16

I like the number 16. I was born on the 16th and I was married on the 16th.
I always hoped one of my kids would be born on the 16th, but it wasn't to be.
However, on 16th August 1902, Georgette Heyer was born.
She was the first "grown up" writer I ever read. My first venture, at the age of 12, into the world of adult literature.
And I think she was the first writer I knew to be something very special,not only the teller of wonderful stories, but someone who did it with consummate skill, elegance and craft.
She is a writer I can return to again and again, never tiring of her, never thinking I have read the book a dozen times before, sometimes more than a dozen times before.
The beauty of her English is pure delight and so many of the characters she created are delicious. Not necessarily the main ones, very often it is the second divison who provide the most amusement.
It was from the references to her beloved 95th Regiment that I discovered The Rifle Brigade and the Napoleonic Wars. It was "Infamous Army" that inspired me to find out as much as I could about Wellington's military career.
Which of course took me back to India and from there to The H.E.I.C. and and on into Queen Victoria and her Little Wars.
If you have never read her, I envy you the treats in store.
There is a school of thought that would like to lump her in with the likes of Barbara Cartland and other so called writers of "Regency Romance".
The two are as alike as a processed cheese slice and a handcrafted Stilton.
(Okay, I've got this book on making cheese at home and its got me all excited, watch this spot.)
Heyer wrote romances, but there is nothing shallow or trite or cliched. She tackled arranged marriages and all the emotional difficulties of two strangers sharing a life. She never promises "happy ever after", hinting that some of the marriages won't work and that others will only survive if love is prepared to ignore infidelity, but this is because her people are real, with all the flaws and courage and hopes of real people.