Author Information
Georgette Heyer
  • Bibliography:
    79 Books (3 Series)
  • First Book:
    January 1921
  • Latest Book:
    January 1975
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About the Author

Georgette Heyer was born on 16 August 1902 in Wimbledon, London, England, UK. She was the eldest child of Sylvia Watkins and George Heyer; her brother George Boris was born four years later, and her brother Frank nine years later. During her childhood, the family lived also in Paris, France, but they returned to England before World War I. During the war, her father served as a requisitions officer for the British Army in France. Encouraged by her father to read, he never forbade her any book. At 17, she began a serial story to amuse her brother Boris, who suffered from a form of haemophilia and was often weak. Her father enjoyed listening to her story and asked her to prepare it for publication. His agent found a publisher for her book, and "The Black Moth" was released in 1921.

In December 1920, she met George Ronald Rougier, a young two years older than her, who studied at the Royal School of Mines to become a mining engineer. They became engaged the spring of 1925, and she had five novels published. Only one month later, her father died of a heart attack, and he left no pension for his family. She assumed financial responsibility for her brothers, aged 19 and 14. On 18 August 1925, Georgette married George, but two moths later, he was sent to Caucasus Mountains, and she remained at home and continued to write. She released "These Old Shades", during the midst of the UK General Strike of 1926; as a result, the novel received no newspaper coverage, reviews, or advertising. The novel sold 190,000 copies, and she refused for the rest of her life to promote her novels. Her husband was sent to the East African territory of Tanganyika, and she joined him in 1927, they moved to Macedonia in 1928, where she almost died after a dentist improperly administered an anaesthetic. She insisted they return to England before starting a family, and the following year they returned to England. In England, her husband started diferent business, but she was always the primary breadwinner. They had a son, Richard, and she continued to care for her brothers and mother. During the World War II, her husband and brothers served in the army, and to earn more money, she reviewed books for Heinemann. To minimize her tax liability, she formed a limited liability company, that paid salaries for her and her family. The tax inspectors discovered financial problems with the company, which she finally sold. She wrote principally historical romance novels and some detective novels. She essentially established the historical sub-genre of Regency romance, inspired by Jane Austen's work. Unlike Austen, who wrote about and for the times in which she lived, she was forced to include copious information about the period so that her readers would understand the setting. To ensure accuracy, she collected reference works and kept detailed notes on all aspects of Regency life, becoming an expert. Her successful regency novels were imitated by many authors like Barbara Cartland, and in some cases were allegedly plagiarized, but she chose not to file lawsuits. She continued writing until her death by lung cancer on 4 July 1974; her novel My Lord John, the first and only book of the Lancaster Trilogy, was published posthumously.

Full Series List in Order

Alastair-Audley Tetralogy

1 - These Old Shades (1926)
2 - Devil's Cub (1932)
3 - Regency Buck (1935)
4 - An Infamous Army (1937)

Beauvallet Dynasty

1 - Simon the Coldheart (Jan-1925)
2 - Beauvallet (Jan-1929)

Inspectors Hannasyde & Hemingway

1 - Death in the Stocks // Merely Murder (1935)
2 - Behold, Here's Poison (1936)
3 - They Found Him Dead (1937)
4 - A Blunt Instrument (1938)
5 - No Wind of Blame (1939)
6 - Envious Casca // A Christmas Party (1941)
7 - Duplicate Death (1951)
8 - Detection Unlimited (1953)

Book List in Order: 79 titles



    • / Traditional Regency
    • Buy Buy

    Georgian England. Disgraced Jack Carstares, now rightful Earl of Wyncham, left England seven long years ago, sacrificing his honour for that of his eldest brother when he was accused of cheating at cards. But he is determined not to claim his ti...



  • Georgette Heyer's second historical novel, published in 1923, was a far more ambitious undertaking than her first, 1921's The Black Moth. Set at the court of Charles II (1630 - 1685), in the era after he has returned to a grateful nation aft...



  • This 1922 short story is one of Georgette Heyer's most unusual works, a love tale that flirts with the paranormal in post-WWI England. Originally published in the UK's Red Magazine, it is republished here for the first time....



    • / Romance
    • Buy Buy

    In her first published short story, released in the UK's Happy Mag in 1922, Georgette Heyer also gave the world her first stab at contemporary fiction, with this story of a modern 1920's miss who confronts some frighteningly old-fashioned att...



  • In an 18th-Century England of wit, womanising and powdered wigs, provincial Philip Jettan runs the risk of irreproachability. When her childhood friend, the golden-haired Cleone Charteris returns from finishing school, her exquisite charms have made ...



    • / General Fiction
    • Buy Buy

    Quite the funniest of all Georgette Heyer's contemporary works, "Acting on Impulse" is the adorable story of an enthusiastic suitor who will not allow his father's stubbornness get in the way of true love. Reprinted here for the fi...



  • After her father's financial ruin, Mary Nugent must eke out a meagre existence in contrast to her once-glittering life. But an unwanted gift -- and a chance encounter with on old flame -- might just change everything... First published in The...



    • / Contemporary Romance
    • Buy Buy

    A contemporary romance about a naive girl brought up in a Victorian manner, Elizabeth married very young and is little able to cope with life and marriage in adult life. One of the four "contemporary" novels Georgette Heyer had suppressed....



  • A rare tragedy from the pen of historical romance maven Georgette Heyer, "Love" is a tale of infidelity, devotion and sacrifice, set against the backdrop of Georgian England. First published in the UK's Sovereign Magazine in 1923, two ...






    • / Romance
    • Buy Buy

    Published in the UK's Happy Mag in 1923, this short and sweet story of contemporary romance gives us dog-loving but people-hating neighbours who perhaps aren't as jaded about the opposite sex as they want everyone to believe. Full of Heyer's signatur...



    • / Mystery
    • Buy Buy

    Georgette Heyer's first detective story! First published in Detective Magazine in 1923.A mysterious leakage of Cabinet documents and the trust of a very charming young person gave Linckes the chance of his life. Previously only republished as part of...



  • In the early 15th century, during the middle of the Hundred Years' War, England and France were fighting for sovereignty over France. It was a time of hand-to-hand combat, the invention of the longbow, and real knights in armor. Simon was born in...



    • / Traditional Regency
    • Buy Buy

    Under the reign of Louis XV, corruption and intrigue have been allowed to blossom in France, and Lord Justin Alastair, the notorious Duke of Avon, known for his coldness of manner, his remarkable omniscience, and his debauched lifestyle. Society beli...



  • A contemporary romance set in the changing times before and after the world war, and protagoniced by Helen, a young girl with antiquated Victorian values, who does not approve the new Edwardian society. Admired by several suitors, she does not think ...



  • Such a daring escape... Their infamous adventurer father has taught Prudence Tremaine and her brother Robin to be masters of disguise. Ending up on the wrong side of the Jacobite rebellion, brother and sister flee to London, Prudence pretending to...



  • The year is 1586 and 35-year-old Sir Nicholas Beauvallet (great great great grandson of Simon Beauvallet, the Coldheart) is one of the most infamous corsair of the Elizabethan era. With the blessing of the Queen, Beauvallet sails the seas with the in...



    • / Contemporary Romance
    • Buy Buy

    Frances, the oldest of two sisters, feels constantly overshadowed by her younger sister, Evelyn. Frances meets Oliver Fayre, an extremely handsome man that her aunt tries to set her up with. It seems to be going well, then one day Oliver stops by to ...




    • / Contemporary Romance
    • Buy Buy

    When Hugh Salinger announced the news of his disastrously ill-assorted marriage with Laura Burton, his family expected him to bring home an adventuress. It might, in the end, have been better, for Laura, undeniably beautiful, simple & selfless in her...






    • / Historical Romance
    • Buy Buy

    A fictionalized biography, fast-moving and minutely-wrought chronicle about William, Duke of Normandy who became King of England in 1066. The day she gave birth to William, the beautiful Herleva dreamt that a tree sprang from her womb--a giant amo...



    • / Romantic Suspense
    • Buy Buy

    Locals claim The Prior is haunted and refuse to put a single toe past the front door. Left empty for years, and even their deceased uncle chose to live in a different house, far away from this particular property. But the ramshackle old house, with i...



    • / Traditional Regency
    • Buy Buy

    Dominic Alistair, Marquis of Vidal and fiery son of the notorious Duke of Avon, has established a rakish reputation that rivals his father's, living a life of excess and indulgence. He is a bad lot a rake and seducer, reckless, heedless, and possesse...



    • / Romantic Suspense
    • Buy Buy

    Every family has secrets, but the Fountains' are turning deadly… On a dark night, along a lonely country road, barrister Frank Amberley stops to help a young lady in distress and discovers a sports car with a corpse behind the wheel, dead from a...



  • When Lord Marcus Drelincourt, Earl of Rule, the most eligible match of Georgian England, offers for the hand of the oldest and prettiest sister of the Winwood Family, he has no notion of the distress he causes his intended. Beauty Lizzie Winwood alre...



    • / Romantic Suspense
    • Buy Buy

    It should have been a lovely English country-house weekend. But the unfortunate guest-list is enough to exasperate a saint, and irascible General Sir Arthur Billington-Smith was nobody's idea of the perfect host. In fact he was absolutely frightful. ...



    • / Romantic Suspense
    • Buy Buy

    The moonlight shone on the quiet village green when an English bobbie returning from night patrol finds on a man's two motionless feet stuck through the holes of a pair of stocks. He identifies the corpse in evening dress immediately. Wealthy Andrew ...



    • / Traditional Regency
    • Buy Buy

    After their father's death, the siblings Judith and Peregrine Taverner travel to 1811 London to meet their guardian, the Earl of Worth, expecting an elderly gentleman, to their surprise and utter disgust, their guardian is not much older than the...



    • / Romantic Suspense
    • Buy Buy

    When Gregory Matthews, patriarch of the Poplars is found dead one morning, imperious Aunt Harriet blames it on the roast duck he ate for supper. After all, she had warned him about his blood pressure. But a post-mortem determines the cause of death a...



  • A full-blooded romance of the eighteenth century, when the legend of the Headless Horseman and a proposed marriage de convenance both have their impact on the mystery of a golden talisman ring. The ravishing beauty, Eustacie de Vauban had been snatch...






  • Miss Paradise and Mr. Morley, both 18, have decided to escape the dread fate of having Miss Paradise forced to be married to Sir Roland Sale. They decide, since they had planned to get married to each other anyway, despite the thoughts on the matter ...



    • / Romantic Suspense
    • Buy Buy

    One heir after another turns up dead… The sixtieth birthday party of Silas Kane was marred by argument and dissension amongst his family. And then, the morning after the celebrations, Kane is found dead at the foot of a cliff. The theory that Si...



    • / Traditional Regency
    • Buy Buy

    In the summer of 1815, beneath the aegis of the Army of Occupation, Brussels is the gayest town in Europe. And the red-haired widow Lady Barbara Childe, renowned for being as outrageous as she is beautiful, is at the centre of the social whirl and of...



  • Deborah never played a more reckless game than the one where love was the stake....



  • A very bored Earl, unsure why he bothers going to Bath, zooms along in his chaise until he spots another broken down on the road to Bath. Stopping, the Earl sees the figure of a young man standing there as a means to break the tedium of sameness and ...



    • / Romantic Suspense
    • Buy Buy

    Who would kill the perfect gentleman? When Ernest Fletcher is found bludgeoned to death in his study, everyone is shocked and mystified: Ernest was well liked and respected, so who would have a motive for killing him? Inspectors of Scotland Yard f...



    • / Historical Romance
    • Buy Buy

    In 1650, dispossessed of Crown and kingdom, crushed and routed at the grim Battle of Worcester, the young Charles II is forced to flee for his life. Out of the heat of battle, the outlaw King and his tiny party must journey across Cromwell's England ...



  • A governess, a Miss Fairfax, informs the Earl of Shane that his ward, Miss Lucilla Gellibrand, has eloped with a lieutenant of a line regiment. The Earl and the governess pursue the lieutenant, a Mr. Edmund Monksley, and the ward....



    • / Romantic Suspense
    • Buy Buy

    A weekend shooting party gathers together a rich assortment of characters including Wally Carter and his wife Ermyntrude, the precocious schoolgirl Vicky, the quick-witted Mary, Sir William Dering, and Alexis Varasashvil, a Russian prince. Interests ...



    • / Traditional Regency
    • Buy Buy

    The only question which hangs over the life of Sir Richard Wyndham, notable whip, dandy and Corinthian, is one of marriage. On the eve of making the most momentous decision of his life, while he is contemplating a loveless marriage with a woman his f...






    • / Historical Romance
    • Buy Buy

    Shot-proof, fever-proof and a veteran campaigner at the age of 25, Brigade-Major Henry George Wakelyn Smith is reputed to be the luckiest man in Lord Wellington's army. Yet at the seige of Badjos in 1812, his friends foretell the ruin of his career. ...



    • / Traditional Regency
    • Buy Buy

    Skilled in the art of card playing, Deborah Grantham, a gambler's daughter, uses that skill as her sole means of support as mistress of her aunt's elegant and exclusive gaming club in 18th-century London. The beautiful young must find a way to restor...



    • / Romantic Suspense
    • Buy Buy

    'Tis the season-to be dead... Resigned to spending Christmas at Lexham Manor, Mathilda Clare wasn't sure what she dreaded most--the foul temper of Nat Herriard, the filthy-rich old Scrooge who owned the place, or the sweetness-and-light of his bro...



    • / Romantic Suspense
    • Buy Buy

    Old patriarch, Adam Penhallow, yet ruling his family and his Cornish roost with an iron hand from his sickbed. The death of menacing old man, on the eve of his birthday, seems at first to be by natural causes. He was elderly after all. But Penhallow ...



    • / Traditional Regency
    • Buy Buy

    Rejected by the woman he deeply craves, the incomparable Miss Milborne, for his unsteadiness of character, wild Viscount Sheringham is bent on avenging fate and coming into his fortune. Rebellious young Sherry could not gain his inheritance until he ...



    • / Traditional Regency
    • Buy Buy

    A fateful mistake... Stepping into the wrong carriage at a Sussex village, Elinor Rochdale is swept up in a thrilling and dangerous adventure. Elinor is rather surprised that her prospective employer is quite rich, and more so at tile decayed grandeu...



  • A man, Lord Stavely, arrives quite late in Shropshire. Assuming that he is too late for dinner, he stops at an inn, whereupon he stumbles across a man drinking heavily and sad about his upcoming elopement with an heiress. It appears the heiress' papa...



    • / Traditional Regency
    • Buy Buy

    The Groom. Enormously wealthy, scrupulously mannered and suffocatingly confined by his title the 24 years old Adolphus Gillespie Ware, the 7th Duke of Sale -- known to friends as Gilly -- is a diffident young, easily pushed around by his overprotecti...



    • / Traditional Regency
    • Buy Buy

    To Arabella Tallant, the eldest daughter of a penniless country clergyman, the invitation to stay with her London godmother was like the key to heaven, for in addition to living in the glamorous city, Arabella might even find a suitable husband there...



    • / Traditional Regency
    • Buy Buy

    When the redoubtable Sir Horace Stanton-Lacy is ordered to South America on business, he leaves his only daughter Sophia with his sister, Elizabeth Rivenhall, in Berkeley Square. Newly arrived from her tour of the Continent, Sophy invites herself int...






    • / Traditional Regency
    • Buy Buy

    Gervase Frant finally returns to his father's estate to claim his title as the new Seventh Earl of St. Erth at Stanyon. Unscathed from Waterloo, Gervase expected a hero's welcome-instead he's given a frigid cold shoulder. Upon his return,...



    • / Romantic Suspense
    • Buy Buy

    London is the scene for a card party given by a social-climbing hostess. Suddenly, the seemingly civilized game of Duplicate Bridge is interrupted by a double murder, both victims murdered by the same sinister method, strangled with picture wire. The...



    • / Traditional Regency
    • Buy Buy

    The three great-nephews of irascible Mr. Matthew Penicuik know better than to ignore his summons, especially when it concerns the bestowal of his fortune. The wily old gentleman has hatched a freakish plan for his Country-bred stepdaughter's future: ...



    • / Romantic Suspense
    • Buy Buy

    It was a hot June evening in the village of Thornden, the Hasells celebrate a tennis party at the Cedars, their mansion. The young Haswell had just motored the lovely Abby Dearham back from social event of the week. Nearly everyone of the village upp...



    • / Traditional Regency
    • Buy Buy

    His great adventures were legendary... Captain John Staple's exploits in the Peninsula and Waterloo had earned him the sobriquet Crazy Jack amongst his fellows in the Dragoon Guards. Back from the battlefront, he is planning to settle down after a br...



    • / Traditional Regency
    • Buy Buy

    The Earl of Spenborough has always been noted for his eccentricity. Leaving Fanny, a widow younger than his own daughter Serena is one thing, but quite another is leaving his daugther's fortune to the trusteeship of Ivo Barrasford, marquis of Rot...



    • / Traditional Regency
    • Buy Buy

    Sir Gareth Ludlow was a sought-after bachelor in London high society -- wealthy, noble, handsome... and brokenhearted since the death of his true love many years ago. Resigned to remarry, Sir Gareth decides to request the hand of a woman he respects ...



    • / Traditional Regency
    • Buy Buy

    Despite the scandalous blemish on the family name of his 18 year old bride, Lord Giles Cardross is convinced beautiful Helen cares for him. When newlywed begins to fill her days with fashion and frivolity, her husband has to wonder whether she really...



    • / Traditional Regency
    • Buy Buy

    When the news went out that Sylvester Rayne, the elegant, impeccable Duke of Salford, was seeking a wife, all England was aflutter! Lord Sylvester is a polished bachelor who has stringent requirements for his future wife -- she must be well-born, int...



    • / Traditional Regency
    • Buy Buy

    Twenty-five-year-old Venetia Lanyon's beauty rivaled only by her sensibility. Intelligent and independent, her future seems safe and predictable. Lovely Venetia despairs of ever meeting the handsome hero of her romantic dreams, but is nearly resi...



    • / Traditional Regency
    • Buy Buy

    Miles from anywhere, Darracott Place is presided over by elderly Lord Darracott. Irascible Lord Darracott rules his barony with a firm hand. The tragic accident that kills his eldest son by drowning has done nothing to improve his temper. For now he ...



    • / Traditional Regency
    • Buy Buy

    Historical romance short-story....



    • / Traditional Regency
    • Buy Buy

    Historical romance short-story....



    • / Traditional Regency
    • Buy Buy

    Historical romance short-story....



    • / Traditional Regency
    • Buy Buy

    Historical romance short-story....



    • / Traditional Regency
    • Buy Buy

    Historical romance short-story....



    • / Traditional Regency
    • Buy Buy

    Historical romance short-story....



    • / Traditional Regency
    • Buy Buy

    Historical romance short-story....



    • / Traditional Regency
    • Buy Buy

    Historical romance short-story: "In the end, the quarrel, smouldering for so many weeks, flared up over such a trifle that anyone, Tom reflected, would have laughed to have known the cause."...



    • / Traditional Regency
    • Buy Buy

    Historical romance short-story.......



    • / Traditional Regency
    • Buy Buy

    Historical romance short-story....



    • / Traditional Regency
    • Buy Buy

    Adam Deveril, is one of the Duke of Wellington's captains, and a hero at Salamanca. When his father, a crony of the Prince Regent, is killed in the hunting field, Adam became the 6th Viscount Lynton of Fontley Priory, Lincolnshire. But he retuns from...



    • / Traditional Regency
    • Buy Buy

    At the age of five-and-thirty, Sir Waldo Hawkridge, wealthy, handsome, eligible, illustrious, and known as the nonesuch for his athletic prowess, and when he comes north to inspect his unusual inheritance at Broom hall in the West Riding, his arrival...



    • / Traditional Regency
    • Buy Buy

    When the charming but irresponsible Lady Amabel, Countess of Denville is left a young widow the problem of her mounting debts becomes acute. So she is lucky to have such resourceful twin sons as Evelyn and Christopher Fancot to steer the family throu...



    • / Traditional Regency
    • Buy Buy

    Rich and handsome, darling of the ton, the hope of ambitious mothers and despair of his sisters, the Marquis of Alverstoke at seven-and-thirty sees no reason to put himself out for anyone. Until a distant connection, ignorant of his selfishness, appl...



    • / Traditional Regency
    • Buy Buy

    With her high-spirited intelligence and good looks, Abigail Wendover was a most sought-after young woman. But of all her high-placed suitors, there was none Abigail could love. Abigail was kept busy when her pretty and naive niece Fanny falls head ov...



    • / Traditional Regency
    • Buy Buy

    When young and beautiful governess Kate Malvern finds herself unemployed in Regency England, is surprised to receive an invitation to live with a distant aunt, Minerva Broome, who she has never met. Rescued from penury by her aunt Minerva, hardly kno...



    • / Traditional Regency
    • Buy Buy

    A young and lovely runaway alone on the road to London Miss Charity Steane is running away from the drudgery of her aunt's household to find her grandfather. Not expecting her visit, the old gentleman is not in London but is away in the country. ...



    • / Traditional Regency
    • Buy Buy

    The spirited and independent Miss Annis Wychwood is a beautiful heiress, and hopelessly single, has twenty-nine and well past the age for falling in love. When she sponsored young pretty Miss Lucilla Carleton's "coming out," the town's social elite w...



    • / Historical Romance
    • Buy Buy

    The reigns, deaths, and ruthless struggle for power of Richard II and his cousin Henry IV is viewed through the eyes of Henry's youngest son, John of Lancanster. John, Duke of Bedford--very human, very powerful, intensely virile--he is an unforgettab...


Award-Winning Books by Georgette Heyer

Devil's Cub
1995 Romance Readers Anonymous Award -- Best All-Time Regency Romance


Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Georgette Heyer has published 79 books.

Georgette Heyer does not have a new book coming out soon. The latest book, My Lord John, was published in January 1975.

The first book by Georgette Heyer, The Black Moth, was published in January 1921.

Yes. Georgette Heyer has 3 series.