Guilty Pleasure - Georgette Heyer and other Historical Romance

[dreamofwhitehorses]

God I love Georgette Heyer, and I'm not even going to pretend to be ashamed about it, well written, witty and historically accurate. And all based in my favourite period of history. However I need something else in the same vein to relax with. I'm pretty fixated with the Regency, and it has to be accurate and literate - any suggestions?

@dreamofwhitehorses, your comment was posted years ago but I'd still like to respond. I love G. Heyer too. My gran had The Grand Sophy and I read it avidly at age 8-ish. Now, decades later, I have the entire collection of Heyer's Regency books and re-read them at regular intervals. As you rightly point out, there's no need to be ashamed of enjoying her books. I have to deal with very heavy legal texts for work, so I like to read lighter stuff to relax in my leisure hours. Have you read any Jean Plaidy? She wrote a whole series about the Hannover kings, starting with George I's parents' marriage and continuing up to Queen Victoria. This series includes 3 or 4 about George IV as Prince of Wales and Regent, which are pretty good, but nowhere near as good as Heyer. Obviously I like some Heyer books more than others, and quite a few of her characters get on my nerves (including Léonie de St.-Vire, Lady Fanny Alastair, and Eustacie from The Talisman Ring). Favourites include Regency Buck, Civil Contract, Quiet Gentleman, Reluctant Widow, Cotillion, Arabella, Venetia ... plus loads more. But I disliked Friday's Child, Tollgate, Cousin Kate (which is really awful!) Talisman Ring and Charity Girl: only 5 out of 34 books, which isn't bad. I wasn't keen on the Unknown Ajax, but the hilarious character of Cousin Claude saves it from being a 'dislike'. GH writes excellent English, and her stories are highly entertaining and often very funny. Some recurring themes occur, such as wild and fiery young Viscounts with dimwitted friends, and young females in marriages of convenience whose brothers are wild and fiery young Viscounts, etc. What I really do find peculiar is the fact that these GH Regency and Georgian romances have never been televised. You'd thjink the BBC would have leapt on them. Strange!

@edam, I've read the same thing (that GH apparently got the plots for her detective stories from her barrister husband) in the biographical blurb about GH on the first page of many of her books. So you're quite right. She may well have based some of these stories on her husband's cases which he told her about, but there's nothing wrong with that, is there?

@MarshaBrady Would that be the Reluctant Widow? It is a Regency detective story, and Cousin Francis makes some hilarious snide remarks. But I can't remember what colour his hair was. He was certrainly obsessed with his appearance :-)

I’ve just suggested these on another thread, but if you don’t mind a bit of fantasy, Garth Nix’s Newt’s Emerald, for which he freely admits Georgette Heyer as an influence. And Carolyn Stevermer’s Cecelia and Kate novels.

Jodi Taylor wrote a pretty good regency A Bachelor Establishment, originally published as by Isabella Barclay.

The sadly, late Jo Beverley wrote some good regencies, and she was a huge Heyer fan.

And for witty dialogue, I would really recommend Loretta Chase - I think her earlier books are more Georgian than Regency from memory, but try Lord of Scoundrels and see if you can resist her.

From memory her more recent series are Regency.

Oops. Zombie thread.