Georgette Heyer - give me your top five

[throwaway25]

Heyer is my go-to when I’m down in the dumps and is like lying in a massive warm bath of comfort. Just finished re-reading Sylvester, Venetia and Frederica. What are your absolute top fives for my next read? Strong, dashing hero is compulsory of course.

If it had escaped your notice, my dear Matthew, that his appalling brogue overcame him only when it was made abundantly plain that his family held him in contempt, then I can only say that it did not escape mine.

Ee lad, that's gradely! Is tha from t' West Riding?

At these bitterly-uttered words Chollacombe nearly dropped the decanter.

...I shouldn't make the smallest attempt to drag you back from that cliff-edge.

We are planning to read The Unknown Ajax aloud next.

We are planning to read The Unknown Ajax aloud next.

But can you do a Yorkshire accent?

Haha! Sometimes. I refresh my memory by watching dialect videos before hand. Sometimes her writing is clear enough to get it right, sometimes I have to really concentrate. It works for us but I am not planning to let anyone else listen!

My top five:
Venetia
The Grand Sophy
The Reluctant Widow
Arabella
Frederica

And I can't leave them out so honourable mentions to:
Devil's Cub - for the shooting scene, and for the bit at the end where Mary recounts the whole story to Avon
An Infamous Army - for the very particular type of chemistry between Bab and Charles; I enjoy how different a character Bab is from the usual, so restless, unhappy and you really get a sense of her self loathing hedonism. I love how her relationship with Judith develops
The Foundling - for the duke's sweet smile and the doorman's devotion!
The Unknown Ajax - for that unparalleled scene at the end!!! I wish I could read it again for the first time. I was in awe!

I’m reading False Colours at the moment & realised that both the Staveleys and the Ledgerwoods lived in Mount Street.

According to https://www.georgette-heyer.com/chron.html Cotillion was set in 1816 & False Colours in 1817. I wonder if the two families knew each other?

I wonder if the two families knew each other?

They'd have moved in the same social circles, been to the same schools, belonged to the same clubs and so on. The London Society that GH wrote about was a relatively small number of people, they would all have known, or known of, each other to some degree. (Assuming all her characters existed in the same universe. We know that the Alastairs co-existed with the Regency Buck characters, for example.)

Didn't Biggles & Co also live in Mount Street, more than a century later?

Arabella also visits Mount Street in 1817. That neighbourhood WhatsApp would have been hopping!

I think Laura Place in Bath is another busy Heyer location

Yes to Biggles living in Mount St later too.

One of Evelyn’s ‘sprees’ might have been that masked ball the Scortons dragged Kitty to.

The Stinchcombes from Lady of Quality, and Fanny & Serena from Bath Tangle?

In Persuasion, the Elliots' cousin Lady Dalrymple takes a house in Laura Place.

I've just looked up Mount Street on Street View. It's all late Victorian/Edwardian mansion blocks with shops and restaurants at ground floor level. Would have been familiar to Biggles, but there's nothing left from the Regency era. The one thing a GH character might have recognised is Purdey, the gun maker, whose premises are there.

Sydney Gardens is where the Wendovers live in Black Sheep, and is in Persuasion as well. When I walked past the cathedral I thought of Fanny and slimy Stacey planning to elope.

I’m reading https://www.dramandaforeman.com/georgiana-duchess-of-devonshire-by-amanda-foreman/ , mainly because I saw it in a charity shop & remembered Lady Denville was partly based on her. I can definitely see the resemblance, especially in charm and money management.

I strongly recommend it. It’s well written, interesting and since the Duchess of Devonshire lived from 1757 (the year after These Old Shades was set) to 1806 (11 years after Faro’s Daughter) it’s really helpful for giving background to the Regency books.

@EmpressaurusKitty have you seen her portrait?

I have - I went to a marvellous exhibition of woman artists at the Tate Britain & that was my favourite piece. It looks like you saw it there too, @MoistVonL 😀

I did - wasn’t it superb?

Utterly!