Quick Facts
Biography
Jeffery Farnol (10 February 1878 – 9 August 1952) was a British writer from 1907 until his death, known for writing more than 40 romance novels, some formulaic and set in the Georgian Era or English Regency period, and swashbucklers. He, with Georgette Heyer, founded the Regency romantic genre.
Biography
Personal life
John Jeffery Farnol was born in Aston, Birmingham, England, UK, the son of Kate Jeffery and Henry John Farnol, a factory-employed brass-founder. He had two brothers and a sister. He was brought up in London and Kent. He attended the Westminster School of Art after losing his job in a Birmingham metal-working firm.
In 1900, he married Blanche Wilhelmina Victoria Hawley (1883–1955), the 16-year-old daughter of the noted New York scenic artist H. Hughson Hawley; they moved to the United States, where he found work as a scene painter. They had a daughter, Gillian Hawley. He returned to England around 1910, and settled in Eastbourne, Sussex. In 1938, he divorced and remarried Phyllis Mary Clarke on 20 May, and adopted her daughter, Charmian Jane. His nephew was Ewart Oakeshott, the British illustrator, collector and amateur historian, who wrote on medieval arms and armour.
On 9 August 1952 Jeffery Farnol died aged 73 in Eastbourne, after a long battle with cancer.
Writing career
He published his first romance novel My Lady Caprice in 1907. The success of his early novels led Farnol to become a professional writer. He produced around 40 novels and volumes of stories, and some non-fiction and children's books. His last book was completed by his second wife Phyllis.
Two of his early books, The Amateur Gentleman and The Broad Highway, have been issued in a version edited by romance novelist Barbara Cartland. The Amateur Gentleman was adapted for British film in 1920 and 1936, American film in 1926.