Georgette Heyer & A Favourite “Putting Good into the World” Anecdote
Last Monday I talked about writing and (I hope) adding to the positives in this world. One of my favourite anecdotes in this regard concerns the famous historical-romance author, Georgette Heyer, and her Regency novel, Friday’s Child.
In summary, Friday’s Child is a romp: a swashbuckling account of the relatively lighthearted activities of a group of ridiculous young men and equally frivolous young women. Being a Heyer tale it’s a huge amount of fun, based on excellent historical research, but with no pretensions to being anything but a light read.
Yet in Jane Aiken Hodge’s biography of Heyer (The Private World of Georgette Heyer, 1984) we learn that Heyer only ever kept one fan letter. The letter was from a Romanian political prisoner who kept herself and her fellow prisoners sane for twelve years by telling and retelling the plot of Friday’s Child.
I have always been very moved by this story and think it definitely is a great example of a book adding to the positives in the world. It’s also proof that a book doesn’t have to be a serious read or a weighty treatise in order to do so. In fact a good light read and the laughter that ensues may be just what the doctor ordered, even for those who are not political prisoners…
I’ve certainly smiled and even laughed outright a good deal when reading Georgette Heyer’s historical romances (I don’t care for her whodunnits so much), possibly more than with any other author, Terry Pratchett not excluded.