An Biography of the Elusive Georgette Heyer

Georgette Heyer
Jennifer Kloester
Sourcebooks
January 2013

I am latecomer to the Regency "romances" of Georgette Heyer but have been reading both the books and listening to the audio books available on audible. I had read many of her mysteries years ago but they had not prepared me for the wit and charm of her comedies of manners set in the Regency period. As I am one of those people who like to know something about the personal lives of those authors I admire, I was surprised to learn that Georgette Heyer had made it her mission to obscure any information about herself.

Jennifer Kloester was given exclusive access to the remaining papers of the Heyer estate and has constructed an interesting survey of Heyer's writing life. As for the woman herself, she succeeded in keeping her personal life just that- personal. I was left with an impression of a woman that I would not have liked very much. The title of the first part is "The Young Edwardian" and it seems that she remained that throughout her life. She carried all the class-consciousness, prejudices and manners of that period through two World Wars and all the social upheaval in Britain during the first half of the Twentieth Century.

To her great credit, Heyer assumed the responsibility for the support of her mother and two brothers after the relatively early death of her much loved father. It was a responsibility that both she and her husband, Ronald Rougier, seemed singularly ill-suited for. Money, or the lack thereof, was a major preoccupation with her, but never did it seem to occur to her to cut back on her lifestyle or get really competent advice on financial matters. I found the first half of the book somewhat heavy going because of the continual financial difficulties. After Rougier had set up as an attorney and in fact become a Queens Counsel did financial pressures let up somewhat. By that time Heyer had also become an extremely successful author worldwide.

Georgette Heyer seems to have been a woman of extreme contrasts. She could be very kind to some of her readers and scathing to others. She was loyal to her family but seems to have been able to cut off old friends and advisers without a backward glance. The portrait that her correspondence paints is that of a woman who is somewhat emotionally cut off. So how does one reconcile her emotional distance with the witty and wise novels that continue to be loved today? I don't know. In the end I don't think it matters. There are a selection of family pictures sprinkled throughout the book and one of them is indicated as Georgette Heyer's favorite picture of herself. It shows an open faced, smiling and happy woman. I think that is the real face of Georgette Heyer, perhaps one that only her loved ones saw.

RATING- 3.5 stars