Skip to main content

Weekly Geeks #24

The rules are:
1. Choose a writer you like.
2. Using resources such as Wikipedia, the author’s website, whatever you can find, make a list of interesting facts about the author.
3. Post your fun facts list in your blog, maybe with a photo of the writer, a collage of his or her books, whatever you want.
4. Come sign the Mr Linky below with the url to your fun facts post.
5. As you run into (or deliberately seek out) other Weekly Geeks’ lists, add links to your post for authors you like or authors you think your readers are interested in.

I recently finished reading Victoria Holt’s Mistress of Mellyn, so I thought I might talk about her for this week’s Weekly Geeks. The following information comes from Wikipedia.

Holt was born Eleanor Alice Burford in London in 1906, and married George Percival Hibbert, a leather merchant, when she was in her twenties. Hibbert wrote most of her 200-plus novels under about seven or eight pen names, the most common of which was Jean Plaidy, for her historical novels. Victoria Holt was the name that Hibbert used for her novels of Gothic suspense. She died at sea, somewhere between Greece and Port Said, Egypt, in 1993.

Hibbert was greatly influenced by the great nineteenth century novelists—the Bronte sisters in particular (you can definitely see this if you read Mistress of Mellyn). She also admired the works of Charles Dickens, Victor Hugo, and Leo Tolstoy. Hibbert’s first novel was published in 1941 under her maiden name, and in 1945 she began using the name Jean Plaidy. As Victoria Holt, she published her first book under that name, Mistress of Mellyn, in 1960. Other names she used were Elbur Ford, Kathleen Kellow, Ellalice Tate, Anna Percival, and Philippa Carr. The reason why she used so many names was because she wrote books in so many genres, and wanted to keep them separate. Hibbert has often been called the “Queen of Romantic Suspense,” and more and more of her books are coming back into print.

Comments

Andi said…
This looks like a fun WG project! Thanks for sharing. I knew nothing about Victoria Holt.
Kim said…
Great author to pick! I read all of *Victoria Holt's* books when I was a teenager and into my 20's. She has always been one of my favorites.
*smiles*
Kim
Very interesting! I've never read anything by Victoria Holt, but you have me intrigued.
Maree said…
I knew she was prolific but I had no idea she was that prolific!
I have some Jean Plaidy novels here, it makes me want to go dig them out _ thanks! :)
Shelley said…
I will have to try something by the "Queen of Romantic Suspense!"
Kerrie said…
She's one of those amazing writers isn't she?
Marg said…
I read a lot of Jean Plaidy books when I was a teenager - loved them. They are probably why I am such a Historical Fiction fan now!
Louise said…
Thanks for an interesting post about Victoria Holt. I also read everything I could get my hands on written by Victoria Holt when I was a teen. I haven't picked up any of her books (under either pen name) for many years. I am not overly good with romances, although the romantic suspense novels can be a good thing to read in between other genres.

Louise / http://louspages.blogspot.com
Anonymous said…
That woman could really write, couldn't she? I haven't read any Victoria Holt yet, but I have picked up quite a few at library sales, etc... I don't typically read romance that often, but eventually I'm planning on reading many of hers. I'm sure that they're great.

Popular posts from this blog

Another giveaway

This time, the publicist at WW Norton sent me two copies of The Glass of Time , by Michael Cox--so I'm giving away the second copy. Cox is the author of The Meaning of Night, and this book is the follow-up to that. Leave a comment here to enter to win it! The deadline is next Sunday, 10/5/08.

A giveaway winner, and another giveaway

The winner of the Girl in a Blue Dress contest is... Anna, of Diary of An Eccentric ! My new contest is for a copy of The Shape of Mercy , by Susan Meissner. According to Publisher's Weekly : Meissner's newest novel is potentially life-changing, the kind of inspirational fiction that prompts readers to call up old friends, lost loves or fallen-away family members to tell them that all is forgiven and that life is too short for holding grudges. Achingly romantic, the novel features the legacy of Mercy Hayworth—a young woman convicted during the Salem witch trials—whose words reach out from the past to forever transform the lives of two present-day women. These book lovers—Abigail Boyles, elderly, bitter and frail, and Lauren Lars Durough, wealthy, earnest and young—become unlikely friends, drawn together over the untimely death of Mercy, whose precious diary is all that remains of her too short life. And what a diary! Mercy's words not only beguile but help Abigail and Lars

Six Degrees of Barbara Pym's Novels

This year seems to be The Year of Barbara Pym; I know some of you out there are involved in some kind of a readalong in honor of the 100th year of her birth. I’ve read most of her canon, with only The Sweet Dove Died, Civil to Strangers, An Academic Question, and Crampton Hodnet left to go (sadly). Barbara Pym’s novels feature very similar casts of characters: spinsters, clergymen, retirees, clerks, and anthropologists, with which she had direct experience. So it stands to reason that there would be overlaps in characters between the novels. You can trace that though the publication history of her books and therefore see how Pym onionizes her stories and characters. She adds layers onto layers, adding more details as her books progress. Some Tame Gazelle (1950): Archdeacon Hoccleve makes his first appearance. Excellent Women (1952): Archdeacon Hoccleve gives a sermon that is almost incomprehensible to Mildred Lathbury; Everard Bone understands it, however, and laughs