What is your opinion of Georgette Heyer?

M0nica- Cold Comfort Farm always brings a smile! We had a great unabridged audio book of it years ago which my children loved. One of the "long car journey" tapes.

Instead of GH I enjoy the various 'Regency lite' series by MC Beaton.

I didn't know Persephone books until a cousin gave me Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day for Chirstmas. Lovely book, the film, for me, failed to do it justice.

LaineAnn. I'll second that - Persephone books are unique and make wonderful presents. Great packaging and book mark included! I went in the shop, tiny, welcoming and fascinating. Lamb's Conduit Street, I was on my way to the Foundling Museum.

I read and enjoyed them in my teens and 20s, so did my granny who was in her 80s. I recently began to reread one and couldn't get into it at all. It may have been Friday's Child.
As the kind of child who would read anything I got hold of and read Forever Amber at ten. I fear that it may have scarred me for life!! I'd already seen the blockbuster film with my mother and aunt ... Inappropriate!!

I have been re-reading Mary Stewart novels, feisty young 20 somethings having adventures. I also love Howard Spring, much more meaty, have been finding his books in 2nd hand shops. Georgette Heyer was a great favourite with me & my school friends back in the 60's.
Try www.persephonebooks.co.uk for really good re-prints of older novels by mostly women writers. Beautiful to look at too.

I read all the Georgette Heyer books so many years ago, re-discovering them recently was a thrill. She really is one of the best "Regency writers" since Jane Austin.

I love Georgette Heyer and read lots of them many years ago and even now they are books I turn to for their humour and the comfort they bring me. I inherited a lot of them from my aunt who had a bookcase full of them!

I have always loved GH - and her writing about the battle of Waterloo (I think someone previously mentions "An Infamous Army") horrified me. No slushy romance there! I wasn't keen on her detective books. I do like Ngaio Marsh's Inspector Alleyn books.

I prefer her later ones. The ones I always go back to are Civil Contract, Cousin Kate, Reluctant Widow, and The Tollgate. Ones that have a strong plot element that is not romance led.

Are there any recommendations from those of you who are fans please?

Georgette Heyer is not your usual run of the mill historical romance author. Her novels are well researched and so give a very accurate account of Regency times. They are well written as well as entertaining. There is much snobbery about such novels but in this case quite unjustified I think. I read them as a teenager and again as an adult and enjoyed them both times. Read and enjoy.

All my copies are falling to bits I've read them so often. I started with Friday's Child and gradually built up all of them. My mum took them over and now I've got quite a few on kindle. If you're feeling a bit low or needing to relax, GH is right there with just the right story to help you. Great author.

All my copies are falling to bits I've read them so often. I started with Friday's Child and gradually built up all of them. My mum took them over and now I've got quite a few on kindle. If you're feeling a bit low or needing to relax, GH is right there with just the right story to help you. Great author.

I recently bought copies of Precious Bane and the Constant Nymph, both books were enormous best sellers when they were published in the 1930s, and still exercised their hold on readers in the late 40s and 50s, when I was a child. I found them two of the silliest books I have ever read and I struggled to finish Precious Bane. The spoof on it and its genre, Cold Comfort Farm, was a far better!

The thing about GH is that her works are pure escapism and she knew it. I have always had an interest in the history and culture of the early 19th century and in my reading have come across quite a few of the sources she used for her books and it is interesting to see just how faithful she is to her them in even the most frivolous plots of her books.

She based all her characters surnames on village names and DH has got used to me seeing signposts in areas of the country I am not familiar with and suddenly saying.'Oh, that's where GH got the surname of..... from.

I read GH in my teens. I also read Forever Amber which I thought was one of the most wonderful books ever. A couple of years ago I saw a copy in a charity shop so bought it. Forty odd years later, I was so disappointed as thought it a load of rubbish!!

Never read any, think I might have to

I also used to enjoy Anya Seton. Never read GH, probably never will.

I read GH in my teens and have re read some of them since at various times. Favourites are These Old Shades and The Devils Cub, which features some of the same characters. I find them very well written and accurate to the regency period, if rather unlikely in terms of plot. Overall, great, escapist stuff!

Did anyone else read the Juliette Benzoni books about Catherine and Arnaud?

Can't remember much about them now other than the one where Arnaud ends up in a leper colony but I couldn't put them down. Much more exciting than the usual romantic novels.

Yes she did and if you enjoy this genre they are very good. Don't know about the Regency stuff, but she does write well .

I've enjoyed reading Georgette Heyer's books since I was in my teens.

The books are warm and witty, and cleverly constructed, with wonderful laugh-out-load stories.

Most of Georgette Heyer's Regency romances I've read several times, and never tire of them.

Definitely worth reading!

I too haven't read any for a long time but also used to really enjoy them. My daughter read them in her teens too and collected a full set.

A history academic I know (a man) says they are accurate and well researched.

I love them and constantly re-read them. They are the ultimate in comfort reading. When in hospital and in pain, awaiting a minor op I read four of them back to back (Yup, I had to wait that long for them to realise they hadn't put me on the list.). Wonderfully soothing but witty and clever and, as someone else said, not remotely Mills & Boon.

Quite a lot of very intellectual and clever women like them, including AS Byatt.

I have read a couple of her detective novels and found them disappointing. Cleverly crafted but with very two tone two dimensional characters, so surprising and unexpected.

I read a few in my teens, but now much prefer a good thriller. Linda la Plante, James Patterson, Lee Child, David Badacci etc. They can't write them fast enough for me!