Georgette Heyer is remembered chiefly as a writer of detective stories and popular historical novels, notably for her Regency romances. These, with titles such as The convenient marriage, Regency buck, and The Spanish bride, pretty, pouting heroines and dashing rakes of heroes, are perhaps not regarded very seriously as examples of their genre; so it may come as a surprise to learn from Jane Aiken Hodge's biography that Heyer's historical research and recording were scrupulous. When Heyer planned a historical biography of John, Duke of Bedford, 'She began to collect information ... for the years of John's life, 1389 to 1435. Three card indexes cover this period, itemized by year, month and day', as well as 'a card index of biographies, running from the dukes of Alencon to Richard, Duke of York', and files 'thick with information of every kind'. Clearly, the instincts of an indexer lay within the writer of romances. We may recognize too her glee in discovering errors when proof-reading: 'I had given the same name to Mrs Underhill's housekeeper and Sir Waldo's valet ... I went through the proofs of Carola Oman's new book and don't seem to have missed a thing'. Indeed, for her friend Carola Oman, a more serious historical writer, Georgette Heyer compiled a back-of-the-book index: to Oman's Britain against Napoleon.