Friday, January 4, 2013

"How I First Fell in Love with Georgette Heyer's Novels" Guest Blog by Jennifer Kloester (and GIVEAWAY!)

Today I am excited to have a wonderful guest blog by Jennifer Kloester on her new biography of one of my favorite authors, Georgette Heyer.  Kloester shares her experience with discovering the wonderful works of Heyer and writing this biography.  It is next on my to-read pile so look for my review this month! 

Hi Laura, thanks so much for hosting my Georgette Heyer Blog on your lovely site.

The first time I read a Georgette Heyer novel I was living in a small mining town in the jungle in Papua New Guinea (truly!). We were very lucky to have a tiny YWCA library with a surprisingly wide range of books, among which were many well-read Heyer paperbacks. My first was Cotillion. It's a delicious novel with a wonderful cast of characters and some incredibly funny laugh-out-loud scenes. I loved Kitty Charing and her various suitors, dreadful old Mr Penicuik and poor Miss Fishguard, and within a couple of chapters I was hooked! After that I tried to get hold of every Heyer novel I could – though that took several years because she was so prolific. To this day I am in awe of the consistently high standard of her writing and, although I've sometimes heard critics claim that she used the same characters over again, I'm always struck by her ability to bring something fresh and new to each novel (and I've read her books many, many times). Heyer was a born storyteller and she loved getting to know her characters – in fact, they were so like real people to her that she sometimes complained that they took over her stories and had to be firmly dealt with!

One of the things I love about Heyer is the way she brings the past to life. She makes it seem real and I've always felt that if I could somehow time-travel back to the Regency era I'd know exactly how to behave because I'd read her novels. In fact, it was her ability to blend historical fact with an entertaining fictional story that made me want to know more about the woman behind the books. I'd read Jane Aiken Hodge's excellent biography and from that I'd learned that Heyer was incredibly private and the only firsthand information from Heyer herself were the letters she'd written to her publisher. But these dated from 1944 when Heyer was in her forties and already a bestselling author. I was sure there was more to know, so in 2001 I began researching her life.

I made regular trips to England where I was lucky enough to have the kind support of her son, Sir Richard Rougier. It was thanks to Sir Richard that I was able to gain access to a number of unread collections of Georgette Heyer's letters. That was incredibly exciting. I'll never forget reading those first letters – written by Georgette when she was only 18 and had just received the contract for her first book, The Black Moth. Over the next five years I located more than 600 previously unread letters full of new information about Heyer. Those letters (often thousands of words and pages long) were part of what made writing the biography so much fun because they not only told me heaps of new things about Heyer but they also opened up hundreds of new research lines for me to pursue. I spoke to those who'd known her, visited every house she'd ever lived in, immersed myself in her notebooks and private papers, read the books she'd read, walked where she'd walked, did one of her famous jigsaw puzzles and sat on the gold velvet Knole sofa (in her son's sitting-room) where she used to play solitaire while working out her plots and characters.

People sometimes describe Heyer's novels as the ultimate re-read and I think that's true. Her books are like a delicious meal that makes you savour every mouthful and when you get to the end you wish you could do it all again! And that's the great thing about having so many of her novels – you can read them again and again and they'll go on making you laugh and sigh and smile and wanting to share them with your friends. She was a wonderful writer with a great sense of humour and a genius for creating characters who live on long after the last page is read.

Jennifer Kloester

Giveaway Details

Sourcebooks has graciously offered a giveaway of one copy of Georgette Heyer by Jennifer Kloester.

If you would like to win a copy of this book please leave a comment about what intrigues you about the this book or this great Guest Blog.

As part of your comment, you must include an email address. If I can't find a way to contact you I will draw another winner.

For an additional entry, blog about this giveaway or post it on your sidebar. Provide a link to this post in your comment.

I will be using random.org (or a monte carlo simulation in excel) to pick the winners from the comments.

This contest is only open to US and Canadian residents (Sorry!).

No P.O. Boxes.

The deadline for entry is midnight on Friday January 18th, 2013.

Please make sure to check the fourth week of January to see if you are a winner.  I send emails to the winner, but lately I've been put in their "junk mail" folder instead of their inbox.

Good luck!

25 comments:

  1. Such an interesting guest post! I vividly remember my first Heyer novel, and it seems it is an all-time favorite with many Heyer fans - The Grand Sophy. Since then I've read many others, and still have several on my TBR shelf. I'd love to know more about the woman behind these wonderful novels. Thanks for the giveaway.
    lcbrower40(at)gmail(dot)com

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  2. Hi Linda, The Grand Sophy is a great book with so many memorable scenes! Definitely one of my favourites too. I wonder which Heyer novels you have on your TBR pile? I'm always a little bit envious of anyone who still has a Heyer novel waiting to be read for the very first time! Lucky you.

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  3. I am captivated with Georgette Heyer's novels. They are beautifully written and unforgettable. Thanks for this wonderful feature. saubleb(at)gmail(dot)com

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    1. It's such a pleasure to write about Georgette Heyer and great to know so many other people appreciate her novels. Thanks for the post.

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  4. What a fascinating post today. Learning about the author and your research gives me so much to think about. I loved it when you said reading is like a delicious meal, about her historical writing and the fiction combination. Best wishes and thanks for this chance. elliotbencan(at)hotmail(dot)com

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    1. I love the way Heyer combines history with fiction. She does it so seamlessly and she was so good at bringing the past to life. Maybe that's why it's so easy to re-read her novels! Good luck with the giveaway.

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  5. Should I admit now that The Grand Sophy is still on my "to-read" pile? I am saving it for a rainy day. It's always nice during moments of stress to pull out a book that you know will be good by an author you enjoy. My favorite Heyer novel so far has been Cotillion. The Heyer novels I read were Sylvester and Arabella. I just happened to run across them at the public libary and enjoyed them immensely. Heyer and these books were the very first post I put on this blog when I started it in 2007. It's hard to believe that I hadn't heard of Heyer before that point in time!

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    1. Oh, you are lucky! I think The Grand Sophy would make perfect holiday or rainy day reading. I'm looking forward to reading another of your Heyer reviews when you've read Sophy.

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  6. I read and reviewed Kloester's last book about Heyer's world and I found it so interesting. I've read only one book by Heyer, but have several of her books on my bookshelf. Thanks for the chance to win this book.
    laurafabiani at videotron dot ca

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    1. Thanks for that lovely review of my first book on your terrific Library of Clean Reads Blog, Laura, and I do hope you get the chance to read some of those Heyers on your bookshelf. Thanks for posting and good luck with the giveaway.

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  7. I do envy your being able to read Georgette Heyer's letters! I'd love to do that. I'm a long-time fan of her novels, and enjoy introducing others to them (I am also very envious of those who haven't read them all). However, I still enjoy re-reading them - they are the ultimate comfort read.

    I do agree with your comment about the detail and accuracy of her books; if one reads contemporary books such as Burney's Evelina one can see just how correctly Heyer describes all aspects of that world. But she does it incidentally to telling her lovely stories, and not as a tedious lecture, so one doesn't appreciate how much information one is absorbing!

    (I can't enter for the give-away as I'm not in the US or Canada.)

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    1. That is so true about her historical detail Helena. Heyer just seems to effortlessly weave it into her stories, doesn't she? Her letters were just as much fun to read as her novels and they really brought her to life for me. Her son told me she wrote her letters exactly as she would have spoken and I can easily believe that! Thanks for posting.

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  8. I like how Jennifer Kloester immersed herself in the world of this author, by reading her letters and going to the places that Georgette Heyer lived, and even doing the same jigsaw puzzle! Excellent guest post!

    I'll post this giveaway in my blog's sidebar as soon as I get a chance; I'm a follower of your blog, of course, Laura. Thanks so much for hosting this terrific giveaway for your readers!

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  9. It was a fascinating experience walking in Heyer's footsteps. I was amazed at how much more I learned about her by visiting all her houses. I even got to have lunch at Blackthorns where she wrote a dozen of her novels - and knowing that she sometimes did those difficult jigsaw puzzles (no picture & no obvious side pieces) while working out her plots made doing one even more fun! Thanks for the link on your lovely Suko's Notebooks blog too.

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  10. Lovely post. I enjoyed reading how you discovered Georgette Heyer and researched for this new book. I have just in the past couple of years discovered her wonderful books. I am actually reading Arabella right now and really enjoying it. Thank you for the giveaway!!
    kellik115(at)yahoo(dot)com

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    1. I'm so glad you like Arabella - a delightful book with one of Georgette's best canine characters, too! You are lucky to have new Heyers to discover though I still get huge enjoyment out of re-reading her books. Thanks for the lovely post Kelli.

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  11. I have not read Jennifer Kloester but have heard of Georgette Heyer and was excited for her that she found all those letters, I am sure there was lot of info in them for stories to write.
    I would love to be in the drawing for this book.
    thanks for sharing.
    Paula O(kyflo130@yahoo.com)

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    1. The letters truly were amazing and I had so many Eureka! moments when I read them. Getting to know the woman behind the books was a great experience too. Good luck with the giveaway Paula.

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  12. I was surprised to read the opening of this guest post: that the author was in PNG when she first read Heyer! That amuses me as my sister is moving to PNG in a few weeks :)

    Anyhow, I'd have to agree with what others are saying about how fascinating the research for this book must have been. Reading unpublished letters - what a find for a researcher! That must have been wonderful. And visiting her houses, and so on -- part of the joy of writing nonfiction, and when you really love your subject it must be immensely satisfying. Can't wait to read this book and see the result of all that work!

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    1. I hope your sister enjoys PNG. I loved our time there (5 years) though we lived in a very remote part. I really empathized with Georgette when I discovered how she'd gone out to East Africa with her engineer husband and ended up living in a really remote area. I knew just how she felt living so far from home! You are so right in what you say about the research being fascinating. It was amazing. I really hope you enjoy reading the biography.

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  13. I haven't read alot of Georgette Heyer, but I'm intrigued with her life. Thanks for the chance to win!

    Laura

    CalicoCritic at gmail dot com

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  14. I am so happy to hear of so many other Georgette Heyer fans. I already have Jennifer Kloester's book on order! I also have a petition going to try to bring Georgette Heyer to film. Anyone wishing to sign it can go to: http://www.petitionbuzz.com/petitions/georgetteheyerfilm
    We have signatures from all over the world and there are lots of Heyer fans eager to see her novels on film. I also have a poll going on my blog to see which novel should be first on film. http://janeaustenfilmclub.blogspot.ca/2012/11/a-georgette-heyer-film-vote-for-which.html

    Thanks for the great blog post Jennifer and thanks Laura for hosting her!

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  15. I love your enthusiasm Jenny and your sites are terrific. I had already signed the petition and have also registered my film pick (Sylvester - though I could have listed at least 6 others!). I think there can be no doubt that a well-made film of a Heyer Regency would be a huge hit with audiences - especially given the massive success of Downton Abbey. I wouldn't be at all surprised in Julian Fellowes was a Heyer reader.

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  16. Jenny- I signed your petition as well. When I first started reading Heyer novels, I looked in vain for film adaptations of her novels and was surprised not to find any. I think they would be perfect on the big screen or on the small with Masterpiece Theatre.

    I'm almost done with Georgette Heyer by Jenny Allworthy and am enjoying it!

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  17. I found my first Georgette Heyer (Arabella) at a used book fair when I was 12 years old and solemnly asked my mother if she thought I was old enough to read a NOVEL -- it said Novel right on the front cover, and it seemed so adult.

    She looked it over, gave permission, and I've never looked back. I've read all of the Regencies (and own almost all of them), most of the detectives and historicals, and would love to find the suppressed novels.

    As I wallow in her writing frequently, I'd love to know more about the woman who is responsible for it...

    estairm@aol.com

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