TWO CLEVER WRITERS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 677, 31 May 1929, Page 16

TWO CLEVER WRITERS

THE WORK OF GEORGETTE HEYER AND CAROLA OMAN (WHITEN FOR THE SUN BY JANE MANDER.) ' astonishing number of historical "*■ novels have been written since the war, and some of our younger novelists have developed a remarkable aptitude for them. I have just interviewed for The Sun two girts who are succeeding in this branch of literature. Thev are Georgette Heyer and Carola Oman. The first is now wellknown to overseas readers, as several thousand copies of her latest novel, “The Masqueraders,” were ordered for New Zealand and Australia before publication. The second deserves to be much better known than she is, for she has written several fine books. Georgette Heyer, who is Mrs. Jean llougier in private life, 7s a lovely girl, tall and slim. I saw her just as she was leaving for a year in Serbia with her husband, who is a mining engineer. She belongs to the leisured class and was privately educated. Smilingly, she called herself a sheltered daughter, and said she was glad of it. She has never been to a university and considers herself a Victorian. She hates Bohemians and studio parties, loves home life and country sports. She culls herself a reactionary and loathes the Freudians, and speaks slightingly of certain famous modern realists. She detests the average modern novel, and loves the old ones, particularly Jane Austin and Thackeray. But she admitted to a passion for Kipling. Of course, she admires her contemporaries who write historical novels —Naomi Mitchison, H. C. Bailey, D. K. Broster and Leslie Barringer. And we both recalled our thrills over Maurice Hewlett’s "Richard Yea and Nay.” and Conan Doyle’s “The White Company.” Georgette Heyer says she cares for little in history after the Stuarts, which is her favourite period. She is a Londoner and is fortunate in having a literary father who was for a time on the staff of “Punch” and who translated Francois Villon. She has had a most interesting life and at twenty-eight years of age has the poise and ease of a woman of fifty. But her life has not all been easy city comfort, though she has never known poverty. She married in 1925, and in the following year accompanied her husband to Africa and to the region of Lake Tanganyika, where he had business. There she knew something very different from the soft safety of London. She lived in a camp, the only woman. She made a journey to the Congo border that no woman had ever

| made before. She once did a twelve- ! day trek with men through virgin I jungle, and was once alone with natives in the camp for six days and ! nights.

I Georgette Heyer was an infant i prodigy, and started to write as a I child. Her first novel, “The Black ! Moth,” a romance of the eighteenth I century, was written when she was j seventeen and published by Constable and Co. in England, and by Houghton ; Mifilin in America. Then followed j “The Great Roxythe,” a novel of the ! time of Charles 11., published by Hut- ; chinson. After that she wrote a first ; modern novel, “Instead of the Thorn,” ! which was brought out by Hutchinson. ! She calls these her “early period” | books. They were followed by two | historical novels, “Simon the Cold Heart,” of the time of Henry IV. and V., and “These Old Shades,” a story ! of the eighteenth century, both pubj lished by Heinemann. The latter book had very good sales in Australia. ! A modern novel called “Helen” followed these, and was brought out by Longmans. Then last autumn Heinemann published “The Masqueraders,” her most popular book so far. Before leaving for Serbia, Georgette Heyer i had finished for Longmans a modern j novel called “Pastel,” to be brought ! out this spring, and was working on j still another historical book, of the I time of Phillip 11. of Spain, to be called “Beauvalet.” All these since the war.

Georgette Heyer is unique in that she is run by two publishers—Heinemann for her historical novels and Longmans for her modern ones. Also, she has had an amazing variety of publishers, both here and in America. She is extraordinarily facile, and can write very easily and quickly. She never alters a word, and has written a book in three weeks. She could easily write four books a year, she says, but only two can be handled by publishers. Considering the finish of the style in her latest books this is all the more remarkable. Carola Oman has all the literary background that we overseas writers do so envy the English. Her father is Sir Charles Oman, Chichele Professor of Modern History at Oxford, has been one of the two members of Parliament for Oxford University, and is a Fellow of All Souls. Carola was horn at Oxford and lived there till the war broke out. She went to the Witchwood School started many years ago as a small affair for the daughters of dons and professors. She was sixteen at the outbreak of war, and went into the Red Cross as soon as she could, and afterwards to France as a nurse. Still later, she nursed in English hospitals. When the war ended she was twenty-one. She was deeply affected by it, as is shown in a volume of verse, “The Menin Road,” published in 1919 by Hodder and Stoughton. She did not wish to go to Oxford after the break, but felt she could not live an idle life. So she seriously took up literary work. She tells me she cannot remember the time when she did not write. As a child she wrote fairy tales and children’s plays, but nothing of hers was published till “The Menin Road.” which contains some of her early verse. She has been married for some years to Mr. Lenanton, is very comfortably off, and has been living in a beautiful flat in Cadogan Gardens, with plenty of leisure to write and read. But she has grown tired of London, and is going to live in a lovely old Elizabethan manor house near St. Albans, where she will have Bernard Shaw for a summer neighbour. She, too, lias had a very interesting life, meeting all the distinguished visitors to Oxford over a period of years. And with an historian for a father it is not surprising that she lias turned to history for inspiration for many of her books. She started off with three historical novels. “The Road Royal,” a story of the time of Mary, Queen of Scots; and “Princess Amelia,” of the time of George 111., were both published by Fisher Unwin in 1924. “King Heart,” a Scots story ending with the battle

of Flodden Field, had the misfortune to come out just the week before the General Strike, and was entirely overlooked by reviewers as a result; a hard fate. It was serialised in “The Weekly Scotsman.” and published later in America. Then Garola Oman, like her friend Georgette Heyer, turned to modern novels, and wrote “Mrs. Neivdigate’s Window” and "Holiday.” The plot and first draft of the latter book were done when she was a child of twelve, and coming across the old notes, she decided to use them for a modern story. The result is a delightful book of a light order, beautifully written. But History called her again, and she went to work on a serious book, “Crouchback,” a picture of the life and times of Richard 111. It is to be published quite soon by Hodder and Stoughton. I have read “Crouchback” in manuscript, and consider it one of the finest historical novels I know of. I can confidently recommend it to New Zealand readers who like fine writing as well as history. It ought to make Carola Oman’s name in England. The book must be read for its distinguished style to be realised. One cannot describe this sort of thing. It is very long and presents a panorama of characters. The writer takes the view of some modern authors that Richard 111. has been much maligned by historians. Miss Oman spends some time leading

up to the entrance of Richard and has been as interested in giving the atmosphere of the times as she has been in the presentation of her central character. This book is real work. Carola Oman spent over , a year reading contemporary chronicles, and every authority, ancient and modern, on which she could lay hands, before she began it. During an Easter holiday in 1928 she visited many of the scenes mentioned, including the battlefields’ of St. Albans, Barnet, Towton and Wakefield, and the castles of Middleham. Penrith, Sherrif-Hutton, Richmond and Barnard. She walked over the fields of Towton and Tewkesbury on the anniversaries of the conflicts that took place there, trying to imagine the scenes. The Cotswold country—Burwood, Abingdon and other places described—are well known to her. Her next book promises to raise a great deal of comment —a novel about the love story of the Brownings. Carola Oman is just finishing this new work, which will include, with the human story, a picture of early Victorian times. It begins in 1832 and ends in 1546. The author tells me she has greatly enjoyed writing this book, for which, again, she has done an enormous amount of reading. For instance, she has read all the Browning love-letters through three times—surely a record. She is not sure yet of her title, but thinks she will call the book “Miss Barrett’s Elopement.” If it is as finely written as “Crouchback” it should be a literary sensation. JANE MANDER. London.

BUSY MR. BOLITHO —Hector Bolitho, Auckland-born writer, is interested in other forms of literature in addition to the novel. Reginald Berkeley, reviewing “The Later Letters of Lady Augusta Stanley,” edited by the Dean of Windsor and Hector Bolitho, has a word of praise for the young Aucklander. BolitHo’s collection of stories and poems by South African, Australian, Canadian and New Zealand writers, entitled “The New Countries,” has been very favourably reviewed in England. He is engaged at the moment writing a book on the Prince Consort, Albert.