Unlike today, in 1964 the surgical removal of a kidney stone meant a major operation and almost a month in hospital. However, this plan, too, was disrupted for Georgette’s “internal trouble” proved to be a large kidney stone and she was immediately scheduled for surgery. The alternative plan was to allow Heyer to finish the book by autumn in time for Christmas release. Georgette’s beloved husband, Ronald Rougier, on the golf course. Ronald Rougier to Max Reinhardt, 5 July 1964 Anyway, it will be a great relief to get a certain diagnosis after which I hope she will be quite all right. It means, though, that she cannot possibly finish the book this month & so your alternative plan will have to be adopted. I think this has been pending for some time & is probably responsible for the slow progress she has been making on the book. When it has they intend to give her a full examination to see what the trouble really is. Last Monday she was struck down by some sort of internal disorder & after some trying days (and nights!) we managed to get her into the private wing of Guy’s Hospital… The present attack is subsiding but is not quite over yet. Your letter of the 30 th June arrived rather opportunely & Georgette has asked me to let you know the situation. After her regular correspondence with Max over the previous few months, her publisher must have been surprised to receive a letter from Georgette’s husband Ronald: Things finally came to a head in late June 1964.
As Heyer herself said, she wrote her novels “with blood, sweat and tears” – she just did it at superhuman speed! In 1964, Frederica would prove to be an exception to this long tradition.
Looking back across her writing life and calculating from her many letters just how long it took her to write most of her novels it is easy to gain the impression that, almost without exception, her books seemed to write themselves. While, for many authors this might be considered a considerable achievement after just three months of writing, for Georgette Heyer it was very slow going. However, the book would not be written at her usual speed and by May she had only “perpetrated some 48,000 words”. Life was good for Georgette and her family and she had begun Frederica in her usual style with an idea of the plot and a cast of memorable characters. It was to be her second book for the Bodley Head, and, as Georgette explained to her new publisher, Max Reinhardt, it was ‘an auspicious date, too: my most successful achievement has this day attained his thirty-second birthday!’ Her son Richard was now a successful lawyer and an up-and-coming bridge player who had already caught the eye of several of England’s most notable players.
On 12 February 1964, Georgette Heyer signed the contract for her new novel, Frederica. The 1968 Pan edition of Frederica – in its 8th printing – 1982.
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