Georgette Heyer
August 16, 1902 – July 4, 1974

“I think myself I ought to be shot for writing such nonsense. But it's unquestionably good escapist literature and I think I should rather like it if I were sitting in an air-raid shelter or recovering from flu."

~ Her paternal grandfather emigrated from Russia; her maternal grandparents owned tugboats on the River Thames.

~ She was the eldest of three children.

~ Although the family's surname had been pronounced "higher," the war led her father to change the pronunciation to "hair" so they would not be mistaken for Germans.

~ At the age of 17, she wrote a story to amuse her ill brother Boris.

~ Her father loved it so much, he found a publisher for it. The Black Moth was published in 1921.

~ In the spring of 1925, after the publication of her fifth novel, Heyer's father died of a heart attack. She assumed financial responsibility of her two younger brothers.

~ She managed to sell books without any self-promotion, and for the rest of her life she even refused to give interviews.

~ In 1935, she released Regency Buck, her first novel set in the Regency period. This bestselling novel essentially established the genre of Regency romance.

~ She was deeply inspired by Jane Austen.

~ She  deplored wearing your heart on your sleeve and was not particularly sympathetic to characters with "an excess of sensibility."

~ Determined to make her novels as accurate as possible, Heyer collected reference works and research materials.

~ In 1931, Heyer released The Conqueror, her first historical novel.

~ For the next several years Heyer published one romance novel and one thriller per year.

~ To earn more money, she reviewed books and allowed her novels to be serialized in Women's Journal prior to publication as hardcover books.

~ Her stories always sold out the magazine, but she complained they "liked my worst work."

~ In 1974 she was diagnosed with lung cancer, which her biographer attributed to the 60–80 cork-tipped cigarettes she smoked every day.

~ Despite her popularity and ever-increasing sales, critics completely ignored her.

~ Heyer is still considered by many to be the best Regency romance writer ever.
 

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