Jo Beverley
Encyclopedia
Jo Beverley, née Mary Josephine Dunn (born September 22, 1947 in Lancashire
, England
) is a prolific British
-Canadian writer of popular historical romance
novel
s.
Her works are regarded as well researched, filled with historical details and peopled by communities of interlinked characters, stretching the boundaries of the historical romantic fiction genre. They have been translated into several languages and she has been given several awards.
, England
. At the age of eleven she went to an all-girls boarding school, Layton Hill Convent, Blackpool. At sixteen, she wrote her first romance, with a medieval setting, completed in installments in an exercise book. She read history and American studies at Keele University
in Staffordshire
from 1966 to 1970. The broad-based learning of Keele’s foundation year and the availability of archived Regency-period newspapers were useful resources to enable her to develop her fiction writing.
On June 24, 1971, she married Ken Beverley, whom she met at Keele. After graduation, she quickly attained a position as a youth employment officer. She stayed in this profession until 1976, working first in Newcastle-under-Lyme
, Staffordshire, and then in West Bridgford
, Nottinghamshire
.
In 1976, Beverley moved to Canada where her scientist husband was invited to do post-doctoral research at Dalhousie University
in Halifax, Nova Scotia
. When her professional qualifications proved not to be usable in the Canadian labour market, Beverley decided to develop her early interest in creative writing. Many of her "Rogue" characters were created in an initial manuscript entitled A Regency Rape. At this point, Beverley did not have a fixed idea of the narrower literary boundaries drawn by the traditional Regency romantic novel
and thus created a literary hybrid. A precursor of the Regency historical novel, the work had a more varied cast of characters which, while respectful of the world of Georgette Heyer
, broadened the scope and intensity of the genre. At this time she was still unpublished but devoted her time to caring for her two young sons and participating in the woman-centered childbirth movement which made her especially careful to portray births in her novels realistically but positively.
The turning point in Beverley’s writing career came when her move to Montreal
led to her attendance at a talk on The state of romance in fiction by Janet Adams at Beaconsfield Library on 23 May 1984. The executive advisor of the Writers' Association for Romance and Mainstream demystified the creative process for the budding author and was sufficiently impressed by Jo’s writing to act as her agent. That same year, the family moved to Ottawa
where Beverley became a founding member of the Ottawa Romance Writers’ Association. Formed in 1985, ORWA became her “nurturing community” for the next twelve years.
In 1988, Beverley, who was actively writing science fiction
as well as romance, was a finalist in the L. Ron Hubbard
Writers of the Future Contest. That same year, she sold her first romance novel and with her ensuing success in the genre, speculative writing was allowed to slide, though elements of it appear periodically in some of her romances and novellas.
In the Rogues' world:
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
) is a prolific British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
-Canadian writer of popular historical romance
Romance novel
The romance novel is a literary genre developed in Western culture, mainly in English-speaking countries. Novels in this genre place their primary focus on the relationship and romantic love between two people, and must have an "emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending." Through the late...
novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
s.
Her works are regarded as well researched, filled with historical details and peopled by communities of interlinked characters, stretching the boundaries of the historical romantic fiction genre. They have been translated into several languages and she has been given several awards.
Biography
Mary Josephine Dunn was born September 22, 1947 in LancashireLancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. At the age of eleven she went to an all-girls boarding school, Layton Hill Convent, Blackpool. At sixteen, she wrote her first romance, with a medieval setting, completed in installments in an exercise book. She read history and American studies at Keele University
Keele University
Keele University is a campus university near Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, England. Founded in 1949 as an experimental college dedicated to a broad curriculum and interdisciplinary study, Keele is most notable for pioneering the dual honours degree in Britain...
in Staffordshire
Staffordshire
Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...
from 1966 to 1970. The broad-based learning of Keele’s foundation year and the availability of archived Regency-period newspapers were useful resources to enable her to develop her fiction writing.
On June 24, 1971, she married Ken Beverley, whom she met at Keele. After graduation, she quickly attained a position as a youth employment officer. She stayed in this profession until 1976, working first in Newcastle-under-Lyme
Newcastle-under-Lyme
Newcastle-under-Lyme is a market town in Staffordshire, England, and is the principal town of the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme. It is part of The Potteries Urban Area and North Staffordshire. In the 2001 census the town had a population of 73,944...
, Staffordshire, and then in West Bridgford
West Bridgford
West Bridgford is a town in the Rushcliffe borough of Nottinghamshire, England. It lies immediately south of the city of Nottingham, delimited by the River Trent; this proximity means that it forms a continuous urban area with Nottingham, effectively makes West Bridgford a suburb of the city, and...
, Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire is a county in the East Midlands of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west...
.
In 1976, Beverley moved to Canada where her scientist husband was invited to do post-doctoral research at Dalhousie University
Dalhousie University
Dalhousie University is a public research university located in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The university comprises eleven faculties including Schulich School of Law and Dalhousie University Faculty of Medicine. It also includes the faculties of architecture, planning and engineering located at...
in Halifax, Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...
. When her professional qualifications proved not to be usable in the Canadian labour market, Beverley decided to develop her early interest in creative writing. Many of her "Rogue" characters were created in an initial manuscript entitled A Regency Rape. At this point, Beverley did not have a fixed idea of the narrower literary boundaries drawn by the traditional Regency romantic novel
Regency romance
Regency romances are a subgenre of romance novels set during the period of the British Regency or early 19th century. Rather than simply being versions of contemporary romance stories transported to a historical setting, Regency romances are a distinct genre with their own plot and stylistic...
and thus created a literary hybrid. A precursor of the Regency historical novel, the work had a more varied cast of characters which, while respectful of the world of Georgette Heyer
Georgette Heyer
Georgette Heyer was a British historical romance and detective fiction novelist. Her writing career began in 1921, when she turned a story for her younger brother into the novel The Black Moth. In 1925 Heyer married George Ronald Rougier, a mining engineer...
, broadened the scope and intensity of the genre. At this time she was still unpublished but devoted her time to caring for her two young sons and participating in the woman-centered childbirth movement which made her especially careful to portray births in her novels realistically but positively.
The turning point in Beverley’s writing career came when her move to Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
led to her attendance at a talk on The state of romance in fiction by Janet Adams at Beaconsfield Library on 23 May 1984. The executive advisor of the Writers' Association for Romance and Mainstream demystified the creative process for the budding author and was sufficiently impressed by Jo’s writing to act as her agent. That same year, the family moved to Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
where Beverley became a founding member of the Ottawa Romance Writers’ Association. Formed in 1985, ORWA became her “nurturing community” for the next twelve years.
In 1988, Beverley, who was actively writing science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
as well as romance, was a finalist in the L. Ron Hubbard
L. Ron Hubbard
Lafayette Ronald Hubbard , better known as L. Ron Hubbard , was an American pulp fiction author and religious leader who founded the Church of Scientology...
Writers of the Future Contest. That same year, she sold her first romance novel and with her ensuing success in the genre, speculative writing was allowed to slide, though elements of it appear periodically in some of her romances and novellas.
Traditional Regencies
- Lord Wraybourne's Betrothed (ISBN 0-8217-3082-7)
- The Stanfourth Secrets (ISBN 0-380-71438-8)
- The Stolen Bride (ISBN 0-380-71439-6)
- Emily and the Dark Angel (ISBN 0-380-71555-4)
- If Fancy Be the Food of Love (ISBN 0-449-22081-8) (see Novellas below)
- The Fortune Hunter (ISBN 0-380-71771-9)
- Deirdre and Don Juan (ISBN 0-380-77281-7)
Company of Rogues Series
- An Arranged Marriage (ISBN 0-8217-6401-2) Nicholas and Eleanor
- An Unwilling Bride (ISBN 0-8217-6724-0) Lucien and Beth
- Christmas Angel (ISBN 0-8217-3976-X) Leander and Judith
- Forbidden (ISBN 0-8217-7599-5) Francis and Serena
- Dangerous Joy (ISBN 0-8217-5129-8) Miles and Felicity
- Dragon's Bride (ISBN 0-451-20358-5) Con and Susan (A Three Georges Story)
- Skylark (ISBN 0-451-21183-9) Stephen and Laura
- The Rogue's Return (ISBN 0-451-21788-8) Simon and Jancy
- To Rescue a Rogue (ISBN 0-451-22011-0) Dare and Mara
- Lady Beware (ISBN 0-451-22149-4) Darien and Thea
In the Rogues' world:
- Hazard (ISBN 0-451-20580) Race and Anne
- St. Raven (ISBN 0-451-20807-2) Tris and Cressida
- The Devil's Heiress (ISBN 0-451-20254-6) Hawk and Clarissa (A Three Georges Story)
- The Demon's Mistress (ISBN 0-451-20380-1) Van and Maria (A Three Georges Story)
Medieval Romances
- Lord of My Heart (ISBN 0-451-20642-8)
- Dark Champion (ISBN 0-451-20766-1)
- The Shattered Rose (ISBN 0-8217-5310-X)
- Lord of Midnight
- Day of Wrath (see Novellas below)
- The Wise Virgin (ISBN 0-373-83417-9) (see Novellas below)
The Malloren Series
- My Lady Notorious (ISBN 0-451-20644-4) Chastity and Cyn
- Tempting Fortune (ISBN 0-8217-7347-X) Portia and Bryght
- Something Wicked (ISBN 0-451-21378-5) Elf and Fort
- Secrets of the Night (ISBN 0-451-21158-8) Rosamunde and Brand
- Devilish (ISBN 0-451-19997-9) Diana and Rothgar
- Winter Fire (ISBN 0-451-22346-2) Genova and Ashart
- A Most Unsuitable Man (ISBN 0-451 21423-4)
- A Lady's Secret (ISBN 0-451-22419-1) Petra and Robin
- The Secret Wedding (ISBN 0-451-22651-8)
- The Secret Duke (ISBN 0-451-22953-3) Bella and Thorn
The Georges Series
(related to the Company of Rogues)- Demon's Mistress (ISBN 0-451-20380-1)
- Dragon's Bride (ISBN 0-451-203585)
- Devil's Heiress (ISBN 0-451-20254-6)
Novellas and Short Stories
- "The Fruit Picker" in Writers of the Future Vol. IV 1988 (ISBN 0-88404-314-2)
- "If Fancy Be the Food of Love" in A Regency Valentine 1991 (ISBN 0-449-22081-8)
- "Twelfth Night" in Five Golden Rings 1991 (ISBN 0-8217-7062-4)
- "Lord Samhain's Night" in All Hallow's Eve 1992 (ISBN 0-8027-1252-5)
- "The Demon's Bride" in Moonlight Lovers 1993 (ISBN 0-451-177223)
- "A Mummer's Play" in A Regency Christmas 1995 (ISBN 0-451-18014-35)
- "Forbidden Affections" in A Spring Bouquet 1996
- "The Determined Bride" in Married at Midnight (Georgian) 1996
- "A Gift of Light" in The Christmas Cat 1996
- "The Lord of Elphindale" in Faery Magic 1998, Reissue 2006
- "The Wise Virgin" in The Brides of Christmas 1999 (ISBN 0-373-83417-9)
- "Day of Wrath" in Star of Wonder 1999 (ISBN 0-515-12653-5)
- "The Demon's Mistress" in In Praise of Younger Men 2001 (ISBN 0-451-20380-1)
- "The Trouble With Heroes" in Irresistible Forces Trade 2004, MM 2006
- "The Dragon and the Virgin Princess" in Dragon Lovers" 2007
- "The Raven and the Rose..." in Chalice of Roses 2010