Friday: Author in the Spotlight featuring Georgette Heyer

Welcome back to another Friday Author in the Spotlight here at All Things Historical Fiction!

I contemplated all this week as to which author I would shine the spotlight on and I stumbled upon Georgette Heyer, a well known and respected Regency Romance Historical Fiction author during the early 20th century.

Heyer has written over 40 historical fiction novels and a dozen detective novels in her lifetime. Her novels are being republished by Random House Publishers under the New Arrow Publications. I love how her books are being republished so that a younger generation of Historical Fiction lovers can also enjoy her work.

Georgette Heyer was born on August 16, 1902 in Wimbledon. She married George Ronald Rougier in 1925. Her husband was mining engineer and who moved around a lot do to the nature of his job. For three years she and her husband lived in East Africa which inspired her to write her famous essay 'The Horned Beats of Africa.'

Heyer wrote her first novel, The Black Moth, when she was only 17 years old. It was her father’s persistence that led her to send it off to an agent and it was eventually published in 1921 right after she turned 19. She was immensely inspired by Jane Austen and so like Austen, Heyer’s heroines always found a suitable husband at the end and they shared a similar ironic tone when it came to their writing styles.

One of the interesting things I found about Georgette was that she really kept to herself. From the beginning of her career, she didn’t like being in the public eye and, therefore, refused to give an interview. Also, Heyer was occasionally beaten down by feminist novelists. They argued on the fact that the women in her books concentrated entirely on the business of getting married like Austen's heroines, and they show intelligence and strong will. Despite being criticized, Heyer actually influenced some novelists such as Jane Aiken Hodge who later went on to write Georgettes biography titled The Private World of Georgette Heyer.

On a sad note, Georgette died in 1974 from lung cancer. In my opinion, what made Georgette Heyer such an amazing historical novelist and why Historical Fiction readers are still reading her work today is due to the fact that her work was so well researched. She hardly ever made mistakes and her characters were so well developed and believable.

Here's a list of her entire work:

Series

Alastair Trilogy
1. These Old Shades (1926)
2. Devil's Cub (1932)
3. An Infamous Army (1937)
The Alastair Trilogy Boxed Set (omnibus) (2006)

Inspector Hannasyde
Death in the Stocks (1935)
aka Merely Murder
Behold, Here's Poison (1936)
They Found Him Dead (1937)
A Blunt Instrument (1938)

Inspector Hemingway
No Wind of Blame (1939)
Envious Casca (1941)
Duplicate Death (1951)
Detection Unlimited (1953)

Novels
The Black Moth (1921)
The Transformation of Philip Jettan (1923) (writing as Stella Martin)
aka Powder and Patch
The Great Roxhythe (1923)
Instead of the Thorn (1923)
Powder and Patch (1923)
Simon the Coldheart (1925)
Helen (1928)
The Masqueraders (1928)
Beauvallet (1929)
Pastel (1929)
Barren Corn (1930)
The Conqueror (1931)
Footsteps in the Dark (1932)
Why Shoot a Butler? (1933)
The Convenient Marriage (1934)
The Unfinished Clue (1934)
Regency Buck (1935)
The Talisman Ring (1936)
Royal Escape (1938)
The Corinthian (1940)
aka Beau Wyndham
The Spanish Bride (1940)
Faro's Daughter (1941)
Penhallow (1942)
Friday's Child (1944)
The Reluctant Widow (1946)
The Foundling (1948)
Arabella (1949)
The Grand Sophy (1950)
The Quiet Gentleman (1951)
Cotillion (1953)
The Toll-Gate (1954)
Bath Tangle (1955)
Sprig Muslin (1956)
April Lady (1957)
Sylvester (1957)
aka The Wicked Uncle
Venetia (1958)
The Unknown Ajax (1959)
A Civil Contract (1961)
The Nonesuch (1962)
False Colours (1963)
Frederica (1965)
The Black Sheep (1966)
Cousin Kate (1968)
Charity Girl (1970)
Lady of Quality (1972)
My Lord John (1975)

OmnibusDevil's Cub / False Colours (1966)
The Georgette Heyer Omnibus (1973)
Arabella / Bath Tangle / Nonesuch (1991)
Pistols for Two / April Lady (1998)