Mary Balogh (born Mary Jenkins on 24 March 1944) is a Welsh-Canadian novelist writing historical romance, born and raised in Swansea. In 1967, she moved to Canada to start a teaching career, married a local coroner and settled in Kipling, Saskatchewan, where she eventually became a school principal. Her debut novel appeared in 1985. Her historical fiction is set in the Regency era (1811–1820) or the wider Georgian era (1714–1830).

Biography

Personal life

Mary Jenkins was born and raised in Swansea, Wales, daughter of Mildred Double, a homemaker, and Arthur Jenkins, a signwriter and painter. She moved to Canada on a two-year teaching contract in 1967 after leaving university. There, she met and married her Canadian husband Robert Balogh, a coroner and ambulance driver, and settled in the small prairie town of Kipling, Saskatchewan. She taught high-school English for a number of years, and rose to the level of school principal. She has three children and five grandchildren.

Writing career

As an adult, Balogh discovered the world of the Regency romance as written by Georgette Heyer. The vast majority of Balogh's novels have been set in Regency or Georgian England or Wales. Although she writes historical romances, Mary Balogh's heroines are often not "ladies". Some are courtesans, illegitimate, "fallen" or "ruined" women. All enjoy passion, and often a marriage and/or a sensual connection precedes recognition of love. Balogh began her writing career in 1983, when she wrote her first novel A Masked Deception in the evenings at the kitchen table while home and family functioned around her. A Masked Deception was accepted by Signet and published in 1985. Mary Balogh won the Romantic Times Award for best new Regency writer in that year. She is the author of more than 60 published novels and over 30 novellas, and has met with critical success.

Reception

Balogh has received numerous awards, including a Romantic Times Career Achievement Award for Regency Short Stories in 1993 and has appeared on The New York Times Best Seller list.

Single novels

Mainwaring Series

Waite Series

Frazer Series

Web series

Brides & Wives Series

Sullivan Series

Georgian Series

Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse Trilogy

Bedwyn Family Connected

Bedwyn Prequels

Bedwyn Saga

Simply Quartet

Mistress Trilogy

Huxtable Family Quintet

Survivors' Club Septet

Westcott Family Series

Novellas

In order of publication. }} * Reprinted in the 2003 anthology Under The Mistletoe with one new Mary Balogh novella A Family Christmas ** Reprinted in the 2015 anthology "Christmas Gifts" – e-book only *** Reprinted in the 2015 anthology "Christmas Miracles" – e-book only

References and sources