(For OBM, and any other fans) Georgette Heyer Appreciation Society

[wombling]

Thought it was a good idea to start this lw, so we stopped cluttering up the Austen Thread (thanks onebatmother, for the suggestion). But I have only just managed to get around to it, so is there anyone else out there who is keen?

What are your favourites, I love These Old Shades, Devils Cub, The Grand Sophy and Venetia. I also managed to discover a historical novel I didn't know wbout "The Great Roxhythe", unfortunately out of print. When googling, I also managed to find www.georgetteheyer.com, which is a mine of info I didn't know about, esp about her modern novels.

[LadyGlencoraPalliser]

Please do join in. The more the merrier.
Now where is OneBatMother?

[SalVolatile]

My Dear Lady Glencora - do tell, who is the ravishing Miss Fairy? A debutante of the First Water, clearly, but how is it she becomes Your Protegee?

[FairyCCTaleEnding]

Lady Glencora has been most generous in sponsoring my my debut, even furnishing me with vouchers for Almack's.

I am somewhat shy and uneducated in the ways of the Ton, being a country Miss recently arrived in the metropolis, but I am of good family. Alas, my poor papa, Lord Gussington (just lately carried off by an inflammation of the lungs), married for love and was considered not quite the thing by his esteemed family, but I am hopeful that if I conduct myself courteously and graciously I may redeem myself in their eyes, especially if I can find a handsome Earl or Duke to captivate with my refreshingly frank manner and peaches and cream complexion.

[SalVolatile]

Madame Volatile sits bolt upright to consider this young ingenue that has floated across her path, and wonders not for the first time what has become of her dear friend Mrs Bat, whose devotion to Rosa (now Duchess of Upright) leads Madame Volatile to believe that she would be Most Interested in Miss Fairy........

[LadyGlencoraPalliser]

Why do not thank me for the vouchers Miss Fairy, twas but a trifle. Sally Jersey and I are bosom bows, you know and she would never refuse to sponsor a young lady whom I might present to her. With her on your side, launching you in Society will be a mere bagatelle. Almack's is not called the Marriage Mart for naught, every young man of fashion who is hanging out for a wife is to be met with there, and I vow you will be all the rage within a sennight.

[RosaLuxembourg]

Enchanted to meet you, Miss Fairy. You are a diamond of the first water, indeed. You will outshine all the other debutante's this season, just as I did myself in my first season. I think I will allow myself the pleasure of attending Almack's next week to observe your first entrance into polite society. I do not dance, of course, in my condition - I am in the expectation of presenting His Grace with an heir - but I will be delighted to lend my countenance to your debut and introduce you to any young man who may take your fancy.
Madam Volatile, I fear you have been ill. You are not in such looks as formerly. Or is it the gown. Puce is such a trying shade, particularly at your time of life.

[FairyCCTaleEnding]

Dear Ladies, you are so generous to take an interest in a mere country girl. I am now established in a house in Brook Street (not the first stare, I know, but I'm told perfectly respectable) with a small retinue and am launching upon a whirl of gaiety. This morning, I shall ride in the Park with my good friend Amelia Davenant (of the Norfolk Davenants, you know), chaperoned by her brother, Ambrose. Pray do not take alarm, Ladies - I have known Ambrose since he was in short britches and his rakish charms hold no sway with me ...

This afternoon, the mantua-makers!

[SalVolatile]

Your Grace (deep curtsey). Charming to see you once more about Town, I am sure. How sad that His Grace could not accompany you, but I hear his Dear Mama has him quite tied to her apron-strings, alas! Perhaps that is to prevent him from being inadvertently confused with those cronies of his still in the Hell Fire Club? Indeed, I hear that his romps with younger bucks had quite a physical element to them which is what alarmed her Grace the Dowager Duchess? Strange, for one would easily consider him quite close to his male friends, if you Take my Meaning? One would hate to hear a Breath of Scandal with such an Interesting Event to occur, would one not? La, but how I do let my tongue run on............

[womblingalong]

Oh La Ladies, it has been an age since we last met, and who is this new arrival who has come to grace our season with her presence. Welcome child.

[SalVolatile]

"My dear Lady Wombling, have you heard the tittle tattle? her `grace The Duchess of Upright has been brought to bed of a girl, upon which Her Grace the Dowager Duchess has taken to her bed with an Apoplexy and cries that nothing now can stop His Grace's creditors Dunning them! Meanwhile the New Mother has engaged the services of a wet-nurse and is already Receiving Visitors, including a certain Rakish Lord of our acquaintance"

[onebatmother]

My dears! My dears! It has been an age I declare! Ah, Salopette, my ancient confidante , it has long been my most urgent desire to continue our discussions, and to hatch a mutually-advantageous scheme which might abate the scandals which presently hedge both my house and yours...

But alas! There has been a terrible falling-off! Poor Mr Bat was at last overtaken by the duns, and till yesterday he languished in Fleet Prison, on bread and water rations!

It was down to me, my dear Salopette, to rescue my dear Alphonse from ruin! And ... I have sacrificed everything to do so!

But now Mr Bat is near free of his debtors, it is settled. We leave tomorrow for Madeira, where Mr Bat has some connexions, and where I might, we hope, escape my shame and resume my position of a woman of ton!
But my dears, I must leave you, and tonight!

[SalVolatile]

La, Mrs Bat, you Positively Put us to Shame with your prattling! Hurry back, for this thread Town would be sadly dull without you (I do object to being an ancient confidante, though

These rooms seem Sadly Thin of Company these days........

[thumbwitch]

How did I miss this thread before?
Am devastated - but here now.
Shall go and read all 16 pages before attempting to join in properly - I was just looking to see whether anyone had posted on "ventre a terre" on MN, because I remembered reading something on t'internet about it before where no one seemed to know what it really meant (t'internet has evolved since) and last night I was reading The Talisman Ring and it was mentioned again, and today I found a lovely old French/English dictionary (1881) in a charity shop - lo! it was there! Funny coincidence. (Of course, now t'internet has caught up it is easy to get proper definition of it)

Will just say that I have ALL the Georgette Heyer romances and crime thrillers and my top 5 are:
the Grand Sophy
Frederica
Arabella
Devil's Cub
Cotillion
Am also very fond of the Reluctant Widow.

Least favourites are:
Cousin Kate
Beauvallet
A Royal Escape
Penhallow

[SalVolatile]

Hi Thumbwitch - hope i am not too late to welcome you to the fold , I had given up since the whole of Society appears to have forsaken me......

[SVioletcanrunfor20minutes]

excerpt from Richard Armitage narrating a new audio book version of Sylvester. Lovely

[pingviner]

Oh my god how did I miss this thread!

Pingviner abandons her dangerous High Perch Phaeton at the door and flounces in with all the consiousness of a lady, who while not excessive in inches, is Bang Up to the Nines in every respect of fashion, from the tips of her halfboots of jean, to the ravishing concotion of a hat on her curls.
Being an heiress is such a tiresome prospect when every eligible beau in the Marriage Mart is forming designs upon ones charming person. My parents will never consent to my marriage to the peniless poet I have met, though his rhymes are complementary and he looks like Adonis in his tight Inexpressibles...

[SalVolatile]

pingviner - tight Inexpressibles? Did your Dear Mama teach you nothing of worth? < I do hope you have this on your wathced threads list, or I am Undone! Again

[CaresMildly]

It is so kind in you to have this thread running. I have been separated from my GH books for nigh on a year now, this will act as a vinaigrette until I can retrieve them!

[CaresMildly]

First I shall re-read Venetia (my all time favourite) then:

Grand Sophy
Frederica
Friday's Child
Civil Contract
Convenient Marriage
Unknown Ajax (with Anthea's acute hearing)

ahh bliss, to sink into Heyer world without a care!

[PrincessFiorimonde]

Stumbled across this thread last night; sorry it seems to have died, as twas ferociously funny - reading it kept me up till well past when I should have been in bed.

Many thanks for the entertainment!

[salvolatile]

My dear Princess Fiorimonde - 'tis too Diverting to find you gracing these halls with your company! Alack, mumsnet London seems very Thin of Company these days. so one is left to Low Games of Chance with various Diverting Characters of probable ill-repute and to idle Chat

[PrincessFiorimonde]

Princess Fiorimonde presents her Compliments to Mme Volatile - but Regrets she is shortly to leave Town for some time on business of a Pressing Nature. On her return, she hopes she may be permitted to Renew her Acquaintance with All in Polite Society and discover the latest crim cons.

[PrincessFiorimonde]

[salvolatile]

Aw shucks!

[HoratiaDrelincourt]

Utterly shameless bump to build up the numbers for GH book club. Next is the Nonesuch (Ancilla, Sir Waldo and the Beautiful Theophania Wield). See us in Adult Fiction with your redingote on.

Devil's Cub
Convenient Marriage (obviously)
Friday's Child