Heart’s Desire by Victoria Gregory

Margaret by Frank Weston Benson thanks to the National Gallery of Art 

Title: Heart’s Desire 

Author: Victoria Gregory (nom de plume of Professor Elliott Laurence)

Publisher: not known 

Source: TV series Hart to Hart S4 E6 Hart’s Desire

Jennifer Hart’s old college professor,  Elliott Laurence, wants her to do him a huge favour. Although he is well known, and well respected as a literary critic, that doesn’t pay particularly well. So he has taken to writing romantic novels with a good deal of success, and his nom de plume is Victoria Gregory. Even Max, the Harts’ indefatigable butler/cook/chauffeur/you name it, is a big fan. We see him reading Heart’s Desire. Out loud to the dog Freeway. 

Unfortunately, well from Elliott’s point of view anyway, Victoria Gregory has won an award for Romance Writer of the Year, and Elliott’s publisher wants the award to be picked up by an actual human. So Elliott asks Jennifer to accept the award as Victoria Gregory. He tells Jennifer that people won’t buy romance novels written by men. I think he’s probably right.

OK, so far so fairly unlikely. But much worse, Victoria Gregory has a bonkers fan who believes himself to be a character in Heart’s Desire. I think. And he thinks Jennifer (in a blond wig) is his beloved Alicia, heroine of Heart’s Desire. So obviously he kidnaps her, thus forcing her husband Jonathan to play the hero once more.

This book looks to me like Gone With the Wind meets Mills & Boon. Probably not a book I would read myself, but maybe when I was a teenager. I can’t imagine why Max (or Freeway) is a fan. However, there’s no denying that books like this can be very popular. 

In S1 E14 Night Horrors, which is a weird episode that looks made for Hallowe’en, but wasn’t, the Harts meet Michael Shillingford. Apparently he has written over 70 books. Are we given a single title of any of these books? What do you think? What a shame.

The Pink Dress by Berthe Morisot thanks to the Metropolitan Museum of Art