Drawing tonight for two Georgette Heyer books. Leave a comment at this link on Why I Love Georgette Heyer. Congratulations winners, Jan and Ginger, chosen through Random Number Generator! Thank you all for making a comment!
Georgette Heyer in 1923, when she was 21 and lived in Ridgway Place. She had already written The Black Moth for her sick brother Boris.
Georgette Heyer was born 110 years ago (August 16, 1902) at 103 Woodside, a mere 500 yards from Wimbledon Library. She was named after her father George, a descendant of a Russian fur merchant who had immigrated to England during the mid-19th century. The family lived at Woodside from 1902 to 1906 before moving to 1 Courthope Road. Georgette’s family lived in several houses in Wimbledon, all middle class, all close to each other.
Tony Grant, who lives in Wimbledon and took the images of her childhood homes and neighborhood for this post, speculates that “Maybe her father and mother rented rather than bought. That might not sound strange to you but it is rare for us. We generally buy our houses [and] don’t move that often.”
Georgette Heyer’s birthplace. Image @Tony Grant
Another view of her birthplace
He adds an interesting tidbit: ”People here don’t really appreciate her that much. They tend to think she was always trying to give them a history lesson. Things they knew anyway…But I can see how someone who wanted to immerse themselves in the period would love her.”
Woodside, Wimbledon
Georgette Heyer came from a respectable background. She and her family lived at various addresses in Wimbledon: 103 Woodside (1902-6), 1 Courthope Road (c.1907-9), 11 Homefield Road (1918) and 5 Ridgway Place (1923–5).
The Albany, Mayfair
She was married to George Ronald Rougier CBE QC, a mining engineer who later became a shopkeeper and then a barrister. For 24 years the couple lived in a rented space in Albany House in Mayfair, London, a swanky area where so many of her upper crust characters shopped and danced and found romance. They had one son, Richard. Georgette experienced great success during her lifetime, receiving excellent reviews and seeing the sales of her novels increase yearly. Almost 40 years after her death in 1974, her novels, especially her Regency romances, remain in print.
While Georgette was aware of the popularity of her Regency romances, she was unhappy that her more serious historical novels were not similarly embraced. On August 16th of this year, Tony reports that the Wimbledon Library will have no events to remember her by. “I feel quite sad now”, he added, “[She] probably needs a 150th anniversary to get a mention!”
Other Georgette Heyer Reviews on this blog:
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Thanks, Tony and Vic for this remembrance of one of may favorite authors. Photos are great. Looking at the reviews on this site, I did read the one for The Grand Sophy, and have a general comment to make about Heyer and other authors like Dorothy Sayers who were at times blatant anti-Semites. P.G. Woodhouse (reading the delightful Joy in the Morning right now and the Cohens own the costume store – no disparaging remarks in the novel) who wrote at the same time didn’t have this prejudice so you can’t blame this behavior on the times or snobbishness. There’s no need to whitewash it at any rate. Heyer’s books that don’t have these strange attacks are far better.
Thanks for stopping by, Patty. You are correct. There are several sources that regard Georgette as being a snob, and that her attitude towards certain races and classes came from prejudice, certainly not from her class. She was the middle class granddaughter of a Russian immigrant – how dare she hold her nose higher than others. Knowing this does not detract from my enjoyment of her books, but it certainly colors my opinion of her character.
I did not know any of this. Wow, that is sad. I agree with what you’ve written, Vic. I will still read her books because they are just so much fun but I will start to keep an eye out for these prejudices.
How neat! After reading your post a few days ago about Georgette I went to the library to get a book and see how it was. I’m currently reading The Conqueror which is interesting so far. Thanks for the recommendation! Now I feel like I’m celebrating her birthday in my own special way!
I love Georgette Heyer! Her books have given me many pleasant hours of escape.
Above all I Iove Georgette Heyer’s
wonderful clever and spirited heroines.
Had to write to add my voice to those who value Georgette Heyer and her Regencies! She is not without her faults (see comments above), but her Regency stories are so amusing and her dialogue is so witty that I find myself enjoying them again and again. I especially recommend listening to her books in audio version. I was originally introduced to them through my local public libraries but have amassed my own collection through ebay and other sources and I adore the radio play quality of the vocal performances. They really are first rate and have given me many, many hours of enjoyment. My favorites: The Foundling, Cotillion, Black Sheep, Sprig Muslin, Arabella, The Reluctant WIdow, Venetia, Devil’s Cub, The Nonesuch, The Quiet Gentleman and The Toll Gate. Happy Birthday, Georgette Heyer! And, thank you, Vic, for helping to make new generations aware of her work and sharing new information and photos about her!
Happy Birthday GH! Now, to celebrate, which of her books shall I re-read? Just finished with Arabella, one of the few with teenage heroines that I like, Arabella being so different from the usual tonnish miss. I think I will go to a mystery — they are as witty in dialogue and clever in murder, and show a wonderful picture of mid-century England… where the landed gentry begin to find working a necessity but can still afford servants.
Thanks for a wonderful post! Heyer does have her prejudices, but I love her anyway!
Whenever I’m ill, I dive toward bed with a Georgette H. romance which have the same soothing qualities as glorious Jane. I find her mysteries dated- too many “Gay Young Things” whose slang can be wearing 80 years later. Heyer’s An Infamous Army about the Battle of Waterloo led me to hunt down much of the listed bibliography, read several Wellington bios, & visit his London home. Yeah for historical romance.!!!
GH made the same point in 1944, as this extract from the Dictionary of National Biography shows:
” . . In fact, upon her death (in 1974 aged 72), Heyer’s fiction had been translated into more than ten languages, and perhaps even more remarkably, more than fifty of her novels were still in print . . Perhaps even more significantly, Heyer’s novels allow us, in the words of A. S. Byatt, to retreat into a ‘Paradise of ideal solutions, knowing it for what it is, comforted by its temporary actuality, nostalgically refreshed for coping with the quite different tangle of preconceptions, conventions and social emphases we have to live with. Which is what good escape literature is about’
. . Friday’s Child, a regency novel, was Heyer’s personal favourite, and upon its publication in 1944 she defended it to her critics in a blaze of self-deprecation:
“I think myself I ought to be shot for writing such nonsense, but it’s unquestionably good escapist literature, and I think I should rather like it if I were sitting in an air-raid shelter, or recovering from the flu. Its period detail is good; my husband says it’s witty—and without going to these lengths, I will say that it is very good fun.”
I’ve recently enjoyed 3 Georgette Heyer novels thanks to your blog. Thank you for telling us about them!
I like GH after Jane Austen. They are set in the same period but different in so many ways. One thing I noticed about the GH books, she uses a higher vocabulary than I’m accustomed to so I had fun finding out the new words I ran across. I also have had fun with her idioms and exclamations. I got started on her when Source Books just started republishing her works. I was unaware that they were going to do all of her books, well, at least the Regency Romances, so when I got to go to England about 3 or 4 years ago with my daughter, I hit every book store and charity shop looking for the ones the Brits had published, well, as many as my pocketbook would allow me too. I even got one at a boot sale. From then on I became acquainted with amazon.uk.co ( or it is amazon.co.uk?) and used them to get their newer reprints a few at a time, while also picking up the new ones from Source Books. I now have copies of all of her Regency Romances and also the 2 historical books and I’ve read them all. What fun!
“But I can see how someone who wanted to immerse themselves in the period would love her.” – This quote from above pretty much covers why I love Georgette Heyer’s Regencies so well, when combined with her great humour. The first one I ever read was Frederica, and I just adored the characters in it… couldn’t wait to get my hands and eyes on more when it was finished. I love so many of them, but that first has always remained a favourite — just as so many ‘first loves’ tend to do.
I came across Georgette Heyer during my college years. There were many days I would sit in the library during my free periods and escape inside her books. I simply loved them! Wonderful memories.
Heyer’s works are the perfect antidote to so many of the current bestsellers. I can depend on them to help me escape to such a radically different period of history. It is such fun to run across her books in thrift shops off the beaten path.
To better understand Georgette Heyer as a complete personality (writer, friend, mother, wife, daughter, sister, etc.), I highly recommend the latest and most relevant biography published so far about her:
http://www.georgette-heyer.com/jen/bio.html
I’ve enjoyed her writing although I’ve really just started reading her novels. Have lots to look forward to this winter.
your column inspired me to read my first g. h. book. i will continue to read others, thanks to all your comments.
Although, as Vic mentioned above, Wimbledon Central Library has no plans to celebrate Georgette Heyers birth, which occurred 110 years ago a mere five or six hundred yards from the library at 103 Woodside, they do have all her books on their shelves for loan.. The Merton Council website lists her alongside other famous writers from the past and present who live or lived in the Wimbledon area. Curiously they do not mention George Elliot, who lived in Wimbledon for a couple of years or Robert Graves who was born in Wimbledon and spent his childhood there attending Kings College Wimbledon school. Those two must be an oversight or perhaps ancestors have asked their addresses be kept secret.Perhaps also people living in those houses nowadays would rather not have their addresses publicised in this manner.
As an after thought. Recently I was in Liverpool with some friends for a couple of days. We did the National Trust Beatles tour of John Lennon’s and Paul McCartney’s childhood homes. John Lennon lived in a middle class suburb with some space between the houses. He also lived on a main road, Menlove Avenue..There is no apparent conflict with the neighbours living in the adjacent houses nowadays.They don’t seem to notice or mind the many visitors to John Lennon’s old home. However at Paul McCartney’s house it is a different matter. He lived in a terraced council house. The people who live in the street today, some own their houses but some still rent from the council.. It is a narrow side street and the many visitors who go there are a problem for today’s residents. They are petitioning the council to make the street pedestrianised. to stop the cars and visitors getting easy access.
The thought occurred to me. How would you feel if you lived in the house a famous writer or musician lived in and you were continually being bothered by people visiting, knocking on your door or standing outside taking pictures?
All the best,
Tony
@ Tony – I would be torn. If it was someone that I particularly admired, I could see myself giving tours! LOL But most of me would absolutely hate the invasion of privacy!!