News and Events
Georgette Heyer Conference
4 November 2009
The first conference dedicated entirely to the life and works of prolific writer Georgette Heyer will take place at Lucy Cavendish College, University of Cambridge on Saturday (7 November).
The conference is being joint-hosted by the College and Anglia Ruskin University.
People from both institutions came up with the idea of the conference, 'Re-reading Georgette Heyer', after discovering a
mutual love for the author and her work.
Heyer was an English historical romance and detective fiction novelist who had a great impact on the romantic novel and was
responsible for establishing the Regency romance as a subgenre in its own right.
Often recognised for her well researched historical fiction, she was known for collecting reference papers and keeping detailed notes on all aspects of life to ensure accuracy in her work.
Despite being a bestseller for most of her life, Heyer was an intensely private person who never used publicity to raise her profile or career.
Her earliest novels feature improbably melodramatic elements such as kidnappings, horseback rescues and heroines being threatened at gunpoint. Her plots are said to be unconvincing but extremely entertaining.
The conference is sponsored by the International Association for the Study of Popular Romance.
The association offered their sponsorship after finding out about the conference through organiser Professor Sarah Annes Brown's blog.
Professor Sarah Annes Brown said: 'In the past I've filled in endless complicated forms trying to squeeze some money out of one funding body or other to help support the many costs involved in running a conference - to no avail. So it was wonderful to receive a spontaneous offer of sponsorship out of the blue from the International Association for the Study of Popular Romance.
I've organised quite a few conferences now - but none have received quite so much enthusiastic attention as Re-reading Georgette Heyer. But perhaps that's because I've never organised a conference about a writer who generates so much pure pleasure and enthusiasm in her readers.'
Those attending the conference will be welcomed at 10am for coffee before the first talk 'The Life of Georgette Heyer' which begins at 10:15am.
There will be nine speakers throughout the day discussing various topics from 'Class and Breeding' to 'The Thermodynamics of Georgette Heyer'.
The conference will finish with a structured discussion on gender, politics, class and race, topics which have generated some controversy amongst fans of Heyer who love her stories but may be less enthusiastic about some of her more conservative views.
Lucy Cavendish College admits postgraduate and mature female students.
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