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Find your new favourite book or recommend one on our Book forum.

To whoever recommended Georgette Heyer - THANK YOU!

119 replies

BellaBearisWideAwake · 30/11/2010 14:50

Picked up 'Friday's Child' today in waterstones and it's fab. Just the kind of book I needed.

So thank you whoever said to read them

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DuchessOfAvon · 06/12/2010 14:30

Ooh! Tis about William? Is it any good? Do I need it?

(Rules on Top Tier are entirely arbitary and subjective. Criteria is how often I reread them!)

Have just Amazoned - The Great ROxhythe seems to change hands for ludricous sums - the cheapest is £45 or so but goes up into the £000s!
And there appears to be a book ttled simply "Helen" - never heard of it. Is someone quietly publishing under her name?

You can get The COnvenient Marriage read by Richard Armitage - if that helps you, StantonLacy.

thumbplumpuddingwitch · 06/12/2010 14:47

Yep, tis William the Conqueror - from birth on. It would be bottom tier on the grounds of how often I re-read it - it's a good historical novel, in the same vein as The Royal Escape, I would say. But again doesn't have the light touch of the romances.

I think if you have the other historicals, then you should try and get The Conqueror too. Can't believe the prices of the Great Roxhythe - I will have to just live without that one, I think! I thought I'd done quite well to get hold of Simon the Coldheart secondhand, tbh, and My Lord John. The Conqueror is better than both of those, IMO.

StantonLacy · 06/12/2010 22:09

Ah, yes Duchess...the Richard Armitage audio books !
But, I have read somewhere that they are abridged. Really, not good enough IMO!
What were they thinking ?!!

I've also read somewhere (although not too sure how reliable my memory is these days) that Heyer wasn't overly enamoured of the Great Roxhythe and a couple of others and actively tried to prevent them from being published - hence rarity and high value.

Still want to read it, though !

StantonLacy · 06/12/2010 22:30

Aha, it was here that I read about the Great Roxhythe being suppressed by Heyer
h2g2 website

and here

Looks like that lady got a fantastic bargain!
I search our local charity shops religiously, but I seriously doubt I'll ever find one for myself!

HumphreyCobbler · 06/12/2010 22:37

Lord Worth is my all time most sexy man EVER.

even Margaret Drabble rates GH Smile

I read Friday's Child first too.

HeroWantage · 07/12/2010 00:39

I would pretty much agree with DuchessofAvon's Top Tier.

Favourite heros; Damerel, Miles Calverleigh,
Freddie in cotillion, Alverstoke
Heroine I'd most like to be; Venetia, Sophy or Mary Challoner
Heroine am actuall most like; Frederica- a "managing female"
Best proposal; Freddie in Cotillion
Best scene with a child- Sylvester's nephew and the ridiclus gudgeon moment when the tassles are cut off the boots
Most touching: jenny's work on Adam's home in a Civil Contract

Could go on and on- GH is clearly a minor deity

thumbplumpuddingwitch · 07/12/2010 02:56

I was very pleased to discover why Penhallow was such a godawful book - on reading Wiki, she used it break a contract with one publisher (it worked). It is the worst Heyer by far, IMO.

HeroWantage · 07/12/2010 07:23

Apologies for appalling spelling. Am sure that's how tassels would have actually been spelt in the Regency period Blush.

DuchessOfAvon · 07/12/2010 11:21

Ooh Hero - a GH game. My fave:

Heros: Damerel, Hugo Darracott, John Staple.
Heroines: Venetia, Mary Challoner, Elinor Rochdale, Sarah Fane.
I am most like: Jenny (without the cash) with a dash of Frederica and Sophy.
Best Proposal: Either the Duke of Avon to Leonie or the bit where Venetia surprises Damerel.
Bits that make me laugh: Fanny's wheels being picked out in blue, Venetia's Aunt being on a diet by having dry biscuits placed next to her and sipping vinegar, Bonamy Ripple without his corset and Alverstoke being abashed by Restorative Pork Jelly.
Scene with a child - jeepers, that's a tough and obscure one. I quite like it in Sylvester when he calls the woman in the Inn a salope. Not many engaging kids in her books. Or maybe when Gertrude & Selina refer to Eugenia's horse-like face.
Most touching: The bit in the Civial COntract where Lydia twigs that all is not well in her brother's marriage just by glimpsing Jenny's face.

SO I see all your categories and raise you -
Most irritating female:
Julia in Civil COntract, Tiffany Wield

thumbplumpuddingwitch · 07/12/2010 11:56

I don't think I can play your game, sadly, but almost entirely because I can't remember all the characters in all the books! One of the reasons I have an enduring love affair with them is that I can re-read them at an interval of about 3 years and it's almost like I've forgotten them.

Can't for the life of me think who Sarah Fane is, for e.g.

But the ones I can remember:
Heroes: Kit from False Colours, Hugo Darracott (thank you for the reminder), Freddie from Cotillion (he's such a gentleman!) and probably several others whose name I can't think of but including nearly all of the men in Masqueraders; oh and Lord Anthony Fanshawe, aka Jack someone or other (goodness - is he in the Black Moth?).
Heroines: Léonie, Sophy Stanton-Lacy, Mary Challoner, Arabella, Frederica and Penelope thingy (another one who dressed as a boy! - can't think what the heck her book was called though...)
I am most like: probably the managing termagant in the Grand Sophy! The bluestocking that her cousin Charles was engaged to, begins with E... - she is also in my Most Irritating Female list, along with Julia from Civil Contract.

Bits that make me laugh - lots! Much of the Grand Sophy, Cotillion, Friday's Child, Arabella, Frederica; Rupert and Léonie's antics; Horry Winfield (is that her name?) - Marries Rule, who may or may not be an Earl.

Most engaging moment with a child - well, I quite like most of Frederica's little brother's antics; and I love the bit in Sylvester where his small nevvy escapes from Button and is seen legging it away somewhere, his little legs twinkling. He's a very engaging child, actually. Him and his Bad Man.:)

Proposal - goodness, they don't really stick with me. I think it might be Arabella's though - because she can't accept.

Most touching moment: The section in These Old Shades where the Duke of Avon denounces M.Saintvire, and his chase after Léonie. Has me in bits every time.

ShrinkingViolet · 07/12/2010 12:08

D1 and I are going to Bath tomorrow - we shall take a turn down Milsom Street to buy a hat.

My favourites depends on the mood I'm in - currently re-re-re-re-etc-reading Cotillion which makes me laugh - Dolphinton hiding under the table.

HeroWantage · 08/12/2010 13:50

Another funniest moment to recall; the bit in the grand sophy where Sophy and Charles have gone off on a picnic, and the marchesa invites Charles' mother to join her in a nap.

Thumplumpudding witch; think it's Penelope Creed in The Corinthian.

Most annoying female;Eugenia takes the biscuit, and agree with Julia from Civil Contract as well.

ShrinkingViolet, absolutely love Cotillion; esp the marriage of Uncle Matthew to Miss Fishguard.

DuchessOfAvon · 08/12/2010 14:02

Sarah Thane not Fane. Jeez, I'm rusty.

yy to Cotillion I love her disjointed letter comparing herself to Katherine marrying the aging Henry VIII.

And doesn't the nap end up with them waking and discussing Lotion of Ladies of Denmark v Crushed Pineapple Water as a skin rememdy?

ANthony Fanshawe is in The Masqueraders. The alter ego in The Black Moth was Anthony Ferndale, I think.

DId you get a hat in Milsom Street? I hope it was an Angouleme bonnet trimmed with sarscenet (or however that should be spelled. I need that GH companion book.).

BellaBearisWideAwake · 08/12/2010 19:03
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BellaBearisWideAwake · 08/12/2010 19:03

Sorry, I don't know what came over me!

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SleepingLion · 08/12/2010 19:12

My first GH read: Frederica, as a teenager.

My favourite: The Grand Sophy - have read it so many times. It is my ultimate comfort read. Regency Buck is also up there, as are These Old Shades and Devil's Cub.

I love the Bath ones as well.

So much GH, so little time to re-read them all!

SarfEasticated · 08/12/2010 20:42

Actually Bella I have been dimpling prettily for an age on this thread no-one has even noticed. I may cry and then my eyes will look like bluebells in the rain. < peeks prettily through dark lashes>

DuchessOfAvon · 08/12/2010 20:54

I eschew the dimpling and sparkling of others and shall blow my tiny nose defiantly.

BellaBearisWideAwake · 08/12/2010 21:21

I know, I was copying you Xmas Blush

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SarfEasticated · 08/12/2010 21:42

well dearest Bella let's take a turn around the assembly rooms and see who we can see...

BCBG · 08/12/2010 21:48

Dearest Bella and Sarf - pray have you read the GH thread in Mumsnet Classics? 'tis worthy or repetition: I (as the fading Beauty and one time Madam Salvolatile) tried madly to keep it going but to no avail! Oh do read, please....... 'tis better than any Romance from the Circulating Library....... ( sorry no idea how to link to it) Grin

thumbplumpuddingwitch · 09/12/2010 02:04

I shall sniff. A la Mary Challoner. None of your feminine devices for me!

And yes, DoA, you are right of course (told you I was rusty with detail!)

Thanks HeroW for putting the other details together for me.

SarfEasticated · 09/12/2010 08:36

I might need to reread the books first, it's been about 20 years!

BellaBearisWideAwake · 09/12/2010 20:27

Shall I look coyly over my shoulder? I have only read one GH so far and I don't have it to hand

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BellaBearisWideAwake · 09/12/2010 20:29

PLUS I asked in my school library today and found out the librarian as a closet GH fan - unfortunately there aren't any in there for me to borrow to avoid spending a fortune on the entire back catalogue

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