For ‘An Infamous Army’, for example, she claimed to have purchased a book of the Duke of Wellington’s speeches to ensure that everything he said as a character in the plot, was authentic. With the fantasy and romance of her historic novels finding an eager readership in war torn Britain eager for some escapism, novels followed at a rate of two per year.Īlthough often derided for the speed at which she brought her novels out, she was known to have been a minute researcher, poring over reference books and tending to every last detail. Regency Square, Brighton (c) Royal Pavilion & Museums It’s tempting to think that, with Brighton and the Royal Pavilion playing a major role in many of her books, the Regency squares and terraces of the town must have made an evocative and inspiring backdrop to Heyer’s writing. Returning to England in 1929, the pair settled in Slinfold where Heyer, now the main breadwinner, discovered the appeal of the Regency period for readers while her husband ran a sports shop in Horsham.įrom 1939 until 1942 the family lived in Brighton, first on the Kemptown seafront, then Adelaide Crescent in Hove.
In the 1920s Heyer continued to write even though her husband’s career as a mining engineer took them to Macedonia and Tanzania, where they lived in a grass hut. ‘These Old Shades’ was inadvisedly released without fanfare in 1926 – the midst of the General Strike – yet still sold 190,000 copies, her future runaway success was assured. In 1921, it became her first novel, ‘The Black Moth’. She started to take her career seriously aged 17 after writing a story to entertain her younger brother who was ill while holidaying in Hastings. She described being in the public eye as ‘nauseating’, and anyway, didn’t need the publicity to sell her works by the thousands to her faithful fans, who made her one of the twentieth century’s most successful – and loved – authors.Īs a child, Heyer was a bookworm who loved reading and discussing books with her friends. Writing an incredible 56 works of fiction in her life, mainly historical but also contemporary and mystery-detective works, Heyer’s output was staggering and led to her sniffier critics claiming that she was nothing more than a dumbed down Jane Austen. Cover of the novel Regency Buck, by Georgette Heyer, published 1935 by William Heinemannįull of young women navigating high society, handsome men with more money than sense, duels, danger, and romance, Georgette Heyer’s novels paint a world that was far from the one lived in by the 1920s and ‘30s readers who were the first to eagerly flock to her work.
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