Mary Balogh is a Welsh-Canadian historical romance novelist.

Personal life

Mary Jenkins was born and raised in Swansea

Swansea

Swansea is a coastal city and county in Wales. Swansea is in the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan. Situated on the sandy South West Wales coast, the county area includes the Gower Peninsula and the Lliw uplands...

, Wales. 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 and settled in the small prairie town of Kipling, Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....

, Canada. She taught high school English for a number of years, and rose to the level of school principal. She has three children, Jacqueline, Christopher and Sian, and five grandchildren, Matthew, Shianne, Jayden, Cash, and Christo.

Writing career

As an adult, Balogh discovered the world of the historical romance as written by Georgette Heyer. The vast majority of Balogh's novels have been set in Regency

English Regency

The Regency era in the United Kingdom is the period between 1811—when King George III was deemed unfit to rule and his son, the Prince of Wales, ruled as his proxy as Prince Regent—and 1820, when the Prince Regent became George IV on the death of his father....

 or Georgian

George III of the United Kingdom

George III was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of these two countries on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death...

 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...

 or Wales

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

. 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 that year.

She is the author of more than 60 published novels and over 30 novella

Novella

A novella is a written, fictional, prose narrative usually longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000...

s and has met with critical success. She 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 bestseller list.

Novels

In order of publication.

• A Masked Deception (1985)
  • also published as Desire After Dark as a Prince Matchabelli
    Prince Matchabelli
    Prince Matchabelli is a perfume line. It was first designed by Prince Georges V. Matchabelli who was an amateur chemist. Georges Matchabelli was a Georgian prince and Georgian ambassador to Italy, but fled the Soviet Union and immigrated to the United States after the Russian Revolution...
    
     perfume promotion
• The Double Wager (1985)
• A Chance Encounter (1985) a
• Red Rose (1986)
• The Trysting Place (1986) b
• The First Snowdrop (1986) c
• The Wood Nymph (1987) a
• The Constant Heart (1987)
• Gentle Conquest (1987)
• Secrets of the Heart (1988)
• An Unacceptable Offer (1988)
• The Ungrateful Governess (1988)
• Daring Masquerade (1989)
• A Gift of Daisies (1989)
• The Obedient Bride (1989)
• Lady with a Black Umbrella (1989)
• The Gilded Web (1989) d
• A Promise of Spring (1990) d
• Web of Love (1990) d
• The Incurable Matchmaker (1990)
• Devil's Web (1990) d
• An Unlikely Duchess (1990)
• A Certain Magic (1991)
• Snow Angel (1991)
• The Secret Pearl (1991)
• The Ideal Wife (1991) e
• Christmas Beau (1991)
• A Counterfeit Betrothal (1992) b
• The Notorious Rake (1992) b
• Beyond the Sunrise (1992)
• A Christmas Promise (1992)
• Deceived (1993)
• A Precious Jewel (1993) e
• Courting Julia (1993) f
• Dancing with Clara (1994) f
• Tangled (1994)
• Tempting Harriet (1994) f
• Dark Angel (1994) g
• Christmas Belle (1994) c
• Longing (1994)
• Lord Carew's Bride (1995) g
• Heartless (1995) h
• The Famous Heroine (1996) g
• Truly (1996)
• The Plumed Bonnet (1996) g
• Indiscreet (1997) i
• The Temporary Wife (1997)
• Silent Melody (1997) h
• A Christmas Bride (1997) e g
• Unforgiven (1998) i
• Thief of Dreams (1998)
• Irresistible (1998) i
• The Last Waltz (1998)
• One Night for Love (1999) k
• More than a Mistress (2000) j
  • Balogh's first novel to be published first in hardcover
• No Man's Mistress (2001) j
• A Summer to Remember (2002) k l o
• A Matter of Class (2009 in paperback, 2010 in hardcover)

Slightly series (Bedwyn Family)

• Slightly Married (2003) l
• Slightly Wicked (2003) l
• Slightly Scandalous (2003) l m n
• Slightly Tempted (2004) l
• Slightly Sinful (2004) l
• Slightly Dangerous (2004) l

Simply series

• Simply Unforgettable (2006) l m n o
• Simply Love (2006) l m n o
• Simply Magic (2007 ) l m n o
• Simply Perfect (2008) l m n o

Novels marked a-o are interlinked.

Huxtable Family

• First Comes Marriage
• Then Comes Seduction
• At Last Comes Love
• Seducing An Angel
• A Secret Affair

Soon to be published or written

• Several of Mary Balogh's novels are to be republished for the first time. The first are The Secret Pearl and the "Web trilogy".

Novellas

In order of publication.

• "The Star of Bethlehem" in A Regency Christmas (1989) *
• "Playing House" in A Regency Christmas II (1990) *
• "Golden Rose" in A Regency Valentine (1991)
• "The Best Christmas Ever" in A Regency Christmas III (1991)
• "A Waltz Among the Stars" in A Regency Valentine II (1992)
• "The Treasure Hunt" in A Regency Summer (1992)
• "The Dark Rider" in Full-Moon Magic (1992)
• "The Porcelain Madonna" in A Regency Christmas IV (1992)
• "The Substitute Guest" in Tokens of Love (1993)
• "The Wrong Door" in Rakes and Rogues (1993)
• "The North Tower" in Moonlight Lovers (1993)
• "No Room at the Inn" in A Regency Christmas V (1993) *
• "The Anniversary" in From the Heart (1994)
• "The Best Gift" in A Regency Christmas VI (1994) *
• "The Forbidden Daffodils" in Blossoms (1995)
• "Precious Rogue" in Dashing and Dangerous (1995)
• "The Surprise Party" in A Regency Christmas VII (1995)
• "Guarded by Angels" in Angel Christmas (1995)
• "The Betrothal Ball" in Love's Legacy (1996)
• "The Heirloom" in Timeswept Brides (1996)
• "The Wassail Bowl" in A Regency Christmas Feast (1996)
• "The Bond Street Carolers" in A Regency Christmas Carol (1997)
• "A Handful of Gold" in The Gifts of Christmas (1998)
• "Precious Rogue" in Captured Hearts (1999)
• "A Family Christmas" with reprints of the above novellas marked * in Under the Mistletoe (2003)

* were reprinted in the 2003 anthology Under The Mistletoe with one new Mary Balogh novella A Family Christmas.

External links

• Official Mary Balogh site
• Mary Balogh in Fantastic Fiction