“The Reclusive Author Who Only Gave One Interview” by Jennifer Kloester, Publisher’s Weekly

In 2013, Publishers Weekly ran an informative piece from now-International Heyer Society patroness (and then, already Heyer expert) Jennifer Kloester. Entitled “The Reclusive Author Who Only Gave One Interview”, it is full of Jen’s habitual insights and deep, yet accessible, scholarship.

This passage particularly stands out:

Heyer had a strong dislike for what she considered vulgar pretension. Unlike most modern writers, she thought it ill-mannered for authors to talk at length about their books – especially if they were successful. Heyer considered writing to be a private and solitary occupation and not something to be discussed ad nauseum with friends and family and certainly not at a social function or in public. She took her work very seriously and did not believe her readers either wanted or needed to know about her personal life. As she, herself, said: ‘My life isn’t of interest – my books (I hope) are. I’m sick to death of chatty bits about authors, & LOATHE this form of advertisement.’ There were numerous requests for details about her private life, her work habits, and her creative processes. Yet she spurned them all, holding firmly to the belief that what her readers most wanted from her was another entertaining novel.

Indeed!

Read the full piece here.

Somewhat ironically, the piece ran in tandem with the US release of Jen’s magnificent work Georgette Heyer: A Biography of a Bestseller. If you haven’t read it yet, you should!