Seven
things you didn't know about Georgette Heyer:
2. Georgette's 1923 novel The Transformation of Philip Jettan (re-titled Powder and Patch in 1930) was probably inspired by the famous
letters Lord Chesterfield wrote to his son Philip (also the name of Heyer's
hero in the novel). Published under the title: Letters to His Son on the Art
of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman the letters are full of
entertaining insights, brilliant wit and sound advice to a young man making his
debut in high society. Heyer's novel is peppered with French phrases and is the
only one of her books to include a rondeau – a form of verse much favoured by
the Renaissance poets and a favourite of her father's. There seems little doubt
that her father helped with the book. He spoke fluent French and probably checked
the novel's French phrases and may even have written the rondeau which the hero,
Philip, reads aloud in idiomatic French to his friends at a select dinner in
Paris. As well as being her only novel
written under a pseudonym, The
Transformation of Philip Jettan is also unusual as being the only book
Georgette ever wrote in which she uses the first-person and in which, as the
narrator, she occasionally obtrudes into the text to speak directly to her
audience: 'A while back I spoke of three gentlemen…'
3, In 1924 Georgette had one of her short stories: 'Chinese Shawl' translated and published in the Danish periodical, Tvidenskronder. It tells the story of Mary, a well-bred young woman, whose father has killed himself after becoming bankrupt in the stock market crash. A wealthy aunt sends her an exquisite Chinese shawl for which Mary, too poor to go to parties and without suitable clothes, can see no use. Although loath to part with such a beautiful thing, she is eventually forced to sell it, but the shawl proves to be a good-luck charm reuniting Mary with her lost love and providing, as Georgette wrote in the last line of the tale, an ending 'just like in a real fairy story'.
4. One of the most original reviews of Georgette Heyer ever received was for her novel Helen. The review appeared in the famous magazine Punch in the form of a poem. It is an amusing and remarkably accurate account of Heyer's most autobiographical novel.
Is a
pleasant story, as stories go,
But
everyone in it talks such a lot
That they constantly seem to
forget the plot,
Though
that, to be sure when you smooth it out,
Is hardly a thing to worry
about.
We start when Helen arrives on earth,
Or rather the evening before
her birth,
And we go right on to the
period when
She has captured the hearts
of a score of men,
Some in the country and some
in the town,
And finally turned the whole
lot down.
And, just when we're
dropping a silent tear
To think that Helen, who's rather a dear,
Must fizzle out at the end
of the book
Without a suitable male on
her hook
Up turns one of the
turned-down batch
And just at the close she achieves
a catch.
In fact I think, though I
may be wrong,
That
it's not too short and it's not too long,
It's
not too broad and it's not too deep,
And
it weaves no nightmares into your sleep;
And
Georgette Heyer must write again
In an equally
pleasant and placid vein.
5. Despite her professed dislike of household chores
("I loathe domesticity")
Georgette did enjoy some 'domestic arts' such as knitting and once, in 1955
after finishing Bath Tangle – she
actually took up stitchery. She'd never done it before but she had found an old
fire-screen that needed re-covering and, as she explained, being 'seized by
unaccustomed energy' refurbished it with silk and brocade. When it was finished
she was so delighted with her achievement that she made a patchwork cushion
with the left-over silk – her 'first attempt at this kind of work'. Although
she did not consider herself a 'needlewoman', she'd become so caught up in the
pleasure of sewing that she made several more. A week before Christmas Georgette
delivered one of her cushions to her dearest friend, Patricia Wallace, the wife
of her publisher A.S. Frere of Heinemann, with a note explaining that it was a
present for their flat 'so that Frere shall no longer be able to go about town
telling people that the only thing Georgette Heyer can do is to write frippery
romances.'
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| GEORGETTE HEYER AND HER CAR NICKNAMED 'THE VIPER' CIRCA 1936 |
6. Georgette was not a very good driver but in the 1930s
she had a car which she nicknamed 'the Viper' which she drove around the Sussex
countryside.
7. In 1969 Georgette went to Bath to
see Doris
Langley Moore's collection of historic costumes, in the Assembly Rooms. Her
report of her visit revealed that, despite having set a number of books in
Bath, she had never before visited the Assembly Rooms: 'One or two interesting
exhibits, and a lot of exquisitely embroidered brocades, but a great many
omissions. I thought the settings the best part of the exhibition – and was far
more interested in the Assembly Rooms, which I had never been able to see
before, since they have been under reconstruction ever since they were blitzed
in the war. They have done a lovely job on them.'
