The Georgette Heyer Fans are starting the year with Black Sheep. Fortuitously, my Mum returned Heyer’s three Bath novels to me just before Christmas – or rather, she exchanged them for Friday’s Child, Arabella, and The Grand Sophy. Fortuitously or unfortunately? With those three lying there on the sofa table, how likely was I to progress with my own work in progress? Fortunately, my friend Meike came to stay for a few days. “Georgette Heyer!” she exclaimed. “I’ve never read any of her books.” Then she ensconced herself in the ancient leather easy chair, and did.

This was to be our pattern. In the mornings, we went for long walks in the hills and forest. In the afternoons, we’d sit beside the tiled stove, Meike reading, me writing, my husband trawling the ads for a second-hand dishwasher. The only sounds were the occasional gurgle of laughter from Meike, the tap-tap of my keyboard, my husband’s sighed “too expensive” or “too inefficient”, and the snap of pine logs in the stove.

Meike finished Black Sheep in two sittings, went on to Lady of Quality and, since she did not like it as much as Black Sheep, swept into Bath Tangle, which she ended up borrowing from me because she was only half-way when our holiday ended. “Which Heyers should I read next?” she asked me as we drove back.



She’d already checked out the Wikipedia entry, so she knew all about the different genres Heyer wrote in, her types of heroes and heroines, and her meticulous historical research. I didn’t have to tell her that. But which were my favourite Heyer novels?

Venetia, I said, and we suddenly remembered that I’d given her Venetia when she lived in Venetia Road. Time for a re-read, she decided. A glance at the Georgette Heyer Fans reading schedule tells me that we’re reading Venetia in February. Serendipity!


Rather than compile an annotated list of my favourites, I think I’ll try and persuade Meike to join the group. You’ll find us here, Meike: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...

Thanks to Meike, I made some headway with Chapter 25 (I’ll probably need twenty-six chapters to bring my story to a good end). We still don’t have a dishwasher, though.