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MOVIE NEWS: Jane Eyre

The Canadian actress Ellen Page has been cast as Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre in a new adaptation due to start filming at the end of this year. 

This is the first period film for Page, who was Oscar nominated for her part in Juno. She also starred in X-Men 3.

The classic novel about a governess and her master, Mr Rochester, is one of the most filmed adaptations of all time. It is being developed by BBC Films. [Via Empire]

Related posts: Wuthering Heights gets graphic | TV News: Jane Eyre

THURSDAY TRAILBLAZER: Stella Gibbons

Stella Gibbons' Cold Comfort Farm often appears on top ten lists and it also features in my teetering to-be-read pile.

It's a parody of the pessimisitic rural novel (typified by Thomas Hardy), and features a feisty, melodramatic family called the Starkadders. It was made into a film (for TV) in both 1968 and1995. The later version was adapted by Malcolm Bradbury and starred Kate Beckinsale, Joanna Lumley, Stephen Fry and Ian McKellen.

Stella was born in 1902 and had a turbulent upbringing. Her father, Telford, was a doctor but also a drunk, depressive, and given to violent outbursts and dramatic scenes.  When she was eleven her father threatened to commit suicide, begging the young Stella to stop him. She would later put this (and much else) into her autobiographical novel Enderbury Heath.

Stella completed a diploma in Journalism at London University, wrote prose parodies and published poetry. Her first job was with a news service called the British United Press and then with the London Evening Standard.

In 1930, she started at the Lady magazine where she reportedly wrote Cold Comfort Farm in spare quiet moments and on the train to and from work. She had already published a poetry collection, The Mountain Beast, and counted Virginia Woolf as an admirer. She also met her future husband - actor and opera singer Allan Bourne Webb - whom she married in 1933. They had a daughter together, Laura.

The success of Cold Comfort Farm prompted her to leave the Lady and write full time. Something she continued throughout the rest of her life.

She published her last novel in 1970 but continued to write for her own pleasure. When she died, in 1989, Stella bequethed her unpublished work, including two more novels, to her grandsons.

Partial Bibliography

The Mountain Beast (poetry)
Cold Comfort Farm
The Priestess (poetry)
Endbury Heath
The Untidy Gnome
Miss Linsey and Pa
Roaring Tower and Other Stories (short stories)
The Lowland Venus (poetry)
Christmas at Cold Comfort Farm (short stories)
The Bachelor
Westwood
The Matchmaker
Conference at Cold Comfort Farm
Beside the Pearly Water (short stories)
The Charmers
Starlight
The Snow Woman
The Woods in Winter

Related posts: Thursday Trailblazer archives

GUEST BLOG: Sara Morrison

Sara Morrison's essay was one of my favourites in the Gilmore Girls-themed Coffee At Luke's collection. And I'm a huge fan of TV recap site, Television Without Pity, for which she also writes. So I was thrilled when she agreed to write a guest blog for us. Over to Sara...

I read more as a child than I do now. My mother was a children's librarian, which meant easy access and no overdue fines. The books she brought home were my escape from the fears and anxieties that kept me awake every night. Even though we lived in a safe suburban neighborhood in a house filled with working smoke detectors, I still worried that someone would break in or a fire would start while my family and I slept. Reading took my mind off of this and relaxed me enough for sleep to finally overtake me. I liked a lot of different genres, but my favorite was undoubtedly mystery. There was no shortage of mystery books and series for children, although I had discriminating tastes. I didn’t really go for Nancy Drew; at 18, she was too old for me and I always thought it was weird how she had to mention her dead mom in the beginning of every book. The Hardy Boys were lunkheads, and those books were for boys anyway. The Bobbsey Twins looked like pussies, so I skipped right over them. The Boxcar Children were endlessly boring and have the dubious distinction of being one of the only mystery stories I put down without bothering to find out who did it.

It was my father who actually introduced me to what would become my mystery series of choice. He's from England, and on one of our trips there I ran out of reading material and went looking for more books to buy. He introduced me to Enid Blyton, who was the English children's author before J.K. Rowling came along. She wrote many stories, but her most famous and my favorites were the Famous Five series. The Famous Five consisted of four very Englishly-named children: siblings Julian, 12, Dick, 11, and Anne, 10 (apparently their parents had three years of nonstop action, followed by either finally getting the rhythm method down or sleeping in separate beds), their cousin Georgina, 11, and her dog, Timmy (age unknown).

Georgina was my favorite character* because she was the only one with a distinct personality, and one that was very much similar to my own. She was a tomboy and insisted on being called George, cutting her hair short, and wearing boy's clothes. She had a temper and was known to sulk, especially when Julian and Dick deemed a mission too dangerous for her girl self to accompany them on. George loved it when people mistook her for a boy, and who could blame her? The books were written in the forties and fifties, when women were relegated to household chores and skirts. As the lone model of femininity, Anne was always stuck preparing meals and cleaning up when the children went on adventures, always fretting that things were scary and dangerous and bursting into tears at the drop of a hat. Who wanted to be like that? Certainly not me, nor, I suspect, Enid Blyton.

Apparently, in England sixty years ago, it was considered unfashionable to supervise one's children, so the four children and their dog were always free to fall into adventures, whether they be at George's awesome seaside home Kirrin Cottage or on her own private island (which had its own castle!!), or various trips around the country during their frequent school holidays. A good percentage of these adventures involved stumbling upon a smuggling ring, although what goods were being smuggled and why people were still engaged in a rather outdated crime (even for the forties and fifties), usually remained unknown. They were constantly finding secret passages and tunnels. Every house they went to had a network of them! Once, they went to a school friend's house called Smuggler's Top (bet you'll never guess what happened there!) and found a system of underground caverns under the deadly marshes they were allowed to walk around completely unsupervised even though they were warned that one wrong step and the marshes would suck you down forever. My dad used to joke that it was amazing that Enid Blyton's England didn't fall in on itself, being so riddled with tunnels. Kirrin Cottage never sank into the tunnels it stood upon, although a big tree fell on it once during a storm.

The Five never traveled as far as Nancy Drew (who once went to freaking AFRICA on her boyfriend's school trip), but then, they didn't need to. They usually rode their bikes into the countryside where they'd inevitably find a ruined house to stay in and some suspicious persons, most likely unspecified foreigners, who were in the process of committing crimes. The Five only left England once that I can recall, and that was to go to Wales, which was written to seem just as exotic as Nancy Drew's Africa, full of strange-speaking people, snow, mountains, shimmering rainbow clouds, and, of course, wicked foreigners attempting to mine the hills for an unspecified radioactive element to supply to the unspecified enemy.

I longed for such adventures and wanted to be just like the Famous Five. But, alas, there were differences. I didn't have a dog named Timmy, although, by sheer coincidence, my guinea pig was named Timmy. Unless the mysteries involved carrots, though, he'd be more of a liability than an asset. I had no cousins, so I had to make do with my brother and some friends. Unfortunately, our parents were annoyingly watchful and would never dream of allowing us to go off camping in the countryside alone, no matter how many times we asked. Our homes were devoid of secret passages and tunnels. There was a brief excitement when it was discovered that Sarah B. had a crawlspace in her bedroom closet. Sadly, it only lead to her mystery-free attic. Still, my friends and I were always on the lookout for mysteries. If they wouldn't come to us, we'd just have to come to them.

The street I lived on had a few possibilities. There was an old lady who lived in a house surrounded by tall trees. We were sure she had something to hide because she yelled at us every time we got close to her lawn. That also made any investigations rather difficult. There was an old barn at the top of the hill -- the oldest building in the neighborhood -- that was sure to have its share of hidden secrets, hopefully in tunnel form. My friends and I dug up some rocks and searched around, but all we found was an old key that was not accompanied by a map to the hidden treasure it unlocked. There was once a rash of BB gun drive-by shootings on the street. Nighttime attacks claimed two windows and a piece of siding. My next door neighbor and I got right on the case, making a list of suspects (the kid down the street we didn't like at the moment because he was mean; a home remodeling business hoping to get new business from the repairs; the nuns who lived in the convent up the street because we thought they were weird) and planned a stakeout. It never happened; we soon discovered that her bedroom window faced my parents' bedroom window, so in order for us to both watch the street and stay in contact via a phone system made of cups and string (our brothers wouldn't lend us their walkie talkies), I'd have to sneak into my parents' room and sit at their window after they'd gone to bed. There was no way that was going to happen. As it was, the BB gun bandit never struck again. We never found out who it was, either. My money is still on the nuns.

So there would be no adventures at home, but perhaps my brother and I could happen upon one on vacation. While vacations were always fun, the biggest mystery was probably "why didn't the hotel maid replace the towels even though we left them on the bathroom floor as instructed?" Even England, home of the Famous Five, had nothing to offer. My grandparent's house didn't even have a basement, let alone a secret passage. Much to my bitter disappointment, they certainly didn't live in a cottage by the sea with its own island. Talking with the neighborhood kids revealed that the only suspicious person on the block was actually my grandmother, who refused to let kids retrieve any balls they'd accidentally hit into her yard. This did, however, solve the mystery of where that garbage barrel full of tennis balls in their garage came from.

And so, my life progressed, mystery-free. As an adult, I sometimes re-read my old Famous Five books, but things have changed. Where I was once envious of the kids and their incredible adventures and lack of adult supervision, I now wonder why no one ever bothered to call Child Welfare on those kids' parents for neglect. I think of how very lucky they were not to encounter a suspicious man with intentions far more evil than bringing unspecified goods into the country, all too pleased to see four small children all alone to prey upon.

But the way I've changed the most is that I now realize that Anne, once my least favorite character, was right all along. When the other kids were jumping into ancient dungeons, ruined houses, and recently surfaced shipwrecks, Anne was begging them to let her stay behind, back in the cave or whatever other random shelter they'd happened upon because she was too scared to go where the action was. I used to think she was a wet blanket and symbol of everything I hated about having to be a girl. Now I think she was the only one in that group who had any sense.

I guess that's what happens when you grow up; your childhood fearlessness, drawn from ignorance and innocence about what could go wrong, turns into worry about all the bad things you now know are possible. And maybe that works in the reverse as well; the nightly fears of burglary and fire that dominated my childhood have long since disappeared, even though the things that used to keep me up at night are much more real now than they ever were then. There's no point in waiting for mysteries to come to you just like there's no point in keeping yourself up at night worrying about something that might never happen, and wouldn't be the end of the world if it did. When I'm not up all night freaking out about how I'm going to pay the rent next month, I sleep just fine.

Thanks, Sara!

*read more about Georgina by our regular writer, Helen Redfern.

Jane Austen goes hip hop

Screen Gems is planning a hip-hop musical version of Jane Austen's Emma. Yes, you read that right - a baggy-trousered dance-culture Emma.

Written by Tyger Williams (Menace II Society) and shifted to a high school, the film aims to cash-in on recent dance movie successes. To appeal to modern youth, the title is likely to be Emme. I'm far too old to comment on this...

[Via Empire]

Related posts: The Jane Austen calendar | Jane Austen's Guide To Dating

Anne of Green Gables is 100

We all seem agree that the Famous Five update isn't a good idea, but what about  prequels to classic novels? How do you feel about those? And what if the prequels aren't written by the original author? Still in favour?

To commemorate the 100th anniversary of Anne of Green Gables, Puffin has published Before Green Gables, written by Canadian author Budge Wilson, who was chosen from hundreds of writers.

[via The Puffin Blog]

Related: Five books

HELEN'S HEROINES: Celie

Helen Redfern's weekly column on her favourite fictional females...

The Color Purple by Alice Walker, in which Celie appears, is a Pulitzer Prize winning novel. Since it’s publication in the 1980’s it has been used as a subject for English literature exam texts the world over. Anything I say here about Celie, in the next few hundred words is going to be brief, and will not in any way touch the enormous scope, meaning and layers of this book.

Celie, a young black girl, born into poverty during the 1930’s in the American South, is the narrator of the story through her letters to God and then later to her sister, Nettie. This book has a wealth of strong secondary characters who I could also have chosen to be this week’s heroine. Shug, Sofia, Squeak. A group of women who, despite the racial and sexual oppression of the times, come together and unite, finding strength in each other.

The opening of the book shows Celie to be poor, uneducated, confused, having just been raped by the man she believes to be her father. Behind the raw and honest words she uses in her writings to God, she demonstrates an unknowing powerful strength, an instinct for survival.

Over the coming years that is what she does. She survives. She is given to a widower to be his wife. Someone to look after his motherless children, someone to cook and clean for him. He beats her, forces himself on her, but she just behaves like a plank of wood. Knowing she will never be good enough for him as she isn’t Shug Avery, her husband’s mistress, she has no self respect, no confidence and no fight. Then one day Shug comes to stay. Shug is mean to Celie at first but eventually they become close, and Shug awakens Celie’s mental strength leading to Celie seeking the truth from her ‘father’ and standing up to ‘Mr___’, her abusive husband.

Through it all the love for her sister keeps her going and Celie matures into a strong, wise woman. No longer is she the woman who advises her stepson to beat his wife to make her ‘mind’.

Through Celie’s journey we see how, not just one woman, but many women, can do anything they set their minds to. Her story is encouraging and inspiring to anyone who has suffered.

If you have never read this book, or did so for A-level (like myself) and not re-read since, then do so. I have gained so much more from Celie, Shug, Sofia and Squeak this time round than I did the first.

More Helen's Heroines

TELEVISION NEWS: The New Famous Five

I admit I was kind of horrified when I saw this picture of Disney's new, updated Famous, um, 5 series, but I know that I have to accept that things move on and classics have to keep up with the times in order to find a new audience.

Don't worry, though, pictured aren't the characters you grew up loving, no - Jo, Max, Allie and Dylan are the children of Enid Blyton’s original characters and together with their pet dog Timmy embark on a new series of adventures. The new series starts in May.

What do you think? A relevant update or Blyton blasphemy?

Related posts: Thursday Trailblazer - Enid Blyton | Helen's Heroines - George Kirrin | Best children's book of all time

Why chick lit authors love Lizzie Bennet

In our weekly interview, we always ask authors to name their favourite heroine. Some say Bridget Jones, others Jane Eyre, one even chose her own granny, but the most common response by a long chalk is Pride & Prejudice's Lizzie Bennet.

"I'm sure that I am in no way alone in this choice," said Zoe Rice, perceptively, "but my favorite will always be the very first chick-lit heroine: the feisty, intelligent, warm-hearted, and witty Elizabeth Bennett of Pride and Prejudice."

Glossing over Jane Green's answer - "I feel like I ought to say someone like Elizabeth Bennet from Pride and Prejudice, but that feels horribly pretentious" - I thought I'd take a look at the reasons the authors give for loving Miss Bennet.   

Tanya Lee Stone: Because she's strong and stubborn, speaks her mind, follows her heart, and is brave - including, brave enough to swallow her pride when she is wrong and right things properly.

Laura Ruby: It's her wit and generosity that make her beautiful. After the book was published, Jane Austen herself said, "I must confess that I think her as delightful a character as ever appeared in print, and how I shall be able to tolerate those who do not like her at least, I do not know."

Polly Williams: Her intelligence, wit and withering asides.

Lorelei Mathias: She knows her own mind, and she doesn't give up on things.

Libby Street: She is confident and smart, but willing to recognize that she has faults. I want to be just like her.

Other Elizabeth fans include Sarah Webb, Gil McNeil, Shannon Hale, Sarah Bilston, Lauren Baratz-Logsted.

If you too love Elizabeth Bennet, tell us why. (And if you can't stand her, we'd love to hear about that as well!)

BOOK COVER: New Puffin Classics

Puffin Books have redesigned the Puffin Classics collection. Aren't they gorgeous?

But the pretty new covers aren't the only change, each of the twelve titles is introduced by a top author such as Sophie Dahl, Meg Rosoff or Louise Rennison.

Related posts: Louise Rennison | New covers for Virago Classics | Penguin Celebrations' gorgeous covers

HELEN'S HEROINES: Roberta from The Railway Children

Helen Redfern's weekly column on the fictional females she loves...

Roberta or, as everyone else calls her, Bobbie. Yet another character whose name has been shortened to sound more masculine. In Bobbie’s case I suspect this is purely for convenience – her sister Phyllis is shortened to Phil – but she does state just the once that she wishes she were a boy. Doubtless so she would feel braver than she was at the time.

Bobbie is the eldest of three “ordinary suburban children … they lived with their Father and Mother in an ordinary red-brick-fronted villa…” in London. Their lives were very happy but they didn’t realise how lucky they were until one day in 1905 when their Father was arrested and they had to move to a small cottage in the country. Fortunately their new house was right next to the railway line and so began their adventures watching and waving to the trains, meeting The Old Gentleman, Perks the porter and all manner of characters from around the village.

Roberta is a girl growing into an adult. She is acutely aware of her Mother’s feelings. She knows she is sad, keeping up a facade in front of the three children and tries hard to make sure they argue less and do their chores without being asked. When her Mother is quite poorly it is Roberta who becomes head nurse, looking after her day and night, making herself tired in the process but without complaint.

The three children are praised for their heroism. When there is a land slide the girls take off their red petticoats to warn the fast approaching steam train of danger; when they see smoke appearing from a canal barge they jump onboard to save the sleeping baby and when they see a paper chase go into the tunnel and the last boy not appearing out the other end they go and investigate. It is Bobbie who nurses him until help arrives in the dark tunnel whilst the boy struggles to remain conscious. Despite her leadership qualities (though all three of them play important roles) it is Bobbie that hates the fuss and attention their heroism receives.

As E. Nesbit has indicated, Bobbie is anxious to make others happy and to look after them. This is apparent in her (naïve) statement “I think it would be nice…to marry someone very poor, and then you’d do all the work and he’d love you most frightfully…”. She can keep secrets and is silently sympathetic to other people’s troubles they don’t wish to talk about. Yet her mind is actively thinking how she can help especially when she finds out where her Father really is. At times she acts grown up and at other times there is childlike innocence about her. Who hasn’t shed a tear at the line “Oh! My Daddy, my Daddy!”?

Bobbie has empathy and female intuition in a quiet understated manner. She is exceptionally capable and supportive, always looking to help others. Life is hard for her but she carries on cheerfully. As Nesbit herself summarises “the more I observe her the more I love her.” Quite.

Related posts: Jane Marple | Nymphadora Tonks

HELEN'S HEROINES: Jo March

Helen Redfern's weekly column about the fictional heroines who have inspired her...

It is ironic that the character Louisa May Alcott apparently wrote under protest, with speed and for money became one of the most lovable heroines in fiction. Alcott’s publisher urged her to write a book of ‘girls fiction’ and she reluctantly accepted, creating a girl with individuality rather than the typical two dimensional characters prevalent within those times.

Jo March was the second eldest of four sisters growing up in Concord and Boston Massachusetts during the American Civil War (1861 – 1865 fact fans) immortalised within the books Little Women, Good Wives, Little Men and Jo’s Boys. She was the best loved (by the readers) of the four sisters and was based upon the writer, or as some would say, the person the writer wanted to be.

As with last week’s heroine, George Kirrin, Jo is bold, outspoken, often in trouble and courageous. She is described as a tomboy, which basically means she is a tough, strong girl, decisive and open to life. Due to her mother’s influence she believes she is equal to any man (not a usual thing to believe in 1860’s Bostonian society) and has ambitions to be a writer.

When her father goes away to the war she announces “I’m the man of the family now Papa is away.” She also sacrifices her own hair by chopping it off and selling it to a wig shop, just so her mother could afford to visit her injured father.

Unlike other women of the time, she isn’t interested in gossiping. She would rather be independent and dismisses New England Society. For all her independence though and need for solitude, she still lays great store in being with her family and along with her sisters they have a great time writing and performing plays. She also doesn’t see the need to marry a rich man for money rather than love (to the frustration of many a fan who wrote to Alcott). Instead she marries one who will accept her for who she is.

The best bit of Jo for me is that she is a fully rounded character with flaws and virtues. She isn’t just hard and tough but has feminine and maternal sides. She has a strong, tender affection for Beth, tries to raise Laurie her friend into a man and as the sequels show she goes on to create a loving and nurturing school with Plumfield.

Yes, if I looked further I may find inconsistencies within the feminist message. Jo marrying and settling down as a ‘mother’ in Plumfield contradicts Jo’s support for women into higher education. Then she encourages the young girl Daisy to keep the boys out of her kitchen. I however, see a woman who has not given up on her ambition to be a writer yet can still be a mother. She is having it all (helped by her inheritance and encouraging husband) and who am I to begrudge her that?

Related posts: Little Women interpreted by Meg Cabot | Friday Flick - Little Women

BOOK REVIEW: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (Insight Edition)

Reviewed by Jill Hart

I must admit, though somewhat shyly, that though I am a huge fan of Jane Austen I had never read Pride and Prejudice. I attempted to read it once during my high school years, but the language seemed confusing and I gave up. So, when Bethany House announced their new “Insight Edition” of Pride and Prejudice I jumped at the chance to read it.

This new printing of Austen’s beloved classic includes the original text, but also adds side notes giving the reader a brief definition of certain terms, customs and history behind Austen’s words. The book also includes movie facts and other entertaining tidbits that highlight that many works of art that Pride and Prejudice has inspired such as the 2005 movie starring Kiera Knightley.

The editors at Bethany house did a fantastic job at selecting passages to expound on. For example, Austen speaks of Mrs. Bennet saying, “The business of her life was to get her daughters married; its solace was visiting and news.” In today’s culture this seems a bit, well, shallow, and yet the editors include a note that explains why this would have been so important a job for Mrs Bennet.

I can freely say that I loved the book even more than the movie and I felt the Insight Edition added a whole new dimension to Austen’s work. Jane Austen’s speaks for itself and yet the editors did a wonderful job of adding information that enriched the book and made it even more appealing.

Rating: 5/5

Like this? Try Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding (ha ha!)

Wuthering Heights first edition smashes estimate

A first edition of Wuthering Heights sold for £114,000 - double its estimated sale price - at Bonhams yesterday.

Wuthering Heights is Emily Bronte's only novel, and it wasn't recognised as a classic of English Literature until after she died from consumption, aged 30.

The tale of doomed love between Heathcliff and Cathy was first published in 1847. Emily Bronte used a male alis, Ellis Bell, because she feared prejudice as a female author. Thank goodness times have changed. Ah-hem.

[Via BBC]

Related posts: Classic Novels archive

TV News: A Room With A View

Yep, it's another classic novel plundered for our televisional delight. Just how many period dramas does it take to fill a television schedule, anyway? It's a good thing there are a lot of classics... Which begs another question; why choose a book that has already been made into a successful Merchant Ivory film?

Anyhoo. This two-hour ITV adaptation of E.M. Forster's comedy-of-manners stars Elaine Cassidy, Sophie Thomson and Timothy Spall and is on Sunday night at 9pm.

So, what do you think? Another adaptation can only be a good thing? Or not so much...

Related posts: Adaptation: tricky, but worth it? | Friday Flick: Pride and Prejudice

Maria Bello has never finished a Jane Austen book

Turns out Maria Bello - one of the stars of the movie adaptation of The Jane Austen Book Club - is no fan of Jane Austen. Saying, on Babble.com

I'll be brutally honest and say I'm a huge reader — I read about two novels a week, I've been reading since I was five — and I've never gotten through a Jane Austen book. It's just not my type of writing. I sort of like more testosterone-driven, hard-hitting novels like Hemingway or Philip Roth or Simone de Beauvoir. I sort of like things that go right for the gut. Maybe I'll grow into liking Jane Austen, but right now, eh.

Related posts: Marian Keyes doesn't like Austen either! | The Jane Austen Book Club review | The influence of Austen

TUESDAY THREE: Lost in Austen

I felt the urge to mix it up a bit with Tuesday Three this week. Instead of featuring books we've already reviewed, I thought I'd choose three books we'd like to review. But still connected. I'm not an amateur.

First up ... oh, yes - the subject is Jane Austen (see how pride comes before a fall?!).

First up is Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler in which, after nursing a broken engagement with Jane Austen novels and Absolut, Courtney Stone wakes up and finds herself not in her Los Angeles bedroom or even in her own body, but inside the bedchamber of a woman in Regency England. Who but an Austen addict like herself could concoct such a fantasy?

I've mentioned Lost in Austen: Create Your Own Jane Austen Adventure by Emma Campbell Webster before, but I've just discovered it's called Being Elizabeth Bennet in the UK (and out at the beginning of next month).

The book gives the reader the opportunity to star in Pride and Prejudice. "You will be faced throughout this book with delicate challenges and dangerous choices. Whether you're accepting Mr Darcy the first time he professes his attachment, deciding to elope with Mr Wickham or avoiding a murderous Lady Catherine de Bourgh, this is a chance to rewrite Austen's most famous book. You must complete five stages - and successfully negotiate your way through Austen's five other novels - before can choose to accept Mr Darcy. But if the outcome does not suit, simply return to page 1 and create a new Jane Austen adventure."

Shannon Hale's Austenland features Jane Hayes, a seemingly normal young New Yorker, but with a secret obsession with Mr. Darcy, as played by Colin Firth in the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. Her obsession is ruining her love life - no real man can compare - but when a wealthy relative bequeaths her a trip to an English resort catering to Austen-crazed women, Jane’s fantasies of meeting the perfect Regency-era gentleman suddenly become realer than she ever could have imagined.

Related: The influence of Austen

FRIDAY FLICK: The Talented Mr Ripley

As Matt Damon is the man of the hour, starring in the just-released Bourne something-or-other (I've lost track, I'll be honest) I thought it might be apt to highlight one of his earlier films, The Talented Mr Ripley. Also starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law and (briefly) Cate Blanchett, it's based on Patricia Highsmith's psychological thriller of the same name.

Matt Damon is Tom Ripley, a conman who weasels his way into the lives of the rich English folk who holiday on the Riviera. Instead of just tracking down Dickie Greenleaf (Jude Law) as he was paid to do, Tom takes things a step further: he assumes Dickie's entire identity.

Will he be caught?

And if not, how not?

It's hard for me to gauge how good this film is as I was a big fan of the novel and nothing could really live up to that - but I think this is a respectable adaptation, certainly worth watching (but perhaps more enjoyable if you haven't read the book first!)

The one big issue I had is that Matt Damon doesn't look like Jude Law, and whereas in the book Tom's escapades posing as Dickie could be explained by their looking alike, in the film they can't.

Have you seen it - what did you think?

Friday Flick archives.

Keira Knightley 'too pretty' for Atonement?

Ceri Radford of The Telegraph's books blog can't decide if she's looking forward to the adaptation of Ian McEwan's World War Two-set modern classic Atonement or not. On the one hand, she loves a period drama, on the other hand... there's Keira Knightley. That alone would put me off (me-ow!) but Radford's specific problem is that the pouty one is "too pretty"  for Cecilia, who is described in the book as "plain".

Does it matter that actresses look like the characters they're playing, or is a little artistic licence understandable - we are talking about Hollywood after all!

What do you think?

More Shiny employees catch the book bug

We Trashionistas are not the only book-obsessed Shiny Media employees, you know - oh no.

John of Shiny TV site TV Scoop was even on BBC Four book programme The Book Quiz last night, talking intelligently about literary thriller Perfume as part of one of the programme's featured book groups. Unfortunately, watching it back didn't make for a fun experience, as he reports...

In happier news, Alex of Shiny Shiny is writing a new column for our sister site Dollymix about Women in Fiction, and it's fascinating reading.

Blog a Penguin Classic (and get a free book and internet fame in the process...)

Here's something we found out about thanks to the lovely Camilla, editor of our sister (wedding-themed) site, Bridalwave.

Blog a Penguin Classic gives readers the chance to sign up to review one of Penguin's 1400 titles for the website - sign up, and if you're quick enough, you could be chosen to receive a free book which you'll be asked to blog about for the site.

Be warned however - you don't get to choose your title! But it could be a great way to expand your reading horizons (sort of like a bookish lucky dip).

The next batch of books hasn't been released yet but keep checking the site to stay on top of things and read the current batch of reviews here (scroll down).

MOVIE NEWS: The Jane Austen Book Club trailer

We wrote about the upcoming film of The Jane Austen Book Club back in April and now we have the trailer to show you. I didn't love the book, but the film definitely has a good cast (love Maria Bello) and I liked the trailer (gave me the shivers), but we'll have to wait until January next year to see if it's as good as it looks.

Related posts: The Nanny Diaries trailer.

Wuthering Heights named Britain's favourite love story

Wuthering Heights has been named the best romantic novel of all time in a poll commissioned by UKTV Drama. The full list was as follows:

1. Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë, 1847
2. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen, 1813
3. Romeo and Juliet - William Shakespeare, 1597
4. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Brontë, 1847
5. Gone with the Wind - Margaret Mitchell, 1936
6. The English Patient - Michael Ondaatje, 1992
7. Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier, 1938
8. Doctor Zhivago - Boris Pasternak, 1957
9. Lady Chatterley's Lover - DH Lawrence, 1928
10. Far from The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy, 1874

Is it just me or are there very few healthy relationships in that list? Insanity, suicide, death, bullying, um, more insanity, death and suicide ... I've only read seven of the 10 (I haven't read the last three), but still, is that what women find romantic? Really?

[via The Guardian]

Related posts: Wuthering Heights gets graphic! | Best women authors of all time | World Book Day's ten books you can't live without 

Vintage Twins pairs up old classics with newer releases

We've covered books about women who are twins and men who are twins, but never before have we written about... BOOKS that are twins.

Say what?

Publishers Vintage have had the new (and I think ingenious) idea of packaging two books together: one an old classic, the other a classic of the future - a book they think matches the old classic perfectly. 'Twins' include Middlemarch and Possession; Crime and Punishment and Ripley's Game by Patricia Highsmith and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland next to post-modernist Haruki Murakami's Wind-up Bird Chronicle. They're calling it Vintage Twins, of course.

Guardian blog readers are (as ever!) unimpressed, but what do you think? I think it's a great idea and could be very popular at (shh) Christmas...

FRIDAY FLICK: Rumour Has It

A chick flick based on a film that was based on a novel (are you still with me?) Rumour Has It takes the idea that the events of The Graduate really happened and are based on Sarah (Jennifer Aniston)'s family, something she only discovers shortly before she's due to get married to fiance Jeff (the lovely Mark Ruffalo) and which sends her into a tailspin. Because if the events of that book/film are true, then her dad isn't her real father, and she has to find the man who is...

The savaging this got from some critics lead me to believe this was going to be a total piece of trash, but it was actually a nice surprise. It might not hold up twenty years from now but I found it fun, engaging, a little silly perhaps, but I loved the conceit of the film and especially enjoyed Shirley McClaine's performance. I think Aniston is a great comic actress and this isn't great film, but it's far from a bad one. Enjoy!

Friday Flick archives.

THURSDAY TRAILBLAZER: Truman Capote

Yes, I know he's not a woman! But he's still a Trailblazer, and he created Holly Golightly so even though he was WRONG about Audrey Hepburn (he hated her as Holly and wanted Marilyn Monroe in the part) I forgive him.

The author of Breakfast at Tiffany's of course, he also wrote other novels, short stories, plays and a musical but his best work is probably In Cold Blood, the meticulously-researched (sometimes a bit too closely, perhaps!) work of 'faction', which inspired hundreds of writers to turn their pens to narrative non-fiction. The book is compelling, stark, brutal and perfectly evocative of the horrible murders it describes. It lives with the reader for a long time.

On a lighter note, Capote was a legendarily fabulous party host and gossip, and lifelong friend of Harper Lee, who used him as the basis for the character of Dill Harris in To Kill A Mockingbird. He was also openly gay in an era were being honest about homosexuality was much rarer than it is today.

Unfortunately in his later years, Truman descended into depression and alcoholism, dying at just 59, but his great works live on.

Thursday Trailblazer archives.

YAY OR NAY WEDNESDAY

The big lit news of last week (it happened after last week's Yay or Nay Wednesday, okay?!) was that Sebastian Faulks has taken over Ian Fleming's gig as writer of the James Bond novels. The new Bond book, which was kept a closely-guarded secret until it was finished, will be released in May 2008 and is called Devil May Care. Its release will mark 100 years since Fleming's birth. [Via The Guardian].

But what do you think to the concept of taking over a popular series after the writer's death - is it a heart-warming tribute or close to sacrilegious? Are there any great series that should be revived, or should they always die with the author? And if you're a writer, do you care what happens after you die or do you want your work left alone?

SO: passing the literary baton: is it a Yay or a Nay, and why?

Yay or Nay archives.

[Don't forget it's Yay or Nay day at Hippyshopper, Bridalwave, Dollymix, Corrie Blog, Catwalk Queen, Kiss and Makeup, The Bag Lady, Shoewawa and Shiny Shiny, too!]

FRIDAY FLICK: I Capture the Castle

Based on Dodie Smith's iconic YA/crossover novel about  a romantic teenager with a poor and eccentric aristocratic family who all live in a run-down castle in the 1930s, I Capture the Castle captures the essence of the book brilliantly. The family are struggling to make the rent when two new landlords (Americans!) roll up at the castle.  At first the family are scared they'll be evicted, but before long they've befriended the twenty-something brothers who own their property and our heroine Cassandra and her sister Rose might even want to be more than friends with these interlopers...

17-year old Cassandra is played really well by Romola Garai and I loved Bill Nighy as her reclusive author father. While the film isn't half as charming as the book it's still a good adaptation. Fun, romance, period drama and a touch of betrayal: this film has it all, and if it's not quite a girly classic it's not that far off.

Like this, in that it's also about another poor family: Little Women.

Friday Flick archives.

THURSDAY TRAILBLAZER: Helen Fielding

Of course. Couldn't really leave her out seeing as she started all this chick lit lark! (Maybe).

Whether you think Helen Fielding, Jane Austen, Nora Ephron, Gail Parent or even Janet Evanovich invented the genre, what's pretty clear is that Helen Fielding helped make it what it is today. Her newspaper columns detailing the life and loves of one Miss Bridget Jones made both her and Bridge cultural icons and had publishers on both sides of the pond jumping on the chick lit bandwagon. It has to be the best-known and most-loved chick lit novel of all time, ever. (And it's the number one choice for fave chick lit novel in our author interviews!)

Fielding's inspired lots of modern-day writers and even many years later her best-known book is still a touching and brilliantly witty read. Bridget Jones's Diary is everything a chick lit book should be: funny, satirical and entertaining with a main character we can relate to.

And that's what makes Helen Fielding a Trailblazer.

Thursday Trailblazer archives.

Why we love Austen... or not?

An article in Salon.com (via Bookninja) suggests that the recent resurgence in popularity of Miss Jane Austen is because, as one interviewee suggests: "Everybody really wants to be Jane... to wear long ball gowns and go to dances and be genteel.” Also: we love the romance... bless our pretty little heads.

Surely there's a little more to it than that? The quality of the writing, the subtle social satire? Anyone?

Related: The Austen backlash begins.

FRIDAY FLICK: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

Who doesn't love a bit of Marilyn Monroe on a Friday afternoon? (Or anytime, in fact!?) I know our ed-in-chief Gemma is a big fan (if you ask nicely she might show you the pics of her dressed as Lorelei, Marilyn's character in this film... or she might not! Sorry, Gemma...)

Anyway! In Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Marilyn and Jane Russell (Dorothy, the sensible brunette - of course) go on a cruise to have fun and meet men, and succeed in doing both, though not without the odd scrape along the way, and of course, they have to sing as they go...

It's not the best movie starring either of these iconic actresses, but it is a bit of fun, and based on Anita Loos's cult classic novel. It also features "Diamonds are a Girls Best Friend", a number that's dazzling in more ways than one... (and was the inspiration for Madonna's Material Girl video, of course).

Carry on over the cut for a clip!

Friday Flick archives.

Underrated cult classics

You know those cult classics that a small band of people love and a lot of others haven't even heard of? Well I'm making it my duty today to share with you some well-loved books that deserve an even wider audience. They could all be described as chick lit, so don't let the fact that none of them were written in the last 50 years hold you back from picking one up and having a darn good read!

Carry on over the cut to see my selection (and suggest your own!)

In Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford. No-one can satirise the upper classes like Nancy Mitford, and this tongue-in-cheek portrayal of an eccentric aristocratic family during World War Two is very witty and unexpectedly moving - a brilliant read.

Diary of a Provincial Lady by E.M Delafield. Before Bridget Jones and prior to mum-lit, the Provincial Lady kept a 1930s diary featuring her absent-minded husband, unruly children and her own shoddy housekeeping. Tongue in cheek and very well-written, don't let the perhaps stuffy-sounding title put you off, this is a great book (with lots of sequels if you really like it!)

The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy. This will disabuse you of the fact that the past was a much more innocent era, and fast.  Sally, the American heroine of Dundy's debut novel dies her hair pink, stays out all night drinking and smoking (and avoiding drugs) and generally living the debauched, bohemian lifestyle... in the 1950s. Fab, fun and definitely chick lit-ish, this is a great summer read that a LOT more people should have read.

What do you think?

THURSDAY TRAILBLAZER: Dodie Smith

I've been meaning to "do" Dodie for some time, and as it's cult classic week on Trashionista, what better time to honour the author of one of the first, and most fabulous YA/crossover novels: I Capture The Castle. A favourite of many modern authors (as Rachel Johnson will testify), ICTC is the charming, funny and sometimes emotionally raw tale of Cassandra, a romantic 17-year old who can't wait for her first love... but who finds things don't always work out the way you expect.

Of course it's The Hundred and One Dalmatians for which Dodie became famous (and she apparently got very cross if people spelt 'dalmatian' wrongly so I checked I'd got it right!) but she yearned to be a more 'serious' writer than her best-known works would suggest. She was a huge fan of Henry James and championed many modern novelists she admired, among them a young Julian Barnes. Smith also wrote plays (best known is Dear Octopus) and was passionate about the theatre. But her talent was for more lighthearted (but very well-constructed) fiction - and there's nothing wrong with that!

In her personal life, she was a survivor: a bit of a loner, she would escape to her school's library and find company in books. Orphaned by the age of 18, she struggled at first to support herself, but clearly she survived in the end, although struggled for money in her later years, after the death of her husband Alec Beesley with whom she had a very loving (if, it is thought, purely platonic) relationship for many years.

Read this: I Capture The Castle. Plus, if you're interested in learning more about this unconventional and opinionated writer, I highly recommend Valerie Grove's wonderfully entertaining biography Dear Dodie, which is easy-to-read yet very well researched.

Trailblazer archives.

[Picture via BBC]

THURSDAY TRAILBLAZER: Judy Blume

Continuing with both the Judy Blume theme and the kids's writers theme of the last week or so, it's about time we honoured Judy Blume as a true Trailblazer. A revolutionary author for children and teenagers, Blume began tackling subjects no-one wants to talk to their parents about as far back as the early 1970s.

Taking on such taboos as religion, periods, masturbation, sex, bullying and even the Holocaust, Blume had all teenagers' concerns covered and managed to write books which covered serious topics in a reassuring way whilst making the plot and characters more important than the 'message'.

Her iconic book Forever, an honest (somewhat explicit) novel about a couple's first sexual relationship, taught generations of girls and boys what to expect from their 'first time' without either scaring kids off or glorifying sex... quite a feat. Her books are well-written and always go beyond the topics they cover to create realistic people with feelings young adults can relate to. It's that, rather than any sensational reading material, that keeps generations coming back to Blume.

Unfortunately, some adults can't see beyond depictions of subjects they're uncomfortable with, and Blume's books are often banned from school and even public libraries. But her readers appreciate her, as do The National Book award people: in 2004 they gave her Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.

Trailblazer archives.

Want to cook Austen's eggs?

No, that's not some weird new metaphor ("wow, she really cooked Austen's eggs!") but a genuine recipe from a book called Kafka's Soup. It's "a history of world literature in 14 recipes" written and illustrated by Mark Crick and Jane Austen's eggs feature, along with Viginia Woolf's clafoutis and, yes... Franz Kafka's soup. [Via The Independent].

Readings in Paris have apparently gone down a treat! Would you fancy eating your way through it?

Related posts: Dirty Sugar Cookies by Ayun Halliday | Movie News: Julie and Julia.

THURSDAY TRAILBLAZER: Nora Ephron

Back in the early '80s, before anyone else thought to put together food-themed semi-fictional novels, Nora Ephron brought out the irresistible Heartburn, about a betrayed pregnant wife who cooks to stay sane. It's very funny, even over twenty years later.

Nora was always something of a pioneer: she was an early feminist and wrote on this and other hard-hitting topics for Esquire magazine as well as writing lighter articles on a range of subjects, which later were turned into essay collections including Crazy Salad and Scribble, Scribble.

She's also fiercely funny and clever, the screenwriter of my favourite film When Harry Met Sally, mother of two boys, an excellent non-fiction writer and blogger and a big player in Hollywood. What more could you ask for in a Trailblazer?

Read this: Heartburn.

Watch this: When Harry Met Sally.

Don't mention this: Bewitched.

Trailblazer archives.

MOVIE NEWS: The Old Curiosity Shop

A good old-fashioned British film, this adaptation: Charles Dickens' The Old Curiosity Shop will star Derek Jacobi, Zoe Wanamaker, Martin Freeman and Gina McKee.

And, as our sister site Corrieblog reports, Bradley Walsh, aka: Danny Baldwin will also star.

Movie news archives.

FRIDAY FLICK: Romeo + Juliet

Before Baz Luhrmann decided to make Moulin Rouge (not to mention one of the worst ads of all time), he burst into movie-making with this colourful adaptation which brought Shakespeare bang up-to-date whilst keeping the original language.

To say that it's dazzling would be an understatement: a modern soundtrack, technicolour sets, NYPD Blue-style camera work and the chemistry between a pre-Titanic Leo Dicaprio and a post-My So-Called Life Claire Danes made this a modern classic (based on a classic classic...)

It's fun, fabulous, and educational - what more could you want?!

Like this (but not even an eighth as good): Marie Antoinette.

Friday Flick archives.

THURSDAY TRAILBLAZER: Bernice Rubens

Bernice Rubens was a class act, even if the same couldn't always be said for her characters! (See the suicidal woman whose life is turned around by her diary in A Five Year Sentence for an example).

Rubens died in 2004, aged 76, having just completed her autobiography (great timing! - see, classy). Like Marian Keyes, she began writing at the age of 30 (having worked as a teacher and then a film-maker first) but then threw herself into it, writing twenty four novels plus her memoir, When I Grow Up. She won the Booker Prize in 1970 for her book The Elected Member, which established her as one of the best writers of her generation.

She was simply a great writer, with the capacity to create memorable if often odd characters and fascinating scenarios. She was also rather opinionated, laying into Martin Amis for writing a novel about the Holocaust that she found inappropriate. She described her writing as "Better than most, not as good as some." And she was probably right.

Read this: Madame Sousatzka (which appears to be shamefully out of print).

SUGGEST A TRAILBLAZER! Who would you like to see here next Thursday? Leave a comment and let us know - or if you're shy email us instead.

Trailblazer archives.

BOOK REVIEW: Bonjour Tristesse by Francoise Sagan

Bonjour Tristesse is something of a cult classic and I'd been wanting to read it for a while. If I'd known how short it was, I might have added it to my 'to be read' pile a lot sooner! When it came out in 1953 it caused something of a scandal, and Francoise Sagan is actually a pen name (inspired by Proust) which the author adopted to protect her family's privacy.

French seventeen-year old Cecile and her father Raymond are very close, almost weirdly so. They're on holiday together on the French Riviera, enjoying the sun in the day and the nightclubs at night, when Raymond invites Anne, an old friend of Cecile's (long-dead) mother, to stay. His girlfriend Elsa, who is also staying with them, is less than impressed, as is Cecile - and she launches a plan to get rid of Anne which has a far worse outcome than she ever could have anticipated...

To say this novel seems to be so revered, I found it a little lacking in... something. I didn't really care about any of the characters. The writing and observations were at times very good, but the book is so small (just 108 pages) that there's little depth. The ending is a bit shocking, and left me feeling unsettled, and the book is a good read.

But I was expecting to love it, and I didn't. C'est la vie.

Rating: 3 out of 5

Like this? Try The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith.

Classic novels archives.

FRIDAY FLICK: Breakfast at Tiffany's

Based on Truman Capote's legendary novel (which I liked far more than I thought I would having fallen in love with the film years ago), Breakfast at Tiffany's is the story of Holly Golightly, the most iconic of all Audrey Hepburn's film roles. Holly is flighty and mysterious, a naive party girl prone to getting caught up with a bad crowd. When she moves into the apartment building of George Peppard's Paul, he feels himself magnetically drawn to her - so much so that he might even be willing to give up his own questionable lifestyle and fall in love with her... if she'll have him.

If you haven't seen this film yet, why the HECK not? It's a classic, the ultimate chick flick! Audrey is breathtaking.

Just ignore Mickey Rooney's racist portrayal of Mr. Yunioshi (please).

*DID YOU KNOW?* BaT was directed by Blake Edwards, who is married to Julie Andrews.

Like this - 'cos it's another girly classic: Fried Green Tomatoes.

Friday Flick archives.

THURSDAY TRAILBLAZER: Mary McCarthy

Mary McCarthy survived a tough early life to become a successful writer: she was orphaned age six and raised by her paternal grandparents, who were abusive. She was later taken in by her mother's parents, and had a happier time with them, crediting her grandfather with the shaping of her liberal political beliefs. Highly educated (at Vassar) and an atheist (after casting off her Catholic heritage) she had a sharp mind, and a lot of opinions: so becoming a critic was her ideal job and she wrote for a range of publications including Partisan Review.

But she is best known for her books, especially her ground-breaking novel The Group, which follows the lives of eight Vassar graduates and which Cosmo called "Juicy, shocking, witty, and almost continually brilliant."  (A chick lit precursor, perhaps?)

Like Dorothy Parker, McCarthy's fiction often had an autobiographical slant, and she indeed wrote a book of memoir: Memories of a Catholic Girlhood.

Fascinated by McCarthy's legendary literary feud with her rival writer Lillian Hellman (said McCarthy once, "Every word that woman writes is a lie, including 'and' and 'the'."), Nora Ephron wrote a play, Imaginary Friends about the pair.

Like Ephron, McCarthy married multiple times: four, in fact. She died in 1989. [Some additional info via Wikipedia.org and Amazon.com]

Read this: The Group

Trailblazer archives.

YAY OR NAY WEDNESDAY

You know how classic novels can sometimes be a bit... long?

Well now Orion has released a series of classics all of which have been "sympathetically edited" - or cruelly chopped, depending on your point of view.

Vanity Fair, The Mill on the Floss and Anna Karenina all now come in at under 400 pages for the first time ever. [Via The Guardian].

So is this a great way of encouraging reluctant readers to pick up the classics? Or is it sacrilege? Would you rather read a more pacey version that's seen the sharp pencil of a modern editor, or do you want to battle through the book as it was originally intended? In other words...

Classics in half the time : is it a Yay or a Nay - and WHY?

Yay or Nay archives.

[Don't forget it's Yay or Nay day at Hippyshopper, Bridalwave, Dollymix, Corrie Blog, Catwalk Queen, Kiss and Makeup, The Bag Lady, Shoewawa and Shiny Shiny, too!]

THURSDAY TRAILBLAZER: Iris Murdoch

Iris Murdoch has become best known now for her descent into Alzheimer's disease and the portrayal of her by Kate Winslet and Judi Dench in the 2002 film Iris. But there was a lot more to this superbly-talented writer than a sad decline into disease.

Murdoch had a brilliant brain: in his book Iris, her husband John Bayley describes her working process. She would lock herself in her study, hard at work on her novel, for weeks on end. Then she'd emerge, relieved. She'd finished the novel now, she'd tell him... she just had to write it all down. Ironically, she had a marvellous memory and could store complex plots in her head before setting it all down on paper.  She studied at Oxford, where she met her husband and several other lovers (whether any of those relationships continued into her marriage is a matter of some - prurient - speculation).

She wrote plays and poetry too, but is best known for her novels: she wrote twenty-six between 1954 and 1995, winning the Booker Prize in 1978 (for The Sea, The Sea).

Born in 1919, she died in 1999. Murdoch's literary legacy will live on, though - many consider her one of the most significant British writers of the twentieth century, and anyone wanting to become a novelist could do a lot worse than to read and absorb her words and study (and enjoy) her storytelling technique - it's close to flawless. Hugely erudite, her books are influenced by everything from metaphyscics to the Bible... but they're also easy to read and understand even if you don't get all the references. And they will make you think.

Read this: Under The Net.

Thursday Trailblazer archives.

FRIDAY FLICK: Miss Potter

Released this week on DVD, Miss Potter (follow that link to see the trailer) is a biopic of Beatrix Potter: showing how she became one of the most successful children's authors of all time, despite the reluctance and disdain of her publishers.

Unconvinced by her rabbit illustrations and anthropomorphic stor