Kerfuffle: Barbara Cartland & Georgette Heyer

In a new biography on Georgette Heyer, author Jennifer Kloester reveals previously unpublished letters sent by Heyer in 1950. They furiously accuse Barbara Cartland of plagiarism. Heyer believed Cartland copied names, characters, and plot details, sometimes almost verbatim. "I think I could have borne it better had Miss Cartland not been so common-minded, so salacious and so illiterate," Heyer wrote. "For her main theme Miss Cartland has gone solely to These Old Shades, but for various minor situations and other characters, she has drawn upon four of my other novels." The eggregious book Knave of Hearts was reissued with the title The Innocent Heiress with a tagline reading "In the tradition of Georgette Heyer."