I’d been meaning to visit the former home of the Brontë sisters in Haworth ever since I got the germ of an idea for an alternative version of Jane Eyre. Last Monday, two years after that initial impetus, I finally made it. I’d been as a child, on a family visit inspired by my mother’s…
Marked on 22 April each year, Earth Day is a reminder to celebrate the natural environment and to pat ourselves on the back for our efforts to protect it. Alongside the usual recycling, composting and picking up other people’s litter, I spent it admiring the early blooms in our garden wildflower meadows and the newts…
I came across the name Anne Lister as I was researching my novel-in-progress, a subversive retelling of Jane Eyre. Born in 1791, Anne Lister was a pioneering Yorkshire landowner, businesswoman, traveller and mountaineer. She was also a secret diarist commonly considered the first modern lesbian, unkindly nicknamed Gentleman Jack. Although her sexuality, and her independent…
Now on my fifth draft of an alternative version ofJane Eyre, I’m experimenting with a different opening. It’s tough – there’s so much to balance in those early scenes. I need to orientate my reader without overwhelming them with information. I need to intrigue, without confusing. The first page has to do a lot of…
Women in nineteenth-century novels spend a lot of time sewing. They might comment on their embroidery or the shirt they are making or, like the orphaned narrator of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, lament the bluntness of the needles, but I’ve never come across a character marvelling at the feat of engineering that pulls the thread…
I was leading a walk around Jane Eyre territory the other weekend when we heard the peal of church bells from down the valley. Wedding bells – which was perfect timing, as we were approaching the ruined chapel where the eponymous heroine doesn’t get to marry Mr Rochester. It’s a great point of high drama in Charlotte…
Earlier this month, a critique partner sent me her feedback on the initial draft of my novel-in-progress. Honestly, I’d forgotten what a wonderful gift it is the first time an attentive reader ploughs through to the end. Especially so if, as in this case, she gets what you’re trying to do, likes it and is…
I’ve begun a new project, and it’s quite a departure for me. Not only for the historical setting but also in that it’s influenced by a much loved classic. This is bringing as many problems as it does opportunities. One that immediately presents itself is that my dramatis personae are already laid out for me,…
I’ve been leading a walk through Jane Eyre territory for years but last month was the first time anyone asked me where Mr Rochester, the owner of Thornfield Hall, got his wealth from. I couldn’t remember what Charlotte Brontë tells us in the novel but assumed – as did the woman who asked the question…
