Rare and Revealing: Collecting Georgette Heyer’s Novels with Dr Jennifer Kloester

Since her death more than fifty years ago, Georgette Heyer’s novels have continued selling in the millions and her fifty-six books have enjoyed many reprintings in countless editions. But it is her first editions with their dustjackets intact that entice book collectors everywhere. Today, an early Heyer first edition with a fine cover can sell for as much as $1500 and it has become increasingly difficult to find copies from the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. Today, her first book – published in 1921 when she was just nineteen – is one of the rarest Heyers with a dustjacket unseen since 1984. But it is not only their rarity that makes Heyer’s novels intriguing, it is also what they reveal about their author and about the changing ways in which she was perceived by her publishers and her public throughout her long career and in the fifty years since her death. This talk will shed light on this and more, and will also include images of some of her rarest and most beautiful books. 

Jennifer Kloester is the bestselling author of Georgette Heyer’s Regency World and Georgette Heyer: Biography of a Bestseller and her most recent book, The Novels of Georgette Heyer: A Celebration. She is a Patroness of the International Heyer Society, and a producer of the forthcoming documentary Stephen Fry’s Great Escape. Jennifer is a popular presenter and public speaker and, in 2015, with Stephen Fry, she was delighted to speak at the unveiling of Georgette Heyer’s English Heritage Blue Plaque in Wimbledon. She has given talks, writing workshops and public presentations on Heyer and the Regency in the UK, USA, Italy, Australia, and New Zealand. Jennifer also writes fiction. Her most recent novel, Jane Austen’s Ghost, is a contemporary story with a Regency twist, and is available on Amazon and all platforms.

Your ticket includes tea or Market Lane coffee served before the presentation, and time to browse our exclusive range of books, gifts, and homewares at TJC Emporium.

This event is presented on-site at The Johnston Collection. Please see your ticket for details. NOTE: Tickets for this event do not include access to our exhibition-house, Fairhall. Guided tours of the current exhibition can be booked separately.

This program is generously supported by The Colin Holden Charitable Trust and The Sir Wilfred and C H (Roger) Brookes Charitable Trust

Image: Cover of The Masqueraders, by Georgette Hayer. 1928.