(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.

[onebatmother]

yes good point Katymac. Will do so.

[KatyMac]

These are her detective book
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)

I haven't read
The Great Roxhythe (1923)
Instead of the Thorn (1923)
Helen (1928)
Pastel (1929)
Barren Corn (1930)
The Conqueror (1931) (might have read this - not sure)
Footsteps in the Dark (1932)
Why Shoot a Butler? (1933)
The Unfinished Clue (1934)

[TheYoungVisiter]

I have also read the Foundling but can't remember much about it except that he is also an orphan I think, and I am sure there is something to do with a female Fortune Hunter. Hang on, will see if I can find my copy...

[TheYoungVisiter]

hmm, my copy of the foundling is in DS's room and amazon is not very helpful. From what I can remember it's a really nice read but not quite the best Vintage.

[onebatmother]

yes that sounds right re Foundling YV. I haven't read/heard of any of the detective ones that Katymac mentions. Thinking my mother only went in for lacy-cuffed romance/smartness..

[TheYoungVisiter]

did you "inherit" GH from your mum then, OBM?

I must have missed your other posts about her - I had no idea there were so many other GH fans out there.

[onebatmother]

YV me and rosa and wombling and others hijacked the Sense and Sensibility thread a bit..
here 08.01.08 from about 20.30.00

[fridascruffs]

hello , I read my first Heyer when I was about 12, I found it in the library in School (in Namibia, she gets everywhere), it was Regency Buck (Worth and Judith). Then I borrowed Devil's Cub from a friend of my mother's, and I've worked my way through most of them over the years. I've had twenty years of Lord Worth fantasies when real life fails to thrill . Rupert from Devil's Cub is just the best comic character, obsessed with his shipment of claret and how he's going to get it back to England from Dijon. I'm still laughing all these year later.
I bought one of her detective stories a few months ago from a charity shop, but I can't get into it. I did read her biography though, by Jane Aitken Hodge, but she didn't have such an interesting life really. The Beau Brummel biography (can't remember author bit it's pretty recent, is on Amazon) is more interesting for Heyer fans really.

[fridascruffs]

And Patrick O'Brien IS brilliant, so maybe other of Heyer fans would like him cos I like him for the same reasons I like Heyer. I only discovered him since the film, though I'd had the book lying around for ages.

[fridascruffs]

I love Venetia too. Wanted to call my DD Frederica but Dp wasn't convinced (philistine).

[wombling]

YV, I know just what you mean about the complete world GH creates, you can just lose yurself in them, can't you, in a much more perfect world than ours.

Helen,Pastel and Barren Corn are her 'modern' novels, written in her present day, and are not detective fiction, apparently she suppressed some of them, as she felt they gave away too much of her privacy.

I have read why shoot a butler, and it's okay, but not a patch on her historical fiction.

[turquoise]

Delighted to see from that list that there's quite a few I haven't read.

Black Sheep was the last one I read - charity shop result, very good. I like the older heroine ones best - Grand Sophy and Frederica were my favourites in my teens.

I seem to remember Sylvester as the funniest - is that the one where he's the heir and a raving psychopath? Also The TollGate and Sprig Muslin were hoots IIRC. Loved the gaming ones - These Old Shades?

[KatyMac]

I think I feel a re-read coming on

I wonder how many I can read at once without getting fed up

I used to be able to read all I have (I also wonder how many that is) all at once

[ghosty]

Oh my good god! I had NO idea there were others out there!!
My mother has been a fan for as long as I can remember - I started reading them at around the age of 12.
My favourites are, well, ALL of the regency novels. I am not a big detective story fan so I have not read many of those ...
I can't remember the title of the one where the young man marries the 'plain' girl (daughter of rich industrialist) for money. She loves him but he loves his childhood sweetheart who he couldn't marry because she is penniless. It wasn't a fun romp of a story but so sweet and heartbreaking ...
But ended happily in the end ...

Can anyone remember what it was called?

[turquoise]

The Foundling is another very funny one. And the Nonesuch is lovely - older hero and heroine again.

[KatyMac]

A convenient marriage? Maybe I can't rally remember - she falls in love with him & he doesn't realise it til the end?

[turquoise]

I think that one might be A Convenient Marriage Ghosty? Not sure, but I know there was one that I didn't like much, it wasn't the usual style, and I didn't finish so don't know if it ended happily? Or A Civil Contract maybe.

[onebatmother]

Goodnight my dears and sleep tight.
And thank you, Wombling, for a lovely day.

[procrastinatingparent]

ghosty - it's A Civil Contract. First one I read, picked it up in the sixth form common room and skived history to finish it. As I said above, it's atypical, but I do like it.

[ghosty]

I think it must be a Civil Contract ....
Convenient Marriage was Hero and Sherry wasn't it? Or was that Friday's Child?
Blimey, all the titles are rolling into one ...

[procrastinatingparent]

Must get off MN and head to bed with a handful of Heyers. So lovely to find kindred spirits!

[TheYoungVisiter]

is it a Convenient Marriage maybe Ghosty? They heroine is called Horatia and she has a stammer, iirc! Not sure she is the daughter of a rich industrialist though - maybe that's a different one.

Off to bed now to dream about Miles Calverleigh and sprigged muslin...

[TheYoungVisiter]

gawd, clearly typing too slowly tonight. Of course it's a Civil Contract - goodness I haven't read that one for years... right, really AM off to bed now.

[onebatmother]

Good grief, the stammer! I used to fantasise about having a stammer!

Do you know I think GH completely formed my romantic view.

[procrastinatingparent]

Same here, which is why DH had to read one, to understand how I think. He has never turned up in tight breeches with a sardonic smile though, so maybe he didn't get it.