Georgette Heyer facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Georgette Heyer
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| Born | 16 August 1902 London, England |
| Died | 4 July 1974 (aged 71) London, England |
| Pen name |
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| Occupation | Writer |
| Period | 1921–1974 |
| Genre | |
| Spouse |
George Ronald Rougier
(m. 1925) |
Georgette Heyer (born August 16, 1902 – died July 4, 1974) was a famous English writer. She wrote many novels, especially Regency romances and detective fiction stories. Her writing career began in 1921. She turned a story she made up for her younger brother into her first novel, The Black Moth.
In 1925, Georgette Heyer married George Ronald Rougier, who was a mining engineer. They lived in places like Tanganyika Territory (now part of Tanzania) and Macedonia for several years. They returned to England in 1929. Heyer believed that good books didn't need a lot of advertising. She never gave interviews, saying her private life was just for her and her family.
Heyer helped create the historical romance genre, especially the Regency romance. Her Regency novels were inspired by Jane Austen. To make her books accurate, Heyer collected many reference books. She kept detailed notes about life in the Regency period. Some people thought her books had too much detail. Others believed this detail was her greatest strength.
Starting in 1932, Heyer published one romance novel and one thriller each year. Her husband often helped with the basic plots for her thrillers. Heyer would then create the characters and their conversations. Many critics praised her detective novels for their humor and clever plots.
Her success sometimes came with challenges, like money problems and people copying her work. Heyer chose not to sue those who copied her stories. She tried different ways to manage her taxes. She even created a company to handle the rights to her novels. In 1966, she sold her company and the rights to many of her books. Heyer continued writing until she passed away in July 1974. Forty-eight of her novels were still being printed at that time. Her last book, My Lord John, was published after her death.
Contents
Early Life and First Books
Georgette Heyer was born in Wimbledon, London, in 1902. She was named after her father, George Heyer. Her mother, Sylvia Watkins, was a talented musician. Georgette was the oldest of three children. Her brothers, Boris and Frank, were younger than her.
For a time, her family lived in Paris. They returned to England when World War I started in 1914. Her father encouraged his children to read widely. Georgette often met friends to discuss books.
When she was 17, Heyer started writing a story for her brother Boris. He was often weak due to a health condition. Her father liked the story and encouraged her to publish it. Her first novel, The Black Moth, came out in 1921. It was about a young man who took the blame for his brother's cheating. This book included many elements that became common in Heyer's later novels.
Marriage and Adventures Abroad
In December 1920, Georgette Heyer met George Ronald Rougier. They met while on holiday with her family. They often danced together while Rougier studied to become a mining engineer. In the spring of 1925, they got engaged. A month later, Heyer's father passed away. He left no money for the family, so Heyer became responsible for her younger brothers. She married Rougier on August 18, 1925.
In October 1925, Rougier went to work in the Caucasus Mountains. Heyer stayed in England and kept writing. In 1926, she released These Old Shades. This book focused more on relationships than on adventure. It came out during a big strike in England, so it got no reviews or advertising. Even so, the book sold 190,000 copies! Because of this, Heyer decided she didn't need to promote her books.
Rougier came home in the summer of 1926. But soon after, he was sent to Tanganyika Territory in East Africa. Heyer joined him there the next year. They lived in a simple hut in the countryside. Heyer was the first white woman her servants had ever seen. While in Tanganyika, Heyer wrote The Masqueraders. This book was set in 1745 and featured siblings who pretended to be the opposite gender.
In 1928, Heyer followed her husband to Macedonia. She almost died after a dental procedure there. She insisted they return to England before starting a family. The next year, Rougier left his job. This made Heyer the main person earning money for the family. Rougier later bought a sports shop with borrowed money. Heyer continued to earn most of the family's income through her writing.
Writing Regency Romances
Heyer's first books were romance novels, mostly set before the 1800s. In 1935, she published Regency Buck. This was her first novel set in the Regency period (1811-1820). This popular book helped create the Regency romance genre.
Heyer's novels used the Regency setting as a key part of the story. Many of her characters had modern ideas. More traditional characters in the books would often notice the main character's unusual ways. Her books mostly focused on the lives of wealthy upper-class people. They rarely mentioned poverty, religion, or politics.
Even though the British Regency period was short (1811-1820), Heyer's romances were set between 1752 and 1825. Her books often centered around the "London season," where young people looked for marriage partners. Her Regency romances were inspired by Jane Austen, who also wrote about this era. However, Austen wrote about her own time. Heyer wrote about events that happened over 100 years earlier. This meant she had to include more details for readers to understand the period.
Heyer wanted her novels to be as accurate as possible. She collected many reference books and research materials. When she passed away, she owned over 1,000 historical books. These included books about old fashion, snuff boxes, and even the cost of candles in certain years. She also kept notebooks with lists of old phrases and ways of speaking.
Her knowledge of the period was so vast that she rarely needed to state dates directly. Instead, she would mention small or large events of the time to show when the story was happening. For example, she once bought a letter written by the Duke of Wellington. She wanted to use his exact writing style in her novel An Infamous Army. She claimed every word spoken by Wellington in that book was truly said or written by him.
Types of Characters
Heyer often created two main types of male romantic leads. She called them Mark I and Mark II. Mark I heroes were often "rude, overbearing, and sometimes a bit wild." Mark II heroes were charming, sophisticated, and very stylish. Her heroines also fell into two groups: the tall and adventurous type, and the quiet, gentle type.
When a Mark I hero and a Mark I heroine met, it often led to exciting drama.
Writing Thrillers
The Conqueror (1931) was Heyer's first historical fiction novel about real historical events. She researched the life of William the Conqueror very carefully. She even traveled the route he took when he crossed into England.
The next year, Heyer wrote her first thriller, Footsteps in the Dark. This book came out around the same time her only child, Richard George Rougier, was born. Heyer later asked her publishers not to reprint Footsteps in the Dark. She said her husband and two brothers had helped write it.
For several years, Heyer published one romance novel and one thriller each year. Her romances were much more popular. They usually sold 115,000 copies, while her thrillers sold 16,000. Heyer's son said she saw writing mysteries like solving a crossword puzzle.
Heyer's husband helped a lot with her writing. He often read her historical romances to find mistakes. He also helped with her thrillers by providing the basic plots. Heyer would then create the characters and their relationships.
Her detective stories were often about murders among upper-class families. They were known for their humor, drama, and romance. The humor came from the characters' personalities and conversations. Most of these novels were set in the time they were written.
From 1935, Heyer's thrillers featured two detectives: Superintendent Hannasyde and Sergeant (later Inspector) Hemingway. These detectives were not as famous as others of the time, like Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot. One of Heyer's books, Death in the Stocks, was even made into a play in New York City in 1937.
Some critics felt Heyer's detective novels, the last written in 1953, sometimes used common ideas for crimes and characters. The stories were always set in London, a small village, or at a house party. However, many praised Heyer's thrillers for their cleverness and humor.
Money Matters
In 1939, Heyer's husband, Rougier, became a lawyer. The family moved to be closer to London for his work. In 1940, they sent their son to a boarding school, which added to their expenses. During World War II, paper was rationed, which meant fewer of Heyer's books could be sold. To make ends meet, Heyer sold the rights to some of her earlier novels.
To reduce her tax payments, Heyer created a company called Heron Enterprises around 1950. Money from her new books would go to the company. The company would then pay Heyer's salary and fees to her family. However, a tax inspector found that Heyer was taking too much money from the company. This meant she owed more taxes. To pay this bill, Heyer wrote articles for Punch magazine. She once wrote to a friend that she was "tired of writing books for the benefit of the Treasury."
In 1950, Heyer started working on a big project she called her "magnum opus." This was a series of three books about the House of Lancaster in medieval times. She thought it would take five years to finish. But her readers kept asking for new books. To keep them happy and pay her taxes, Heyer paused her big project to write more Regency romances. The first book in the series, My Lord John, was published after her death.
Her company continued to cause problems with taxes. In 1966, she finally sold the company to Booker-McConnell. This company already owned the rights to books by famous writers like Ian Fleming and Agatha Christie. Booker-McConnell paid Heyer about £85,000 for the rights to 17 of her books.
People Copying Her Work
As Heyer's books became more popular, other authors started writing in a similar style. In 1950, a reader told Heyer that another writer, Barbara Cartland, had written novels that seemed to copy Heyer's style. These books used similar names, characters, and plot ideas. Heyer prepared a detailed analysis for her lawyers. The case never went to court, but the copying stopped. Heyer refused to tell the newspapers about it.
In 1961, another reader noticed similarities in the works of Kathleen Lindsay. These novels copied plot points, characters, and even old Regency slang. Heyer made a detailed list of the copied parts and historical mistakes in the books. Her lawyers suggested taking legal action, but Heyer decided not to sue.
Later Life and Passing
In 1959, Rougier became a senior lawyer. The next year, their son Richard married. Heyer was surprised by the situation but soon grew to love her daughter-in-law. She described her as "the daughter we never had." Richard and his wife had a son, Nicholas, in 1966, who was Heyer's only grandchild.
As Heyer got older, she had more health problems. In June 1964, she had surgery for a kidney stone. The next year, she got a mosquito bite that became infected. In July 1973, she had a small stroke. She had another stroke in February 1974. Three months later, she was diagnosed with lung cancer. Georgette Heyer passed away on July 4, 1974. Many of her fans learned her married name for the first time from her obituaries.
Her Lasting Impact
Georgette Heyer's novels were very popular in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Germany. A first printing of one of her books often had 65,000–75,000 copies. Her books sold over 100,000 hardback copies each year. Her paperback books usually sold over 500,000 copies each. When she died, 48 of her books were still being printed.
Her books were especially popular during the Great Depression and World War II. Her novels, filled with adventure and romance, allowed readers to escape from the difficulties of their daily lives. Heyer herself once said about one of her novels, "it's unquestionably good escapist literature."
Heyer is known for inventing the historical romance and creating the subgenre of the Regency romance. When her novels were first published in the United States in 1966, they were described as being "in the tradition of Jane Austen." Many other writers who write Regency romances today are said to be "following in the romantic tradition of Georgette Heyer."
While Heyer is known for her Regency romances, her humor is also very important. Many people have praised her wit. Stephen Fry, a famous comedian, said Heyer was "one of the wittiest, most insightful and rewarding prose writers imaginable." Heyer enjoyed being funny and wanted people to talk about her humor. Some critics have even compared her humor to that of the famous writer P. G. Wodehouse.
It is important to know that some of Heyer's books have been criticized for certain language or ideas that are not acceptable today. For example, her book The Grand Sophy (published in 1950) has been discussed for its portrayal of some characters. In 2023, Heyer's publisher in the USA released an updated version of The Grand Sophy. They changed some of the language with permission from the Georgette Heyer Estate.
Despite her popularity, Heyer was often overlooked by critics. Her novels were rarely reviewed in major newspapers. However, this did not bother her. What mattered to her was that her stories sold more and more copies. Even the Encyclopædia Britannica did not mention Heyer in its 1974 edition, even though it included other popular writers.
See also
- Dandy
- Fop
- List of works by Georgette Heyer
