Jo Beverley -- full bio
"Arguably today's most skillful writer of intelligent historical romance..." Publisher's Weekly

Go to Jo Beverley's Media Page.

Jo Beverley was the author of forty-one published historical romances and many shorter works. The complete list is here. She received numerous awards including the Golden Leaf, the Award of Excellence, the National Readers Choice, and a two Career Achievement awards from Romantic Times. She was also a five time winner of the RITA, the top award of the Romance Writers Of America, and a member of their Hall of Fame and Honor Roll along with authors such as Nora Roberts and Susan Elizabeth Philips.

She regularly appears on bestseller lists including the USA Today overall bestseller list, the New York Times, and the Publishers Weekly list. LORD OF MIDNIGHT received a starred review in Publishers Weekly, and her Georgian novel, MY LADY NOTORIOUS, has appeared on a number of lists of the best romances ever. She has been described as "one of the great names of the genre" (Romantic Times) and her writing as "romance at its best" (Publishers Weekly), and "Sublime!" (Booklist.)

Beverley was one of the authors featured with profile and article in the reference book, NORTH AMERICAN ROMANCE WRITERS, Ed. Kay Mussell and Johanna Tunon, Scarecrow Press. "...designed to highlight significant recent changes in the romance genre and to profile writers who have made North America the dominant geographic center for romance publishing." She was also featured in an article at Wikipedia.

Born and raised in England, Beverley moved to Canada in the mid-seventies with her scientist husband. She moved back to England, where she passed away on May 23, 2016.

She began writing stories almost as soon as she could string sentences together, and still has a medieval historical romance written in a school exercise book when she was a teenager. It was only in the mid eighties, however, that things came together for her to apply herself seriously to writing, and she completed a regency romance in 1985. It was promptly rejected by a number of publishers, and she settled more earnestly to learning the craft. In 1988, it sold to Walker, and was published as LORD WRAYBOURNE'S BETROTHED. It has recently been republished as a Classic Regency by Penguin NAL, New York.

This was followed by three other traditional regencies, then two longer regencies -- the beginning of her famous Company Of Rogues series, one of the original "group of heroes" series, which she began in 1977 and completed in 2006. She continued to write novels in that world.

She then returned to her first love, medieval romance. However, an interested publisher would only buy her first medieval if she wrote a Regency historical for them as well, Regency historicals being all the rage. As she wrote the book, Beverley decided she really wanted to write a Georgian, along the lines of Les Liaisons Dangereuses, and thus began her highly successful Malloren series, presided over by the head of the family, the enigmatic Marquess of Rothgar. Beverley received so many letters from readers demanding Rothgar's story, that she had buttons saying "Waiting For Rothgar."

She was able to finish her Latest book, Merely a Marriage, which is set in the Rogue's world, finishing any obviously open demands from characters for their own stories.

Jo Beverley was a lead author with Penguin/NAL of New York and one of the genre's bestselling authors.

Simple questions sent to jo@jobev.com may sometimes be answered.
Mail can be sent through Margaret Ruley, The Rotrosen Agency. 318 East 51st Street, New York, NY 10022.

She had two solo blogs, one was lost to the vagueries of the internet, the other will remain as an archive for the foreseeable future:
Minepast, where she shared interesting tid-bits of history she discovered as she researched her novels.

She was also part of the Word Wenches blog, a group of historical authors who blog about history, writing, and anything vaguely related.
And the UK Historical Romance blog.

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