Beefeater Gin with Georgette Heyer

It has been a long and exceptionally trying day, one that started with being woken at 4.20 am by the sound of a lot of water hitting the floor somewhere in my flat. It turned out to be in the hall, the bathroom, the kitchen, and my bedroom because upstairs neighbour had fallen asleep in the bath. With the taps running. At 4 in the morning. He seemed reluctant to wake up and answer his door (probably because he knew who was on the other side of it) and had no adaquate explanation why, for the 3rd Monday in a row, there was water coming into my flat, through the light fittings, and frying the electrics in the process. Again. By 5 when the water had stopped pouring down and I'd run out of towels I decided just to go to work early - where there would be working lights.

Back home again I'm still not particularly happy (tired makes me grumpy) and very much in need of comfort. Or comforting thoughts.

Beefeater isn't the gin I was going to write about tonight (I'm still debating the relative merits of a nice cup of tea, or a gin - if it is a gin I think it's going to be the Bath gin with winking Jane Austen on the label) but I am sure that as soon as I've finished this I'm heading to bed with a Georgette Heyer - one of the funnier ones - for a couple of hours of glorious escapism. Even if I do have to use a torch to read by (which I will, dammit.)

No Heyer heroine, at least not one of her regency/historical ones (with the possible exception of Barbara from An Infamous Army) would have touched it, but Heyer herself did. It seems she fuelled late night writing sessions with a mix of gin and barbiturates, and chances are those gins would have been Gordon's or Beefeater.

Because it's both ubiquitous and relatively cheap Beefeater is often over looked but it's an excellent gin. It's history goes back to the 1860's, it's still bottles at 40% abv, and it's generally accepted as the definative dry London gin. The one against which all others are measured. If it's better than Beefeater it's something really special. And yet it still gets over looked and I'm as guilty of that as anybody, being far to often distracted, tempted, or otherwise seduced by something new.

As you might expect there's plenty of juniper both on the nose and the palate, where it's nicely balanced by citrus. It's exactly what a conservative type like Heyer would drift towards (I think she'd find my Bath gin vulgar, and might find winking Jane an insult) appreciating it for both its quality and the way it gets the job done (making an excellent gin and tonic). Nothing else feels appropriate for her.

It would also be an excellent base for a homemade fruit cup (mix with vermouth, triple sec, and a dash of bitters to get something very much like Pimm's, or just add to Pimm's to give it a bit more punch) and I can think of no better way to spend a summer afternoon than with just some such concoction whilst enjoying a re read of 'Devil's Cub' (or maybe 'Sylvester', or perhaps 'The Talisman Ring') it would be pure self indulgence.

My Top Ten Books of the Last Year

It's the time of year when I like to look back at the books I've read over the last twelve months and make a totally subjective choice as to which have been the ten best. It's sort of a useful exercise in so much as if I'm keeping a reading notebook (blog) I should check over it form time to time - and actually it's been a really helpful reminder of some excellent books. There was one year when this was really hard but this time I was surprised at how many really good books there were to choose from. I re-read 'Pride and Prejudice' this year but opted not to put it on the list because - well because I've read it so many times before that it didn't really feel like it should count again.

So in no particular order here are my top 10 books of the last 12 months starting with Sara Maitland's 'Gossip From The Forest'. Maitland was my introduction to feminist fiction and Virago books (many years ago) but this was the first one of hers I've picked up in a long time. It was inspirational. I've looked at trees and fairy tales differently since. As an older sister I was particularly taken with her theory that fairy tales were originally mostly told by older sisters but basically you can't beat a book that makes you look at something familiar with fresh eyes.

Amy Sackville's 'Orkney' got some mixed reviews but I loved her take on legend and folklore and the darker side of love. The older narrators obsession with one of his students becomes increasingly oppressive but also left me wondering if their marriage is imagined. The shifting light and landscape of Orkney is the perfect backdrop for Sackville's tale and I also thought she did an excellent job of catching something of the spirit of the place.

Rumer Godden's 'A Fugue In Time' is one of three of her books that I read this year, all of them wonderful and disconcerting in equal measure. I thought I knew Godden reasonably well but exploring the titles re-issued this year have made me reassess her. 'A Fugue In Time' is the least obviously shocking of the trio (no rape and no exotic Indian location) but still managed to unsettle me as a reader. It's the story of a family and their home through almost a century. For want of a better description the memories have an independent life within the house and document the small triumphs, tragedies, injustices, cruelties, and loves that go to make up a family history. It's the sort of book that begs discussion.

Helen Hull's 'Heat Lightning' was a book that far exceeded expectations, it also has a particularly good introduction. It's another multi generational look at family life (which as a description is exactly the sort of thing which will make me pass over a book) and marriage. Amy Norton's marriage has hit a rough patch and she's gone home to lick her wounds. It's the beginning of the great depression and whilst she's home her uncle and cousin come off the rails in a way that threatens to take the whole family with them, her grandmother also dies. It isn't a depressing book - Amy and her husband look like they'll be able to make things work and the family will manage to re group and carry on somehow. What's really stuck with me though is the rising sense of tension against a background of oppressive heat. This one is a real Persephone gem.

Lindsey Bareham's 'The Trifle Bowl and Other Tales' is still sitting in my books to be dealt with pile, I got nowhere near doing it justice when I wrote about it and still haven't spent much time looking at the recipes yet. One way or another (River Cottage Fruit, anything that Prospect ever choose to publish, and Fiona Cairns 'Seasonal Baking' are notable exceptions) I haven't found many really inspiring cookbooks this year. Maybe it's because I no longer have a good local bookshop to discover things in but far to many of the cookbooks I've seen this year have felt like more of the same. The Trifle Bowl stands out because it looked at equipment as much as recipes, I love my kitchen and all it's bits so a book that puts those bits front and centre really appeals to me. The kitchens we have define the way we cook, eat, and entertain, I don't like anybody else cooking in my kitchen (they do it wrong) but I loved reading about somebody else's kitchen.

Georgette Heyer's 'The Grand Sophy' probably shouldn't count in the same way that 'Pride and Prejudice' didn't count but re reading it was something of a revelation (as were all the Georgette Heyer's I re read this year). I knew she was entertaining but I'd forgotten what very positive female role models Heyer wrote. Sophy isn't conventionally beautiful, she has a temper, and she's prone to tears at inconvenient moments but she's also smart, capable, and independent. I'm very glad these were the books I was devouring when I was 14.

I'm half way through Trollope's Palliser series now and so far 'The Eustace Diamonds' is easily my favourite. Lizzie Eustace is by far the most interesting woman I've found in Trollope, had he sympathised with her just a little more the book would have been even better (in my opinion). I know it's not everybody's favourite Palliser but for once this was a moral dilemma that I could really sympathise with, one where doing the wrong thing would come very easily (I'm not to be trusted with valuable diamond necklaces) and so much happens that Trollope doesn't repeat himself as much as usual. Entertainment aside it also has a lot to say about the position of women in Victorian society and the attitude of decent but conservative men like Trollope.

When I'm next inclined to damn Christmas and all the crap that comes with it I should remind myself of how many good books appear at this tome of year - there have been some beauties in the last few weeks for which I'm truly grateful. The most hotly anticipated (on my part at least) was John Wright's 'Booze', it didn't disappoint. Wright is a charming presence on the page and the book is packed with useful and interesting things to know.

Philip Hook's 'Breakfast at Sotheby's' is the funniest thing I've read in a long time. For anybody with an interest in art this book deserves serious consideration. Looking at the art world through the art market puts a slightly different slant on things, it certainly underlines why the great public collections are so important as well as being an interesting indicator of taste.

And finally Michael Alexander's 'The Wanderer: Elegies, Epics, Riddles ('Micheal Alexander seductive is registering as a search term in my stats which I find slightly disconcerting). I expected this book to be interesting in a slightly dry sort of way so was mildly surprised at just how much I enjoyed it. I really liked Alexander's translations of Anglo Saxon poems and other fragmentary bits - there's some beautiful pieces in here, things that I'll go back to over and over (especially 'The Dream of the Rood'), it's reignited a long dormant interest in poetry and will make sitting through the second instalment of 'The Hobbit' somewhat more bearable.
 

Friday's Child - Georgette Heyer

Thank god for Georgette Heyer. I'm reading avidly at the moment - newspapers, instructions, journals (well 'Friday's Child' and I had it partly confused with 'Cotillion' (I think) and again it's not a title that was a particular favourite so I'd forgotten most of the details over the last 20 odd years. 

okay, Slightly Foxed and PPC) magazines - everything but books really. I'm struggling to concentrate on anything that requires a lot of thought but am craving story telling so Heyer is rescuing me from my reading slump. There's nothing at all demanding about reading Heyer, and she's a master story teller. It's a long time since I'd read

What I've found re reading these Heyer's is that they're far better than I remember. 'Friday's Child' is bitter sweet comedy. It's light reading but perfectly crafted, over the years I've read enough trashy romances (I used to share my grannies Mills and Boon as a teenager, and for my sins once borrowed a Barbara Cartland from the library. The Cartland was The Worst Book I've Ever Read. Ever.) to have an idea of how poor they can get. Heyer who liked to mix her romances with elements of other genres (mostly detective fiction) it can get. Heyer manages plots that hang together and characters that the reader can warm to - not as common as you might hope. She has a magic touch at what she does.

I'm aware that after writing about 5 Heyer titles in the last few weeks (I think I've read about 9) that I'm running out of things to say about her - but she really is good. I keep describing her as light which is accurate but probably does her a disservice. I think these are books that are meant purely for entertainment, a way to avoid thinking about the every day rather than reveling truths about it but often that's what you want. To find someone who does it with grace and humor is something to be very glad off.      

Faro's Daughter - Georgette Heyer

My Georgette Heyer binge shows no sign of abating, there's a direct correlation to what's going on at work with this, the last 3 weeks have been crazy, we've been busy, under staffed, and there have been a number of extra events to organise over and above the everyday stuff I already didn't have time for... Work wise I like to be organised, if I'm not or if things I can't control (other people) get in the way of that I get ridiculously stressed, disorder at home doesn't bother me in anything like the same way and I can deal with a crisis when it arises without getting in a flap but I really don't thrive under the pressure of to much to do and not enough time to do it in. 

When things do get out of control my coping mechanisms are books and giant chocolate buttons (or similar, but giant chocolate buttons are a bit of a favourite and probably better for me than gin which I'm also partial to). A crappy day can very quickly disappear when you have a good book to absorb yourself in. It does have to be a good book though, not necessarily a great book, not even a book that calls for much thought - which is one reason why a bad book won't do. Bad books make you think about why they're so poor and irritate you further as you notice the authors tics and inconsistencies or lousy research. Georgette Heyer doesn't write bad books, and they don't generally demand much thought from the reader, just a general inclination to enjoy what's in front of you. 

'Faro's Daughter' (Faro was apparently a very popular 18th century card game along with Bassett, despite being described as easy to pick up I found a description of the rules totally baffling, but then I'm rubbish at card games generally). The plot has a young and reasonably well off Lord falling in love with a girl he's met over the card tables (not the thing at all). His older cousin is sent to break up this undesirable relationship which rather offends the girl seeing as she had no intention of taking advantage of the young mans infatuation in the first place. There are some adventures and misunderstandings before a happy ending is worked out for all involved. This never used to be a favourite of mine but I found reading it this time that I enjoyed it rather more. One of the things that's struck me as I've worked my way through a reasonable pile of Heyer's over the last couple of weeks is that so many of her 'romances' have very little romance in them - they're just as likely to be whodunnits as anything else. 'Faro's Daughter't is rather more a romance than anything else albeit one with a bit of kidnapping and skulduggery (which I suppose is rather more in keeping with the 18th century idea of romance) and a remarkably feisty heroine. 

   

The Grand Sophy - Georgette Heyer

Still engrossed in Heyer (I might consider reading someone else in a  day or two) and it's on to 'The Grand Sophy'. This one was a favourite when I first discovered Heyer and I must have read it a dozen times or more. Reading it this time transported me back to long summer holidays in Shetland and gave me a moment of intense homesickness.

One of the criticisms leveled at Heyer is that she only writes one story over and over again, I would say that she has more like half a dozen that she re-works in various ways or where she mixes in different genres. 'The Grand Sophy' is romance mixed with a good bit of comedy and has one of Heyers best action heroines. I also think this is Heyer at her most feminist and the reason that she's such a good writer to discover when you're a teenage girl. 

Sophy is a twenty year old force of nature, the daughter of a diplomat she turns up on her aunts doorstep with a monkey and a parrot for her young cousins, a magnificent horse for her own use, splendid jewels, and a small pistol. Sophy has been used to wandering around Europe in the vanguard of Wellington's army (hence her handiness with a pistol) is independent, has a filthy temper, and a desire to organise everybody around her for their own good. Before long she's annoyed her older cousin Charles by setting herself up with a sporting carriage - which naturally she can drive with considerable skill, dealing with her fathers bankers - instead of relying on a handy man to sort out her finances for her - and starting to sort out the tangled affairs of yet more of her cousins. Charles has a horrible fiance called Eugenia who makes a nicely interfering villain for the piece - we can easily dislike Eugenia (who reminds me strongly of a line manager I once had and could not stand) but still keep just a little bit of sympathy for her when Sophy keeps managing to make her look as small minded and foolish as she is. 

It's not Sophy's driving expertise, or her ability on horseback, or her prowess with a pistol that makes me think of her as a good and mildly feminist role model however, it's her talent for organising and for getting the information she needs to deal with a situation. There is a very funny scene where she goes to visit a money lender (the politically correct might quite reasonably object to this man's portrayal), half of it is comedy, but Heyer has Sophy know the law when it comes to lending to a minor, and how items pledged for security should be treated and I find this capable business like attitude encouraging (horses frighten me, getting good advice however is always useful).

This is classic Heyer, not without the odd fault, but overall warm, witty, and clever my 14 and 40 year old self look on it with equal approval. 

If it wasn't for Georgette Heyer...

Yes, here it is, another Heyer related post (better get used to it, as I'm happily rediscovering more and more of her books)... I sometimes feel a bit self conscious about my love of Heyer - people can be a bit sniffy about her so it's tempting to think of her as a guilty pleasure,  but then I'll be damned if I feel guilty about reading a writer who has given me so much pleasure over the years. I've always been interested in History, always loved reading,  a complete lack of skill in trying to learn other languages would always have pushed me to British history and I would always have discovered Jane Austen (although it was very specifically Heyer's mentions of Austen which led me to discover her when I did). My degree was in History of Art, my undergraduate dissertation about the rival art collections of Wellington and Napoleon (the difference is that Wellington as the victor got to keep his booty including a 3 meter high statue of a naked Napoleon holding an orb with a winged victory on it by Canova. Hard to imagine that Wellington would have really wanted such an object, but it still stands in a stairwell in Apsley house) was in partly the fruition of an interest sparked by reading Heyer's army based novels. For me, and doubtless very many others she's been a gateway novelist, not to the endless 'Regencies' which are so often second or third rate imitations of what she dis so well, but to the classics that she was undoubtedly familiar with and many of which she mentions in her novels.

A quick trawl around my shelves has resulted in a sizable pile of books which owe their place on my shelf because of Heyer, I haven't included non fiction, and could have included Elizabeth Gaskell who I started reading when I was looking for a Heyer replacement. I haven't read all of these books but one day I will (well maybe not 'The Monk' which I started once and didn't really get on with). I did actually read Richardson's 'Pamela' - I don't particularly recommend it, Fanny Burney and Maria Edgeworth are both terrific and it occurs to me that I really should read 'Vanity Fair' again. It also occurs to me that no other writer has had quite such an influence on my book buying habits as Heyer has had. (I'm also thinking that finding the books was considerably more fun than putting them back will be.)  

Regency Buck - Georgette Heyer

My Heyer odyssey continues, I've read 4 since Monday and wish I'd bought a 5th away with me this weekend. It's about 4 years since I started blogging, it's something which I think has basically been good for my reading habits - I certainly read more and with more discipline which means I tackle books I probably wouldn't have bothered with before and make myself finish things (I had a terrible habit of getting half way through a book and then abandoning it because I was distracted by another book). Another thing that's changed is that I don't often re read books, I guess this is one of those downsides of growing up - earning a living means I can buy a quantity of books but doesn't give me nearly as much time to read them. Back in my teens I owned a few hundred books (a fairly even mix of Georgette Heyer, Jane Austen, Dorothy Sayers, and Terry Pratchett) which I read over and over, favourite books were very familiar friends. 

Generally speaking I'm too caught up in the excitement of discovering books which are new to me to spare much thought to what I might be missing by not re reading more but this week with Heyer is making me consider it more. 'Regency Buck' is a Heyer which I liked well enough back in the day and have certainly read a few times, but not one which was a particular favourite. Reading it then I would have considered it mostly as a romance because that's how I'm inclined to remember all of Heyer's historical novels. Reading it over the last couple of days I'm more inclined to think of it as more of a thriller albeit on with quite a lot of romance in it. Sadly I remembered the twist, although that gave me plenty of opportunity to appreciate how Heyer misdirects the reader, something I'm sure she enjoyed doing. I think we know from the start that we are being misdirected but it's still done neatly. For a romance she also spends a lot of time describing boxing matches, racing, and cock fighting (the last in quite off putting detail). I also noticed, again, how much trouble she takes over developing the character of her heroine, yes she's rich, attractive and spirited, but Heyer also gives her the temper tantrums and general bloody mindedness that are likely to characterise a girl just out of her teens - it's a nice touch.

I'm lending 'Regency Buck' to D, he says he might read it if he gets the time (he sounded like he wanted to find the time) I hope he does - it'll be interesting to see what he thinks of it, I suspect he'll enjoy it if he does read it.         

The Convenient Marriage - Georgette Heyer

Having finally noticed that Arrow Books had re-jacketed six Georgette Heyer titles I got mildly excited,

certainly excited enough to make a cheeky request for review copies and the charming lady at Arrow was kind enough to oblige. I've said it many times before but I love Georgette Heyer - her books have never failed me and I think she is in her way a writer of rare genius.

I do already have a complete set (suppressed novels excluded) of Heyer's fiction, the romances all being the pan editions from the mid 1980's (I am half minded to collect the slightly earlier pan paperbacks which I judge to come from the late 60's early 70's because they're gloriously camp) which was partly why I felt cheeky asking for new copies but I really wanted to have a good look at these new copies. I think the new cover designs are great and hope that they get rolled out to the rest of the series - the last lot of jacket designs are inoffensive but convey none of the fun of a Heyer book, these new ones do. The cover for 'The Convenient Marriage' with it's rococo blue and gold and bold black silhouettes seems to me to reference both the 18th century setting and the original 1930's publishing date as well as looking suitably contemporary - in short it looks like a job well done. 

Another reason this selection attracted me is that (with the exception of 'The Grand Sophy' none of these titles were particular favorites when I was first reading them which makes it easier to approach them now without any particular prejudice. Settling down with 'The Convenient Marriage' was a treat. After reading a pile of M C Beaton's regency romances I can appreciate all over again the quality of Heyer's writing. She might deal in cliche's and stereotypes - her hero here is handsome (in a tall dark smoldering way), handy with a sword, intelligent, is conveniently wealthy, and has a sense of humor (like so many of the men I meet...) her heroine is small, dark (with heavy eyebrows) a stammer, a gambling habit, and a no nonsense attitude. It could all be rubbish, but it isn't, because Heyer makes me laugh. She also makes me feel safe and convinces me that all is well with the world. I am a more sophisticated reader now than I was at 13 when I first discovered these books but the joy i get from them is just the same - happy escapism. 

Royal Escape - Georgette Heyer

I find the books I read lead one to another in a fairly natural progression; something will catch my interest and send me down a path, not always the one I expect, until eventually my mood will change or a novelty will intervene that sets me off on another path. Sometimes though it all comes off the rails a bit - as at the moment. I have a little stack of books I had meant to read over the next couple of weeks, review copies mostly (and they all look so good) but my heart isn't quite in it and I can't settle to any of them which wouldn't matter so much but that I'm struggling to think what I might like to read, and that matters because reading is my coping mechanism for all sorts of things and if you're reading this you're probably the same.

In a slump like this I will either turn to short stories or Georgette Heyer. I think 'Royal Escape' is new to me, I certainly didn't own a copy though see it was in print when I bought the rest of my collection. It may (inexplicably) be that it just didn't appeal to me at the time, it's a rare and wonderful treat to find an unread Georgette Heyer after so many years of being a fan which is why I ordered this book even though I didn't have the highest hopes for it, and as nothing else was appealing I picked it up. 

I don't know why I had such low expectations, perhaps because I'm a snob about actual history being mixed with romance. I ought to have had more faith In Heyer. There is a touch of romance, but with the exception of making Mrs Jane Lane a beauty (contemporary accounts, and portraits, describe a plain woman) every detail I've researched has proved to be essentially accurate. I knew Heyer was notorious for her meticulous research, know too how good a story teller she is, but had forgotten how good history can be like this. 

When I was at school the History we were taught had a distinctly Marxist edge to it, which is well and good, but you can't beat Kings and Queens for a decent story. I know marginally more about the restoration than I do about the commonwealth years but precious little about either. 'Royal Escape' kicks off with the battle of Worcester, the young King Charles II is trying to rally the Scottish cavalry into action but they won't budge, the day is lost, the King escaping by the skin of his teeth with nothing but the cloths on his back. A troop of cavaliers ride through the countryside desperately seeking a safe haven, finally they reach a friendly house. There they trust the King to a sympathiser before continuing the flight for their lives. What follows is six weeks of desperate hiding and searching for a way to France. 

There's the bit with the oak tree, and the escapade with Jane Lane. The King disguised himself as a groom with Jane riding pillion behind him to the house of a friend near the coast, they even rode through a troop of soldiers without him being recognised. It was a huge risk, capture would have meant death for all involved, there was also a reward of £1000 on the Kings head, a fortune to many that he encountered and yet still he manages to escape with their help (not much of a spoiler, we know he survives to get his throne back). Heyer does a good job of making the 21 year old King a man you can believe in - young, arrogant, charming, and charismatic. She takes the bare bones of history and fleshes them out into a tense drama, some of it is romance, but when I read history like this it really does fix in my imagination and after all that's what drives you to learn more isn't it? 

The Devil’s Cub – Georgette Heyer

This will (probably) be the last Heyer post for a while, though I could happily spend the winter reading through her entire output, new books are calling. When I re read ‘Sylvester’ I knew I’d still like it, it’s a later book and show’s Heyer really at home in her world. ‘The Devil’s Cub’ was first published in 1932 so is a period piece in every way. It’s also straight out melodramatic adventure and it occurred to me that a book that was probably my very favourite in all the world when I was 13 (beating even ‘The Scarlet Pimpernel’) might not be quite as good as I remembered.

I only meant to reread my favourite bits (when Dominic shoots the highway man, when Mary shoots Dominic, and of course the bit at the end when everything come together – which I duly did late at night until I finally went to sleep thinking it was okay but a bit overblown. The next day I was away from home and took another book to read – which made me realise that I couldn’t wait to get back to ‘The Devil’s Cub’.

If I was marooned desert island disks style my book choice/luxury would be a complete set of Georgette Heyer. Marooned in adult life with bills to pay, troubles to negotiate, and a hundred unexpected disappointments (my bus was late, I missed a parcel delivery, I don’t have a dishwasher – you know the sort of thing) it’s a great thing to have something to rely on. It doesn’t matter how many times I read something like ‘The Devil’s Cub’ the humour with which Heyer wrote always feels fresh even if I spend more time now marvelling over how she makes a plot hang together however unlikely it is.

Despite all this I would hesitate to recommend Heyer to anyone. I tried my youngest sister on a few of her books when she seemed the right kind of age – sister liked them but didn’t fall in love with them as I did. Heyer’s a wonderful writer but her particular brand of escapism clearly isn’t for everyone, one of the pleasures of blogging and my online book group has been finding other fans out there to share my enthusiasm for her with.

As for ‘The Devil’s Cub’; well if a whirlwind romance between a man who abducts the wrong sister whilst fleeing the country having shot his man in a gaming hell, is then shot by the abductee whilst she tries to convince him she’s really a virtuous sort of female, followed by a chase across France as they keep getting separated, another mismatched but very much in love couple, and the hero’s colourful family also in full pursuit... sounds like your cup of tea – well look no further, you’ve hit the jack pot. 

Georgette Heyer: Biography of a Best Seller – Jennifer Kloester

This book was a very kind gift from Elaine Random Jottings who quite correctly thought I would be interested in a life of one of my favourite authors. I’m not generally much of a biography/non-fiction reader but after a few Heyer based conversations I was really keen to read this in the hope that I would get to know the woman behind the books. Kloester is protective of her subject which suited me; Georgette Heyer was notoriously private and though I don’t doubt that she would have found the idea of being written about nauseating (a phrase she seems to have used a lot) I think this book respects her boundaries. There are no salacious details, but then there aren’t any in her romances either – it’s not what you go to Heyer for, and there probably isn’t very much for people who aren’t fans – but there are no shortage of fans out there so I don’t fear for Kloester’s sales.

I knew from Wikipedia that money troubles were a theme of Heyer’s career but I hadn’t really taken on board that from the age of nineteen she was taking responsibility for her family’s finances. Her first advance went to her father and after his sudden death a few years later she became responsible for keeping her mother and two younger brothers, a responsibility that never seems to have come to an end. Later on she was the sole breadwinner in her own household whilst her husband re trained for the bar and this was before she was really earning big money. Life for Georgette seems to have been a very unromantic series of demands from the Inland Revenue and constant work to keep everything going – which is something most of us can relate to.

It also seems like she was somewhat let down by people who should have been taking care of her – publishers and accountants mostly, publishers who didn’t bother to read her work but just took the books and made money from them, and an accountant who royally messed up her finances.

I think too I now understand why so many critics have been hostile to Georgette. The first clue was her lack of a university education – Dorothy L. Sayers made much of hers and it didn’t do her any harm. Mostly though I think it was her sound sense of the commercial that denied her the recognition she latterly craved. It doesn’t seem to matter that a book is well written, funny, intelligent, or that thousands want to read it – it’s seemingly a lapse of taste to provide the public with what they want. Heyer’s reality was that she had to sell books; that she had a gift for writing best sellers isn’t something she should be despised for.

  I think that had she concentrated on more contemporary fiction, and been less prolific, Heyer would have been seen as a much more serious proposition – but where would have been the fun in that? Her books are the perfect vehicles for escape, her craftsmanship superlative, and I don’t think anyone has ever done what she did better.

Five Books

This is Simon Stuck in a Books idea, I liked it last time he did it, I like it even more now because after all what appeals more to any reader than getting to nose around other’s books?  So without further ado here’s my list starting with:

 The Book I’m Currently Reading

Jennifer Kloester’s Georgette Heyer Biography of a best seller. This was also the last book I was given (by Elaine Random-Jottings – thank you very much Elaine) it’s great, a really interesting read for Heyer fans as well as shining a light on the economic reality for women looking to earn a living from writing in the mid twentieth century. These are the authors I feel most at home with – seeing the figures is illuminating.

The Last Book I finished

Georgette Heyer’s The Devil’s Cub. Inspired by Kloester’s book appearing and now my reading it I’ve been revisiting a couple of Heyer’s to see how they read to my more critical adult self – I find she’s still wonderful. There’s a real temptation to re read the lot which I’m only going to try and fight because I have such a huge pile of unread books to tackle.

The Next Book I Want To Read

There are actually two books at the top of the pile and I need to choose one before I go to work in an hour. Helen Zenna Smith’s Not So Quiet has been hanging around for a while and seems appropriate given the First World War subject matter. With armistice day coming up, and for the first time having a friend on active service – well it seems important to put some time aside to think about what Remembrance day is for. On the other hand and at the risk of seeming very shallow – just look at that new edition of Mitford's The Sun King, how can I wait to read that? Also it feels like a natural follow on to the Heyer’s...

The Last Book I Bought

Hawksmoor At Home was an amazon purchase, it turned up on Monday (at 7.30am and thank you post man for laughing at my dressing gown/ pyjama combo) inevitably there has been a purchase since I technically bought this one but I’m counting the Hawksmoor book. It’s beautiful and should really have stayed on my Christmas list but I lacked the self control. This isn’t the sort of cook book I normally buy but it illustrates a particular and very British movement in cooking which I’m currently a little bit fascinated by. There’s a recipe for marmalade brownies which sounds amazing and a whole lot of stuff about cocktails and drinking which is (ahem) useful research for work.

The Last Book I Was Given

Was as I have mentioned the Kloester biography, but not long before that Cardigan Girl Verity sent me Tea With Bea. If you buy a lot of cookbooks –which we both do- you will inevitably find some that either feel like a duplication of recipes you already have or which on closer inspection just don’t really reflect your own style of cooking. I think this is particularly true of baking books. Verity wasn’t sure about this one but it appeals very much to me. I haven’t used it yet because some of the cakes are on a fairly epic scale but I have friends coming to stay next weekend so the time is ripe.

Sylvester or the Wicked Uncle – Georgette Heyer

It’s been a busy sort of week starting off with some energetic box shifting and winding down with a course on presentation skills and the welcome chance to catch up with not one but two other bloggers. Passing through London on Thursday I managed to catch up with Claire Paperback Reader who made me go the Primrose Bakery and eat cake. (I went with a malted marshmallow affair which was so good I’ve bought some Ovaltine to experiment with. Malt – if it’s good enough for whisky it’s good enough for cake.) Today I met up with Elaine Random Jottings who very kindly passed on a copy of Jennifer Kloester’s new Georgette Heyer Biography.

We had a really satisfactory chat about our respective love for Heyer and bemusement at how reviled she seems to be in certain quarters. The rest of my day has been spent nose buried in Kloester’s book and slightly regretting that I’ve separated myself from my Heyer collection for the weekend. After the first flurry of conversation around the new bio a couple of weeks ago I thought about having a re-read of at least one Heyer (but I have no self control over things like this; one will not be enough) ‘The Castle of Otranto’ made me want ‘Sylvester’.

Without precisely having favourite Heyer’s ‘Sylvester’ is undoubtedly one of the books I’ve read most often over the years – I have no idea how many times now – and which has stood the test of my aging and changing tastes. She is a fairly consistent writer – I don’t think there are any real duds amongst the fifty or so titles still in print; though this does make me more curious about the books she suppressed, consistent too in her reworking of a handful of plot devices some of which will appeal more than others according to mood.

For me the appeal of Georgette Heyer is a combination of knowing exactly what you’ll get (romance in a swish setting), humour, and impeccable research. What makes her special is the way she handles her material, my problem with most historical novels that have come way since Heyer is that the details feel like window dressing with an overall effect that lacks cohesion. Heyer creates a world that feels complete and real after its fashion. After Heyer it had to be the classics for me – which is another debt to chalk up to her.

As for ‘Sylvester’ – I imagine anyone reading this is either already a fan and knows it or never will be (which is fair enough, we can’t all like the same things) but just in case the plot is something like this: Sylvester is the Duke of Salford, young, rich, and not bad to look at despite some unusual eyebrows – clearly he’s in need of a wife. Phoebe Marlow is the shy daughter of his mother’s dearest friend (who died in childbirth) so he decides to look her over. There is a wicked stepmother who’s bullied Phoebe into submission but failed to beat the imagination out of her so after one not very glittering London season Phoebe has returned home and penned a gothic romance – using Sylvester as the model for her villain because she found him insufferably arrogant.

Marriage to the villain in your novel probably never feels like a good idea so Phoebe runs away with her friend Thomas in the teeth of a snow storm, all hell breaks loose behind her. Somehow Phoebe and Sylvester find themselves trapped by the snow in an isolated country inn where he gets over his anger at being humiliated and she realises he’s quite nice really. After that things get complicated – her novel comes out but life has imitated art in the most embarrassing ways and the path of true love is threatened by misunderstandings. All comes right after a mad chase across France for a missing nephew and we can imagine they live happily ever after.

It could be awful but Heyer’s trademark charm and lightness of touch make it fun. She’s a careful observer of human nature – certainly enough so to keep her characters clear of parody as they play out there roles and she’s funny. The book is full of crisply delivered one liners that even after the umpteenth time of reading can make me laugh out loud. The weather has been grotty and work has been exhausting but what does that matter when you have the perfect book to escape into (and good friends with whom to share your enthusiasms).

So what do you think of Georgette Heyer?

It’s probably true that you learn something new every day; on Tuesday for example I learnt that Georgette Heyer wrote through the night fuelled by Gin and Dexedrine (Radio 4, Woman’s hour). I’m currently fuelled by cocoa and gingerbread and have wanted to be in my bed since ten to eight.

I found Georgette Heyer’s books through an English teacher when I was thirteen; she lent me ‘These Old Shades’ and I never looked back. (At the time I was a little bit obsessed with ‘The Scarlett Pimpernel’ and it’s a mercy that someone did steer me towards other books.) It never occurred to me back then that Heyer might be considered second rate, I loved her books – most of which I’ve read many times, they saw me through my teens and have been a comfort ever since. I’ve never accepted that Heyer should be a guilty pleasure; her writing is simply a pleasure but somehow she does seem to rile people. Carmen Callil apparently said “she just used ‘Jane Eyre’ and jiggled it around 57 times”, this is unfair partly because Heyer is clearly re-jiggling Austen and partly because poor girl meets rich (married) man wasn’t a new story when Charlotte Bronte hit on it, it’s also typical of the mean spirited comments Heyer attracts.

I don’t know what she was like as a woman, I’m curious to read Jennifer Kloester’s ‘Georgette Heyer – Biography of a Bestseller’ published a week ago, the reason for the Woman’s hour segment, and the subject of a very negative review in ‘The Guardian’. Listening to Kloester she’s clearly as protective of Heyer as I sometimes feel. I don’t often read biographies (or non-fiction) and can’t afford to be buying new books at the moment (which in practice so often means instead of spending £20 on one book somehow spending much more on half a dozen) but this one is tempting.

The Guardian piece is odd – Rachel Cooke apparently liked Heyer’s books but rips into the woman behind them describing her as sour, snooty, cynical, snobbish, rapacious when it came to money, and mean spirited towards other writers. Heyer’s son the late Sir Richard Rougier. also comes in for a swipe, reminding us that he’s the judge who claimed not to know what a bouncy castle was (which I’m okay with, middle aged men should probably avoid bouncy castles anyway. He’s also the judge who said that “fashion conscious women should be able to dress attractively and even provocatively without falling prey to sex attackers” which seems more to the point and entirely laudable.)

It seems that the teenage Heyer was wrong for disliking Freudians, bohemians, and studio parties. Wrong for conducting her own contractual negotiations for ‘The Black Moth’, wrong for being the main breadwinner in the household whilst her husband retrained as a barrister, wrong indeed for caring about the money she made from her work, but these are all things I find admirable. I hope that Koestler’s biography is a success and meets with rather more favourable reviews along the way – there is self interest in this; there are half a dozen out of print novels, Heyer suppressed them in her life time, most of them are contemporary rather than historical fiction and I would love to read them – enough interest and maybe someone will dig them out and dust them off for a re-issue?