aiken Hodge, The Private World of Georgette Heyer, Pan Books, 1985, p.11.

This dearth of material meant that Jane had been compelled to cover the first forty years of Georgette’s life in just two chapters. A new biography based on a wealth of previously unavailable information meant offering entirely new insight into the author’s formative years. I was also motivated by a powerful sense that Georgette Heyer – despite her huge and enduring success – had not yet been given the recognition she deserved. I was passionate in wanting to see this oversight redressed. And so, with the archives of letters, the gift ofJane’s own research archive and with the support of Georgette Heyer’s family and friends who so generously shared with me photographs, family records, and personal memories of Georgette, in 2005, I began writing Georgette Heyer: The Biography of a Bestseller.

The beautifully colourised Arrow paperback edition of the Georgette Heyer biographyAn unexpected journey

It’s funny where life leads you. When I picked up my first-ever Georgette novel Heyer in the tiny YWCA library in Tabubil, Papua New Guinea, I never imagined that I had taken my first step on an unexpected journey. The novel was These Old Shades and it gripped me from the very first paragraph – the first of Heyer’s many novels to cast its spell over me. After devouring Leonie and Avon’s adventures, I read every Heyer in the library and then, whenever we went out on leave, I would scour the bookshops for more Heyer. By the time we left PNG and returned to Australia I was hooked. A few years later we moved to Bahrain and there, in the town library, I again found a large collection of Georgette Heyer novels. It seemed clear that her popularity crossed continents and she quickly became my favourite re-read. It was in Bahrain that the idea for a “Georgette Heyer Regency Handbook” was born. I had an American friend who was doing her PhD in literature at Yale and had introduced her to Georgette’s novels. Together Michelle and I would revel in Heyer’s clever plots, fully-realised characters and superb prose and long for a book that would explain the unfamiliar things to us. What did a barouche look like? we wondered, and what exactly was a pelisse? It was also obivous that some of the characters such as the Prince Regent and Beau Brummell were genuine historical figures but were any of the lesser characters in the novels also real people? And what of the politics in Bath Tangle and the bits about the wool trade in The Unknown Ajax or the events in the London Stock Exchange after the Battle of Waterloo in A Civil Contract? Were any of those things also factual? Such was the power of Georgette Heyer’s prose that reading her Regency novels always made us feel as if we were really there and that, if we could achieve the miracle of time travel and visit Regency England, we would “know how to go on” simply because we had read her novels. It wasn’t clear if the feeling was reasonable but it persisted and that sense of Heyer’s apparently seamless integration of history with fiction continued to fascinate me. It was this that led me towards my PhD.

My 2004 PhD Abstract. Happily, critical perceptions of Heyer have improved in the intervening years.
Untapped Archives

In 2001 I won a PhD scholarship to the University of Melbourne. My subject was Georgette Heyer, her Regency novels and history in fiction. In that first year of my studies I had suffered badly from “imposter Syndrome” – that anxious, suspenseful feeling that at any moment someone is going to tap you on the shoulder and say: “What are you doing here? We didn’t mean you!”. By second year, however, I had gained a little more confidence, not least because of discovering the existence of the first untapped archive of Georgette Heyer’s early letters. This archive was what I would come to call “The Tulsa Archive” due to its (somewhat surprising) location at the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma. In 1997, the university’s McFarlin Library Special Collections had purchased nearly 400 letters written by Georgette to her agent, Leonard P. Moore. These were the early days of the internet and it is hard to describe the thrill of discovery when a catalogue search turned up this collection – the citation had only been uploaded to the internet in 2001. It felt like zeitgeist and soon afterwards Georgette’s son and copyright holder, Sir Richard Rougier, gave me permission to have access to the letters. Within a few weeks of submitting Sir Richard’s written authority, the University of Tulsa – with glorious American efficiency – sent me a box with the complete photocopied collection inside. I will always remember exactly where I was and the incredible surge of emotion I felt on opening that box and discovering some 600 pages of mostly hand-written letters from Georgette Heyer to her agent and his assistant, Norah Perriam! The first letter was dated January 31 1923. It had been written only a few months after her twentieth birthday. In it Georgette told her new agent about the novel she was currently writing. She described it as a sequel to The Black Moth and explained that it was not yet finished but “will be one day”. The novel was not truly a sequel and would not appear until 1926. It would eventually be called These Old Shades.

Sir Richard Rougier whose generous friendship made the biography possibleTreasure in a box – the Tulsa ArchiveIt was thanks to Richard that I was able to gain access to the Georgette Heyer (Rougier) Letters 1923–1945 from The University of Tulsa McFarlin Library Special Collections.Generosity and friendship

In 2002 I travelled to England to meet Sir Richard Rougier and Jane Aiken Hodge. This was to be the first of many wonderful research trips to the UK and the beginning of two enduring friendships. Both Richard and Jane invited me to lunch and each were more than kind in welcoming me into their homes. Richard was understandably guarded at first – after all, he knew nothing about me – but we shared many common interests and perhaps my obvious respect and passion for his mother’s writing reassured him. By the end of that memorable lunch, he and his wife, Judy, Lady Rougier, invited me to stay for a few days. Richard then gave me unfettered access to his mother’s notebooks and personal files. Jane was every bit as kind and generous. I had long admired her perceptive, beautifully written account of the reclusive Miss Heyer – which you can read about here – and it was a joy to sit in her garden and talk about all things Georgette. Jane had never met Georgette Heyer but she had spoken to all of her close friends and family – many of whom were no longer living by 2002 – and recorded many of their memories and feelings about her. At the end of my visit I was completely overwhelmed by Jane’s insistence that I take away with with me her entire research archive. I have it still.

Jane Aiken Hodge was Heyer’s first biographer.The 1984 biography is a perceptive account of Georgette HeyerIncreasing recognition

In the ten years since Georgette Heyer: The Biography of a Bestseller was published in 2011, there has been increasing recognition of Georgette Heyer’s literary achievements. In 2015, Stephen Fry, the actor, author and erudite host of the hilarious game show QI unveiled the prestigious Blue Plaque. Awarded to notable citizens after a lengthy examination of their worthiness for such an honour, English Heritage were proud to afix one of their famous plaques to Georgette’s birthplace at 103 Woodside, Wimbledon. An avowed and enthusiastic Heyer fan, Stephen Fry was a keen supporter of the award (you can read more about it here). In his speech he paid tribute to Georgette’s unique talent and enduring contribution to literature. I. too, was privileged to speak at the unveiling and that day will forever remain bright in my memory.

The wonderful and erudite Stephen Fry unveiled Georgette’s Blue PlaqueEnduring recognition for an enduring author. Georgette’s English Heritage Blue Plaque.It is a great honour to be awarded an English Heritage Blue Plaque as only twelve are unveiled each year.Now a classic author

It is now one hundred years since a young Georgette Heyer published her first novel, The Black Moth. Made up when she was just seventeen, it has never been out of print. From that first book, in the first twenty-five years of her writing life she went on to write across several different genres before finally settling on the one with which her name would forever be remembered. The Regency genre of historical fiction owes its existence to Georgette Heyer. Inspired and influenced by the genius of her favourite novelist, Jane Austen, Heyer set her twenty-six Regency novels in the era in which Austen had lived and in which her six superb novels are set. By 1944 and Friday’s Child, Georgette had mastered her own form of ironic comedy and ensured a place for herself in the literary canon. As time passes and the distance between their original publication and the present day increases, Heyer’s books have come under increasing scrutiny and their contribution to literature is being increasingly acknowledged. Georgette Heyer’s books endure not just because of their superb prose, glorious characters, masterfully-devised plots and lively dialogue, they endure because Heyer believed in the joy of reading and wrote novels to which her readers can return time and time again. She set the standard and raised the bar high for all those who would follow her; none have matched her since. Her legacy endures.

In 2019, Overlord Publishing produced Heyer Societyy in recognition of Georgette Heyer’s literary genius.In 2021, The Folio Society published a stunning illustrated edition of Venetia with a superb Introduction written by Stephen Fry. Heyer Society and Venetia are but two of the recent publications celebrating Georgette Heyer’s brilliance as a writer.“Georgette Heyer’s elegant romantic comedy”

Jane Aiken Hodge ended her 1984 biography with this very prescient summation of Georgette Heyer’s achievement:

” People like Lady Ellenborough, and the Romanian political prisoner, and many others, men and women, dons and lawyers and high-powered business men, will go on finding refreshment in Georgette Heyer’s elegant romantic comedy and comfort in its strong moral framework. Highbrows who couple her books with the output of mass-market romancers merely betray that they have never read them. The romantic sotry is there, right enough, to keep children from play and old women from the chimney corner, but it is told with a style and humour that put her work in a class of its own. And the rules and customs of her private world can stand the test of time. She was not the only author of her day to create a private world as an escape from moral chaos. P.G. Wodehouse, C.S. Forester and Angela Thirkell did it too; Dick Francis still does [as did Patrick O’Brian and Dorothy Dunnett], creating a small world at a time… She gave an immense amount of pleasure to all kinds of people, and must have known she did. It would be a suitable irony, and no surprise, if a reappraisal in the next few years were to give her work the critical acclaim it never achieved in her lifetime. The need for escape is not likely to grow less.”

Jane Aiken Hodge, The Private World of Georgette Heyer, Pan Books, 1985, p.209.

In 2021 University College London published its collection of academic essays on Heyer.“The Nonesuch”

In 2021, exactly as Jane foretold, the first collection of academic essays about Georgette Heyer’s novels appeared. Published by University College London Press Georgette Heyer, History and Historical Fiction includes essays across a range of subjects and can be downloaded here.

The Nonesuch is the name of one of Georgette Heyer’s most famous novels. It means a person or thing without equal, and Georgette Heyer is certainly that. Her historical works inspire a fiercely loyal, international readership and are championed by literary figures such as A. S. Byatt and Stephen Fry. Georgette Heyer, History, and Historical Fiction brings together an eclectic range of chapters from scholars all over the world to explore the contexts of Heyer’s career. Divided into four parts – gender; genre; sources; and circulation and reception – the volume draws on scholarship on Heyer and her contemporaries to show how her work sits in a chain of influence, and why it remains pertinent to current conversations on books and publishing in the twenty-first century. Heyer’s impact on science fiction is accounted for, as are the milieu she was writing in, the many subsequent works that owe Heyer’s writing a debt, and new methods for analysing these enduring books. From the gothic to data science, there is something for everyone in this volume; a celebration of Heyer’s ‘nonesuch’ status amongst historical novelists, proving that she and her contemporary women writers deserve to be read (and studied) as more than just guilty pleasures.

Abstract for Georgette Heyer, History and Historical Fiction, Editors Samantha Rayner and Kim Wilkins, 2021.

So many wonderful people

It was always my hope in writing Georgette Heyer: The Biography of a Bestseller that her fans, her critics, academics and those who have not yet read her would be alerted to the woman and her literary achievements. In the more than twenty years since I began my research and in the ten years since the biography was published I have been delighted to see a material shift in attitudes to Georgette Heyer from those who have not yet read her books. It is my hope that in the next few years more and more people will discover the delights of her delicious comedies of manners and ironic comedies and that we will see one or more of them successfully brought to the screen! My Georgette Heyer journey began in the 1980s and has continued to lead me down new and intriguing paths. I have met so many wonderful people including Georgette’s family and friends, other Heyer readers and appreciative academics and had the pleasure of introducing others to her brilliant novels through my books, talks and blogs. My life has been and continues to be enriched by Heyer – not only though her novels but also in engaging with all those who love her books. Thank you to everyone who has taken the trouble to read my books and my blogs. There are still a few more to go before my Georgette Heyer Centenary Legacy Project reaches its conclusion in December so I hope you’ll stay with me to the end.

Viva Georgette!

Celebrating 100 years of Georgette Heyer – the short stories

Acting on Impulse is a collection of Georgette Heyer’s earliest short stories.A compulsive writer

A compulsive writer and storyteller, Georgette Heyer began making up stories in early childhood. She was an imaginative child and storytelling came as naturally to her as breathing. While her first novel was written at the age of seventeen, she had made up stories long before that. A friend of her schooldays vividly remembered Saturdays spent with Georgette at the Heyer’s house in Wimbledon. Georgete would make up stories full of excitement and adventure and they would act them out “all dialogue completely impromptu, of course, but the plots always produced by Georgette.” Reading Georgette’s novels years later, the plots of The Black Moth, The Masqueraders, and Beauvallet, in particular, leapt out at her old old friend who recognised from those long-ago days of play-acting in the Heyer’s drawing room. Georgette’s first known published short story was the delightful contemporary tale entitled “A Proposal to Cicely”. It was published in 1922 in The Red Magazine and was swiftly followed by the sentimental and almost supernatural, “The Little Lady”. Half a dozen more contemporary short stories followed until, in 1925, she wrote her final modern short, “The Old Maid” – her second publication under her pseudonym of “Stella Martin”. In 2019, with permission from the Heyer Estate, these nine short stories were collected into a new anthology and with an Introduction and an Afterword to each story was published under the title, Acting on Impulse

Something about Georgette

Each story tells us something about Georgette Heyer, about her development as a writer, her willingness to experiment, her ear for the language of the day, her attitudes to women and marriage, her attempts to write in different genres and her perception of love and relationships. These stories represent her juvenilia – they are not her best work, but nor should they remain unseen by modern readers. Georgette was writing for money and for experience. She was working out her voice and trying her hand at different styles. These early stories, along with her early novels, helped build Heyer’s writing “muscle” and were an important part of her evolution as an author. They are also interesting, entertaining stories, reflective of their time and place. Even at twenty, Georgette Heyer was a good writer, and her earliest short stories reveal much of the superb stylist she was learning to be. In April 1936 she published her first known historical short story, “Runaway Match”. It appeared in the prestigious and incredibly popular, Woman’s Journal, and was quickly followed in May by “Incident on the Bath Road” and then, in June, “Hazard” appeared. Over the next twenty-five years, Georgette would occasionally turn her hand to another historical short story. She wrote them easily and they made her good money for just a few hours work. Eventually, they would form the bestselling anthology, Pistols for Two.

The 1960 Heinemann first edition of Pistols for Two.1960 – another rare year without a book (almost)

1960 was to be another of Georgette’s rare years without a book – almost! Although 1959 had begun well with Georgette finishingThe Unknown Ajax in great style and Ronald being made a Queen’s Counsel in March, the second half of the year was not easy. Her mother, Sylvia, had ‘little thrombosic [sic] attacks’ (she had a tendency to black out) and more than once Georgette had been called to the hospital to collect her from the Casualty Ward after “Mama” had fainted in the street. It was a constant source of worry, especially as Sylvia, having finally been persuaded to hire a companion, still insisted on venturing out alone whenever she could. Her mother was nearly eight-four and as strong willed and stubborn as ever. Georgette continued to support and visit her but their relationship would always be difficult and it is unlikely that either woman possessed the skill to resolve the issues that lay between them. A few years later, when Sylvia died, Georgette would be devastated and “strangely lost”. For now, however, she had to do her best to manage her mother’s and her own health issues while trying to think of a new novel for 1960 publication. In September 1959 she found a lump in her breast. Surgery followed on 16 October and she was glad to report that “the small, sordid job was done yesterday, & I hope & believe that that’s the end”. The tumour proved to be benign and, recovering in a private hospital, Georgette found herself feeling “rather limp, but enjoying a life of cushioned ease, with no one wanting me to do anything about anything!” She still suffered from digestive problems and needed further x-rays, but was comforted by her doctor’s reassurance that she would require no further surgery. But these challenges meant that she still had not written her new novel. By now her fans had come to expect their annual “Georgette Heyer” and so it was with relief that she accepted her agent, Joyce Weiner’s suggestion that she publish an anthology of her short stories. Georgette was so grateful to Joyce for the idea and for the ensuing success of Pistols for Two that she arranged for Joyce to receive ten per cent of the royalties from the book for her lifetime.

!970 Pan edition of Pistols for Two.Pistols for Two

Short stories must have been on her mind for Georgette had spent January 1960 “perpetrat[ing] a 10,000 word job for a new Woman’s magazine”. It was a welcome commission for Joyce Weiner had negotiated a fee of 500 guineas for the short. It was a very large sum but by now Georgette Heyer was a famous name and one known to sell magazines so it was not unexpected. Soon afterwards her selling power was further corroborated by “a blind offer of £1000 from Australian Associated Newspaper Services for the first Australian serial rights in my next period novel” and another £1200 to serialise five of her “really old” thrillers. In light of this, the idea for the anthology seemed a good one. Georgette combed through her records and chose eleven historical short stories, all of them previously published in a range of different magazines. Her earliest chosen short was the 1936 story “Hazard”, whereas the rest dated from 1948 onwards. She also included her latest short story – the one she had written for the new – and as yet undiscovered – British magazine. It was called “A Clandestine Affair” and she described it as “very old rope – badly frayed” as well as “an unblushing crib on the works of Georgette Heyer”. It was an apposite description for the story, though lively and entertaining, had clear echoes of her 1955 novel, Bath Tangle. Georgette had recast Ivo Rotherham as George, Lord Iver, and Lady Selina as Miss Elinor Tresilian, added a young couple determined to wed in the face of their elders’ opposition, put in some heated dialogue, and sent them all off on a wild chase along the Great North Road. It was to be her last short story.

The Queen’s Book of the Red Cross was a fundraising project in 1940Georgette Heyer was among many noted authors invited to contribute.The Queen’s Book of the Red Cross

One of the stories which Georgette did not include in the new anthology was “Pursuit” which she had originally written in 1939 for The Queen’s Book of the Red Cross. This was a fund-raising anthology supported by Queen Elizabeth (not the present Queen but her mother, the wife of King George VI and later the Queen Mother) to be published by Georgette’s publisher, Hodder & Stoughton. Her Majesty wrote a foreword praising the “noble work of the Red Cross” and the men and women of the Empire “fighting to defend its liberty”. It was to appear in time for Christmas with all proceeds going to one of the Queen’s favourite charities and Georgette was one of fifty “distinguished authors and artists” asked to donate their services. It is a mark of her growing fame that she was among those chosen to contribute to this special volume. The story, “Pursuit” is one of Georgette’s light-hearted Regency romances but for some reason she chose not to include it in Pistols for Two. The story would not be seen again by readers for more than sixty years.

Georgette Heyer’s short stories were published in magazines from the early 1920s onwards.To Have the Honour

In 1953, Good Housekeeping magazine asked Georgette to write a short story for their special Coronation edition at a price to be fixed by her new agent Joyce Weiner. King George VI had died in February and his elder daughter, Elizabeth, had been proclaimed Queen. Her coronation was to be held in June the following year and Georgette considered it rather an honour to be asked to write the lead story for the magazine’s special celebratory edition. It was without “an idea in my head” that she sat down to write it but, in spite of wondering why she had not “taken up charring, or something easy?” instead of writing, she eventually produced a spirited story entitled “The Pursuit of Hetty”. Seven years later, in Pistols for Two, this story would be renamed “To Have the Honour”. It would also become the seed story for her 1970 novel, Charity Girl.

The stunning 2016 Heinemann hardback edition of SnowdriftThe equally gorgeous 2016 Arrow paperback edition of SnowdriftStill selling

Sixty years after the publication of Pistols fo Two, Georgette Heyer is still selling. In 2016, in celebration of her enduring success her publishers brought out a new edition of the original short story anthology but with the addition of three of her long-forgotten historical short stories. With its beautiful cover Snowdrift and Other Stories came out in time for Christmas and readers who had been unaware of those early shorts were treated to “Incident on the Bath Road”, “Runaway Match” and “Pursuit”. The wonderful Mary Fahnestock-Thomas, who in 2001 had published her invaluable Georgette Heyer: A Critical Retrospective, had been aware of two of the shorts and been granted permission to include them in her book, but it had enjoyed only a limited (though much appreciated) circulation and “Incident on the Bath Road” had not been seen by readers since 1936. The new anthology continues to give reading pleasure to readers everywhere and has introduced many to the joys of Georgette Heyer.

The August 1958 edition of Argosy magazineGeorgette’s dark short story proved very popular with readers.The February 1972 edition of Argosy magazineThe somewhat startling illustration for “Pink Domino”By 1972 Georgette Heyer was considered “a big name” in publishing and her short stories were being republished.The April 1972 Argosy magazine with the misnamed “Bath Lady” – it was originally “Bath Miss” in Pistols for Two.Good company & Malice Domestic

Although Georgette did not write any more short stories (that we know of) after 1960, they continued to be published in various popular magazines such as Suspense and Argosy. Hers was a name to attract attention throughout the 1970s and she was regularly in the good company of other famous names such as Agatha Christie, Margery Allingham and others. Her dark Regency short story, “Night at the Inn” proved surprisingly popular with readers and after fading from sight for several years was republished in 2007 by Malice Domestic, the group who each year give out the Agatha Awards for crime writing in the tradition of Agatha Christie. The “Malice Domestic Pamphlets” are published

“To recognize the Ghost of Honour or the Lifetime Achievement Award recipient at Malice Domestic Conventions, Crippen & Landru has been privileged to issue pamphlets containing previously unpublished or little-known material. They are given to each person in attendance at the convention.”

Crippen & Landru, “Night at the Inn” by Georgette Heyer, The Ghost of Honour, Malice Domestic XIX May4-6 2007

In 2007 Georgette Heyer was chosen to be the “Ghost of Honour” at the Malice Domestic Convention

The Unknown Ajax – a magnificent hero

‘I was much wrapt in this;
And apprehended here immediately
The unknown Ajax.
Heavens, what a man is there! a very horse, that has he knows not what.’

Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida,  Act 3 Scene III

The 1959 Heinemann first edition of The Uknown AjaxAn entirely new novel

In May 1958, Georgette Heyer went on holiday to Rye on the English south coast. She had been to Rye before and loved the historic town with its cobbled streets and ancient houses and was looking forward to another visit – this time with an entirely new novel in mind. Georgette’s husband, Ronald, and her son, Richard, were to play in the annual Bar Golf Tournament over Whitsun and she had decided to spend her time (when not watching her menfolk golf) collecting material for her new story. They were to put up for a week at the New Lion Inn in Winchelsea, just two miles from Rye, and Georgette told her friend and publisher, A.S. Frere:

‘I have had an idea for another book, & think Rye would be an excellent setting, so I shall have a lovely week, fossicking around for smugglers’ haunts, & what-have-you.’

Georgette Heyer to A.S. Frere, letter, 17 May 1958

The New Inn at Winchelsea which may have once been the New Lion Inn where Georgette stayed in 1958. photo: Julian P Guffogg, Wikimedia CommonsMermaid Street, Rye, inspired Georgette when writing The Unknown Ajax. As did the stories about the notorious Hawkhurst Gang

If you wake at midnight, and hear a horse’s feet,
Don’t go drawing back the blind, or looking in the street.
Them that ask no questions isn’t told a lie.
Watch the wall, my darling, while the Gentlemen go by!

‘A Smuggler’s Song’, Rudyard Kipling – Georgette and Ronald both read and admired Rudyard Kipling

Georgette was right

Georgette was right about the setting, for Rye’s history was a colourful one with plenty of meat for the bones of her story. The novel, though mostly set in the huge rambling manor house of Darracott Place on the edge of Romney Marsh, has several enlivening scenes in Rye. By now, Georgette was thoroughly adept at distilling historical information into her story and she obviously enjoyed having her hero visit Mermaid Street and Ypres Tower while his cousin Claud regaled him with stories of smugglers, murder, and a body in an iron cage. Smugglers were to perform an important role in the story and Georgette did her usual through research, acquainting herself with the history of the Hawkhurst gang and the role of the Land Guard in trying to curb the “Gentlemen” and their illicit trade. As always, her characterisation was superb and even her most minor players are brought to life as fully-fleshed, living, breathing characters (okay, not the skeleton!). This is a novel replete with memorable scenes and some of Heyer’s funniest dialogue. It is also rich in dialect and Heyer’s use of the broad Yorkshire spoken by her huge hero and which so thoroughly deceives his incredulous family is superbly rendered.

The famous Ypres tower near the breach in the town wall. It was near here that Hugo fell into conversation with Lieutenant Ottershaw.A skeleton in a gibbet inside the Ypres Tower. Claud Darracott entertained his cousin Hugo with tales of Tye’s history.photos: Wikimedia CommonsA magnificent deception

The Unknown Ajax, is one (among several) of Georgette Heyer’s most original and clever creations. Among other things it is a book about deception and how one magnificent deception in the end saves a family from scandal and disgrace. Hugo Darracott, recently returned from the Napoleonic wars, is the reluctant and unexpected heir to his tyrannical old grandfather, Lord Darracott. His grandfather has never acknowledged Hugo as his kin, having ruthlessly cut off Hugo’s father after he had had the temerity to marry a weaver’s daughter. Now that his heir, Granville, and his heir’s son are dead, Lord Darracott has commanded his unknown grandson, Hugo, to present himself at his ancestral home – Darracott Place in Sussex. It is the old gentleman’s intention to lick the new heir ‘into shape’. Hugo arrives on horseback bespattered with mud and is confronted by his family – all of them unknown to him and most of them hostile to his presence. This deceptively gentle giant with his deceptively meek demeanour, instantly perceives his new family’s unflattering attitude towards him but does nothing to discourage their mistake – quite the opposite, in fact!

The 1972 Pan edition of The Unknown Ajax.Masterful plotting

It is not only Hugo who engages in deception, however, for young Richmond Darracott, thwarted in his ambition to join the military, has secrets of his own. The plotting is masterful and a reflection of Heyer’s skill as a writer. Each character has their own individual journey of discovery – discovering things about themselves as well as about those around them. Each character follows a fully-realized character arc so that, by the end of the novel, every one but Hugo (who is already an ideal) and Lady Aurelia (who is highly-principled and unusually perceptive) has changed. This is particularly true of the difficult characters – those such as Lord Darracott, Vincent and Matthew, each of whom is blind to his personal flaws and who must each discover the truth about himself and those he has misjudged. The genius of Heyer’s plotting in The Unknown Ajax may not be fully apparent on a first or even a second reading, but as with others of her books, a close perusal of the novel (the audio book is particularly useful in this regard) is very revealing.

The 2005 Cornerstone edition of The Unknown Ajax.“He’s a new one, too, which makes an epoch!”

Despite having begun her research for The Unknown Ajax in May of 1958, it would be almost another year before Georgette began writing the projected novel. On April 6 1959, she wrote to Frere to tell him that, ‘I’ve done about 20,000 words to date. No idea what it’s like.’ Never one to admit that her work was good – at least not while in the process of writing a particular novel – Georgette would later describe The Unknown Ajax as ‘one of those I do think good’. She was proud of the book and especially pleased that, despite being her forty-seventh novel and her eighteenth Regency, it was truly a new plot and hero. As she explained to Frere:

We are just back from 9 days at Deal, over Whitsun. The usual Brunch & Bar Golf Tournament. Weather generally foul, & very cold, but it saved me from total collapse. I was in a very odd state when I left town, & did nothing but sleep for several days! I took Ajax with me, meaning to finish him in longhand, but I only wrote half a chapter. Great display of tact and restraint on the part of G.R. Rougier, Q.C. who made no attempt to persuade me to leave Ajax behind, but managed to think up grand reasons why I shouldn’t do a stroke of work! I may add that The Finch sent tender messages to me not on any account to bother about! This morning I received the enclosed from her, which you may like to have. I’m glad she likes Hugo, I think she really does, & I rather like him myself. He’s a new one, too, which makes an epoch! I expect to finish the job by the end of the week.

Georgette Heyer to A.S. Frere, letter, 27 May 1959.

The 2009 Harlequin edition of The Unknown Ajax.Heyer’s Understanding

It is a very entertaining novel, but it is also one which reveals Heyer’s understanding of the Regency era to which her name would become so firmly linked. In The Unknown Ajax she proves particularyl adept at revealing the plight of women in the Regency and their all-too-often miserable dependence upon men. Old Lord Darracott, a dictatorial man used to having his orders instantly obeyed, believes his grandson to be low-born and vulgar and has decided that the best way to keep him in his place is to have him marry his grandaughter, Anthea. Anthea is appalled by the decree, telling her mother that her grandfather is a ‘medieval bedlamite’. While Anthea is no weak-willed female, but a strong-minded young woman who resents her dependence upon her mean-spirited grandsire, her mother is all-too alive to the realities of their situation. She begs her daughter not to risk alienating Lord Darracott, for she knows all to well that they are completely dependent upon him for their survival. This was the harsh reality for most women during the Regency era and it is a reality which Heyer uses to great effect in her novels. She understood the constraints of the time and they play a vital role in her Regency stories.

Georgette’s always gave a first edition of her latest novel to her brother, Frank Heyer.

‘Ajax renown’d. O heavens, what some men do,
While some men leave to do!
How some men creep in skittish fortune’s hall,
Whiles others play the idiots in her eyes!
How one man eats into another’s pride,
While pride is fasting in his wantonness!
To see these Grecian lords!?why, even already
They clap the lubber Ajax on the shoulder,
As if his foot were on brave Hector’s breast
And great Troy shrieking.’

Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida Act 3 Scene III

Shakespeare – an inspiration

In writing The Unknown Ajax Georgette was also inspired by Shakespeare. In particular, his difficult play, Troilus and Cressida. She had been raised on a rich diet of Shakespeare, among other classic writers, and took genuine pleasure in including, when apposite, Shakespearean quotations in her novels. The character of Ajax as rendered by Homer in The Iliad is that of a man of huge stature and great physical strength. He is a Greek warrior and one who fights with Achilles. In Shakespeare’s play, however, Ajax, though of large stature and impressive build is not the brightest among the Greeks in Troy. It is this persona which the Darracotts assume to be Hugo’s and which gives Vincent so many opportunities to quote disparagingly from the play. ‘The lubber Ajax’ and ‘the elephant Ajax’ are but two of the Shakespearean appellations applied to Hugo. He takes it all in good part, however, and as Jane Aiken Hodge so rightly says, he ‘sweeps into the book, like a great gale of fresh air, with is irresistible healing sens of humour, and his gift of love. There is so much to this novel than may be seen at first glance!

‘How now, Thersites! what lost in the labyrinth of
thy fury! Shall the elephant Ajax carry it thus? ‘

Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, Act 2 Scene III

“it’s noan so bad”

Incredibly, Georgette finished writing The Unknown Ajax in just over two months! As always, she refused to acknowledge the achievement, but wrote to Frere to say humorously:

Sithee, love, (as my hero would say) it’s noan so bad! I have just rushed through, correcting, & transcribing corrections; & I don’t know, but I think it’ll do.’

Georgette Heyer to A.S Frere, letter, 13 June 1959.

But Georgette Heyer had achieved more than she cared to admit. The truth is that The Unknown Ajax is a remarkable book and one of Heyer’s best, if only for the sheer brilliance of its ending. This is one of those novels about which that a reader need only mention a character or a line of dialogue to inspire laughter. It ending is famous among Heyer readers and should be listed among the classics of literature. It is masterfully constructed and perfectly executed and includes these unforgettable lines regarding the redoubtable and unforgettable Lady Aurelia:

‘As a mere female, I cannot consider myself competent to deal with such an affair’ …

The Major, a phlegmatic man, was the first to recover from the shattering effect of this encounter with a mere female, and he acted with great promptitude an good sense, saying meekly, “Yes, ma’am”.

Lady Aurelia Darracott in Georgette Heyer, The Unknown Ajax, Pan, 1972, p.308-9

‘She then turned, and looked round the room, with all the lofty contempt natural to the descendant of eleven Earls, all of whom, if not otherwise distinguished, had been remarkabel for the high-handed and very successful way with which they had dealt with inferior persons and overridden all opposition to their domestic decrees. No one saw these august personages range themselves at Lady Aurelia’s back, but (as her appreciative elder son afterwards asserted) no on could doubt that they had all of them hurried to the support of so worthy a daughter.’

Georgette Heyer, The Unknown Ajax, Pan, 1972, p.307

Read, reread and enjoy The Unknown Ajax. There are multiple print editions, there is the superb audio book read by Daniel Philpott and the equally superb new Penguin audiobook read by Thomas Judd.

‘No, noble Ajax; you are as strong, as valiant, as
wise, no less noble, much more gentle, and altogether
more tractable.’

Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida Act 2 scene III

Celebrating 100 years of Georgette Heyer – The Black Moth

The beautiful centenary edition of Georgette Heyer’s enduring novel, The Black Moth , with an introduction by Philippa Gregory.“Exceptional”

“Georgette Heyer wrote The Black Moth when she was seventeen years old. This one sentence is really all one needs to know in order to understand Heyer’s superb talent as a novelist. The Black Moth is an engaging, well-written, carefully-plotted, light novel, but as a first novel by a seventeen-year-old, it is exceptional.”

Philippa Gregory, “Introduction to the Centenary Edition”, William Heinemann, 2021

From teen novel to enduring bestseller

Georgette Heyer turned 17 in August 1919. Some months later, her younger brother Boris became seriously ill. By February 1920 he was recovering but it was felt that a change of scene would do him good. Sea air was thought to be an excellent remedy and so the Heyer family left Wimbledon for Hastings on the English south coast so that Boris could convalesce. Though a pretty seaside town, Hastings did not offer much in the way of amusement for the teenage Georgette, and Boris, too, was bored. And so, to alleviate the invalid’s boredom, his clever sister made up a story…

Hastings Pier in 1920. Georgette and her family chose Hastings for Boris’s convalescence. Hastings Pier Archive Copyright unknown.

‘I was 17 when I started to write my first book … and I originally started the book as a serial-story to relieve my own boredom and my brother’s

Georgette Heyer, letter to her publisher, 1962

“Wildly readable”

The serial story was enthralling. Day by day, episode by episode, the young Georgette regaled her brothers with the tale of Jack Cartstares, disgraced Earl of Wyncham, and his many adventures. Sacrificing his home and title, Jack has become a highwayman, assuming, when not robbing from the rich to give to the poor, a charming alter-ego as the modish Georgian gentleman, Sir Anthony Ferndale. There would be sword fights and romance and an abduction with a desperate race at the end to rescue the heroine. One can imagine Boris and his younger brother, Frank (then aged seven), held in thrall as their sister told them the “wildly readable” story of the earl turned highwayman and his encounters with his dastardly, debonair enemy, “Devil” Belmanoir, Duke of Andover. It is the duke, “clad in his customary black and silver and with his raven hair unpowdered”, who, like “a black moth”, would give the story its title. The Black Moth entranced its young audience and Georgette went on and on writing until the story was finally finished.

“Miss Georgette Heyer whose first novel The Black Moth is shortly to appear.”Georgette and her brothers, Boris and Frank about the time of writing The Black Moth in 1919.Only seventeen

There are not many seventeen-year-old authors whose first novels are considered worthy of publication, but Georgette Heyer was one of them. Despite its swashbuckling element, in may ways The Black Moth is a surprisingly mature work. The portrayal of Jack’s brother, Richard, for whom Jack has given up everything, is insightful and says much about the youthful Georgette’s ability to understand people. She depicts Dick’s burden of guilt, his moods of depression and his encounters with his tempestuous wife (the woman for whom he has sacrificed his honour) with genuine perception and empathy. Most seventeen-year-olds are often much too preoccupied with their own feelings and situations to bother observing the people around them, but the adolescent Georgette had already developed a degree of perception and an understanding of human nature that must be considered unusual in one so young. Even if she was drawing on her own experience or taking inspiration from the people she knew, to be able to create such well-realised characters and portray the struggles and difficulties of their relationships as effectively as she did at just seventeen was a remarkable achievement.

“First crack out of the bag”

My father thought well of it, and insisted that I should do some serious work on it, with publication in view. I did, and it found a publisher in Constable’s – first crack out of the bag!

Georgette Heyer, letter to her publisher, 1962

Encouraged by her literary father, Georgette submitted her first novel to the London publisher, Constable, for their consideration. A few months after her eighteenth birthday, the publisher made her an offer. Constable offered her a contract with a £100 advance for the British and American rights to The Black Moth. It must have been a thrilling experience to have her work accepted ‘first crack out of the bag’ and it would not have been surprising if Georgette had leaped at the offer and signed the contract without further consideration. But she was not without some experience of the publishing world, albeit vicariously. Her father, George Heyer, was himself a minor author with poems and essays published in Granta, The Pall Mall Gazette, The Athenaeum, The Saturday Westminster Review and Punch. He also had theatrical connections through his work for King’s College Hospital and the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre Committee. Georgette had listened and learned from his experiences. and so, before she signed the contract with Constable, she sought professional advice.

The 1929 Heinemann jacket – the original Constable jacket remains a mystery but may have had a similar design.The Society of Authors

On 28 March 1921 Georgette wrote to the Society of Authors:

Dear Sir

Herewith the contract of which I wrote.

I should be very glad if you would give it your attention – especially clause 17.

Yours truly

Georgette Heyer

Georgette Heyer to The Society of Authors, 28 March 1921, Society of Authors Archive (1876-1982), British Library

Established in 1884, the Society existed specifically to protect the rights of authors and assist them with advice regarding agents, publishers and contracts. The Secretary of the Society was a solicitor and members could receive legal advice from the Society’s committee and solicitors without cost. Georgette’s earliest known letter extant was written to the Society when she was eighteen years old. Three days later she received a comprehensive reply in which her correspondent raised a number of issues relating to several of the contract clauses.

Her First Contract

It is impossible to know the precise contents of Georgette’s first contract as the document was destroyed along with the rest of Constable’s archives in the bombing raids on London during the Second World War. Some sense of The Black Moth contract clauses is apparent, however, both from the Society’s letter and from Georgette’s prompt and decisive reply. Despite her young age, her letter is impressive, not only for its clear-headed grasp of her correspondent’s detailed advice, but also for her insight into her publisher’s position:

Thank you very much for the advice on my contract. On most points I agree with you, but Clause 3 – concerning the American sales, I am leaving as it stands. Houghton Mifflin are collaborating with Constable’s, and publishing my book in America. The profits of net sale are to be divided equally between Constable’s and myself. As Constable’s run a certain amount of risk in bringing out an entirely new author, I think this is generous.

Georgette Heyer to the Society of Authors, 1 April 1921, Society of Authors Archive (1876-1982), British Library

The 1965 Pan edition of The Black Moth An unusual degree of confidence

Even at 18 Georgette had an unusual degree of confidence in her writing and in her literary future:

‘As to Clause 17 – concerning my future three books, I intend to ask that in the event of my second book reaching 10,000 sale, when I shall receive 20% on it, my third book shall start at that percentage’.

Georgette Heyer to the Society of Authors, 1 April 1921, Society of Authors Archive (1876-1982), British Library

In the end she decided that her request for a higher royalty for her third book “was too much to ask, and I didn’t ask it!” In the spring of 1921 Georgette Heyer signed her first book contract. The Black Moth was published on 15 September 1921, exactly one month after her nineteenth birthday. It was to be the first of many accomplished and enduring novels that would in years to come see Georgette Heyer recognised as one of the world’s bestselling authors with over thirty million books in print. One hundred years later, her first novel, The Black Moth – that remarkable product of her vivid teenage imagination – is still in print and finding a new generation of readers

HeyerCon is coming – join us for the SoireeJoin us for the first ever HeyerCon! You can register here.

The International Heyer Society is honoured to invite you to our first ever Georgette Heyer Convention — HeyerCon I: Soirée — which will now take place across two days.

Day 1 will be held on Sunday, September 19, 2021 AET, as an online-only webinar event, available to a worldwide audience.

Day 2, now slated for Saturday, October 30 AET, will see our in-person event in Melbourne*, Australia, but with digital attendance also available for those unable to be there.

Featuring talks, interactive workshops, Q&As, giveaways and much, much more, we hope you will take this opportunity to mingle with your fellow Heyerites and share your enthusiasm with us all across these celebrations of all things Heyer. Your International Heyer Society Patronesses will be present, along with some special guests, throughout two days that promise to be unforgettable for us all.

For those in different time zones, exclusive access to video and transcript archives of both events will be available, so you can tune in at your leisure.

Registration for HeyerCon I: Soirée – DAY 1 and DAY 2 is open now!

Day 1 program

HEYERCON I – DAY 1, SEPTEMBER 19, 2021 – MEMBER DIGITAL ACCESS

The day will include:

A selected reading of Georgette Heyer’s lettersA “Show and Tell” look at collecting HeyerA rare screening of scenes from Die Bezaubernde Arabella, the 1950 German film adaptationInsights into “The Business of Heyer” featuring industry professionalsA panel on “Heyer and Regency Romance”, featuring our own Jennifer Kloester alongside Regency romance superstars Eloisa James and Stephanie LaurensA Q & A with your Society Patronesses

A delightful addition to Georgette Heyer’s debut novel, Reading Heyer: The Black Moth offers fans a modern-day take on this classic historical romance. Perfect for the twenty-first century first-time reader as well as the diehard fan looking for further insight into Heyer’s famous novel, Reading Heyer: The Black Moth is wonderfully entertaining.