I have had it in mind to write this review for several months now but have been mulling over what I want to say because, for me, this novelist is simply unbeatable. Georgette Heyer has often been dismissed as being merely a writer of romantic fiction. However, she has also been likened to a modern-day Jane Austen. I think I would disagree with both these contentions. It's true that the majority of her novels are romantic and are set in the Georgian or Regency period. They are also frequently a commentary on the manners and mores of those times, all delivered in a similar well written and witty style to that of Jane Austen. She might not have ...  Read the complete review

If you're looking to genuinely lose yourself in a novel, then I can't recommend Georgette Heyer strongly enough. Although I can't claim to have read them all (for example, I haven't read any of her detective-type novels yet), I love reading and re-reading the period ones I have. I must have read Arabella in particular nearly 20 times over the years. Perhaps not the author to go for if you're looking for something meaty and modern, with plenty of twists, but then I view novels like movies - I'm looking for a little escape-time from the stresses and strains of modern life. So if you're looking for a period romance, perhaps with a little adventure ...  Read the complete review

Georgette Heyer is my all-time favourite author. I discovered her at sixteen when my mother gave me 'These Old Shades' to read. I remember being so tired at school the next day; I'd stayed up most of the night reading it! In the subsequent years I've never found an author to parallel her work. All other authors seem cheap when compared to Heyer's rich language and beautiful imagination, not to mention the epic research she did about the time period she wrote. Although her favourite period was Medieval England, most of her books are set during the Regency period (roughly around 1811 - 1830). In my opinion, her Regency romances are her best work; her medieval ...  Read the complete review

I can remember the day I bought my first Georgette Heyer book; I was about twelve. I was bored and had a book token so took the quite long walk to my local branch of W H Smith's and started to look for a book. I was about twelve, at that age when children's books were too young and grown up's books a bit too grown up (I must point out this was over 40 years ago and they didn't have great teenage books available like they do now.) I found some historical romances and thought I would try one. Here I am all these years later and I still love Georgette Heyer books. The book I bought that day was Friday's Child and it is still a favourite of mine. I can't tell ...  Read the complete review

When I was a child (seems like ions ago) and the weather was rotten, or it was too dark to play outside, my two favourite pastimes were reading or listening to the radio. (My parents didn’t buy a TV until 1963). And being somewhat rebellious, even then, I took exception to having my reading matter ‘chosen’ for me, by parents who held strong views on what they considered ‘suitable’ for young minds. Ergo! I often used to ‘appropriate’ one of their library books, and read it by torchlight under the bedcovers, when my ‘snitch’ of a sister had fallen asleep. Which was how I discovered the writer ...  Read the complete review