Trashionista

November 4, 2008 1:58 PM

HELEN'S HEROINES: Josie Winter

I finally got around to reading Over You by Lucy Diamond last week. And I loved it. It is a simple story of infidelity and, as Keris says in the review, it's a domestic story (whilst also being extremely gripping). Quite possibly a story that could be told by many abandoned spouses with young children all over the world. For Josie, the wife who has been left to raise her four year old twin sons on her own whilst her husband prances around with his mistress, life is now sink or swim. She chooses to swim.

In the beginning the swimming was very much for the sake of her children, but as time goes on she regains her strength - even to the point of feeling forgiveness (though not necessarily for her husband!)

Even before Josie finds out about the affair, she doesn't have a tremendous amount of confidence. She feels her personality has disappeared at the same time her children popped into the world and can't help but compare her mundane life (her view, not mine) with that of her more glamorous friends.  As time goes on however, she can see that everyone else's life is not always perfect either.

You can see what a strong woman she is. Fighting for survival and normality because of her children is completely selfless, especially when she really feels like soaking up a bottle of wine and lying on the bed all day. She learns to live on her own, to stop being scared at night, to deal with the day to day minutiae her husband would normally deal with. She becomes independent. And through this she gains confidence and embraces life. She even has the strength to deal with that so and so husband of hers.

What makes her a true heroine though, is that she learns. When she realised her life was mundane, she goes on to do something about it, even though it scared her senseless.

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Posted by Helen Redfern on November 4, 2008 in Helen's Heroines | Permalink | Comments (1)

October 28, 2008 10:37 AM

HELEN'S HEROINES: Taylor Young

Taylor Young appears in two novels by Jane Porter. Odd Mom Out and Mrs. Perfect. In the former and the beginning of the latter she appears as a supermum, impossibly well groomed whilst attending to her husband, three children and various voluntary commitments she has taken on. She worries about trivial aspects of her life. Weight, beauty, entertaining, what her friends think, book club, keeping up appearances and school stuff.

She isn't very likable.

Initially feeling sorry for herself, her self pity is apparent in sentences such as, this life, my life, looks good from the outside, but it's not so fun on the inside...On the inside it is endless stress.

But.

When her husband, Nathan, drops a bombshell she is forced to take stock of her life. She loses many material things she holds dear, starts a job for a woman she doesn't like and keeps her family together. In short, she is seriously tested, her husband is nowhere to be seen, and she comes up trumps. And without being too psycho-bably, she grows.

When Taylor attempts to clear up the mess her husband has got himself in (with a little bit of excessive spending on her part) Taylor really impresses. Good books are where the character changes, grows or learns something. I think Taylor manages all three whilst still looking after her daughters. Impressive stuff.

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Posted by Helen Redfern on October 28, 2008 in Helen's Heroines | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 21, 2008 8:29 AM

HELEN'S HEROINES: Clara Casey

Really I could have used any one of the females from Maeve Binchy's new novel, Heart and Soul, (or in fact any novel of hers) to be this week's heroine. They aren't all confident, go getting career women. They have flaws and worries like the rest of us, but they are also determined women. Determined to do what is best for their family, to better their lives or other people's lives. But mostly just to do something.

Clara Casey is no different. A senior cardiac specialist at the soon to be opened heart clinic in Dublin she is recently divorced with two grown up daughters who still live with her. If her two daughters weren't enough to cope with, she also has an ex husband who thinks he can dance back into their lives and a new clinic to open, battling with the bureaucracy that is Frank Ennis all the way.

She also has time to give a job to a Polish girl, making her feel involved and as part of the team. She works hard at her job, even though it wasn't what she wanted and doesn't often put herself first.

If all this makes her sound like a goody goody then that is my mistake. She isn't. She is a normal, down to earth working mum, wanting the best for her daughters, even using the tough love approach when it is needed. She is trying to balance everything in her life, coming to terms with the fact her husband has someone else, is starting a new life with them, whilst at the same time, confusingly,  wanting also to be part of her life still.

To outsiders she looks super confident, someone who won't take no for an answer. But in reality, she is just trying to do her best, for her family and for her own pride, like many of us.

Posted by Helen Redfern on October 21, 2008 in Helen's Heroines | Permalink | Comments (3)

September 9, 2008 12:02 PM

HELEN'S HEROINES: You decide...

I have been writing about heroines since January and have covered a range from George Kirrin to Miss Marple to Rachel Samstat. So this week instead of giving you a fictional heroine who I worship, I'm turning the tables. I want to know who has inspired you.

Has a fictional heroine influenced you to alter the course of your life? Have they encouraged you to be particularly daring? Or spurred you on to change your career? Maybe something else not so life changing but inspiring all the same?

Please comment and tell us. Don't be shy, we really want to know!

Posted by Helen Redfern on September 9, 2008 in Helen's Heroines, Opinion | Permalink | Comments (6)

September 2, 2008 10:56 AM

HELEN'S HEROINES: Rose Feller

I was in two minds which sister to use from In Her Shoes by Jennifer Weiner for this week's heroine. Rose, the hardworking lawyer who has many issues or Maggie, unemployed, a petty thief and stealer of her sister's boyfriend.

But the sister I identify with most is Rose. At the beginning of the book she works extremely hard and is having an affair with a senior partner at the firm (I'm not saying I am her, just I can identify with her). Her sister drives her nuts, she has a wardrobe of shoes she hardly wears which are "borrowed" by her sister, then Maggie betrays her. Deliberately.

As we delve into the sister's pasts, we see what happened to their mother and how Rose played a mother role to Maggie, even though Rose wasn't much older than her.

Rose is insecure about her weight, insecure about men and this obviously stems from her mother dying early, her father denying them access to their grandmother and the bullying tactics of her "step monster". Her father is a weak man who married another woman who would always make Rose feel large at a dangerously tender age by denying her ice cream for example, when everyone else was eating it.

Rose knows so much about everyone else but little about herself. When she is asked by none other than Cannie Shapiro, a former Helen's Heroine, what do you like, she didn't know. She knew what made her sister, father, best friend, step mother and once upon a time, her mother, happy. But what made her happy?

In hindsight Maggie's betrayal is probably the best thing that happened to her. It pulls her away from the job that she has been hiding away in, away from the unsuitable man and towards changes she starts to make in her life. Both Maggie and Rose grow and mature, but also, in Rose's case, she becomes less mature (you'll know what I mean when you read it) as she shakes off the responsibilities she has placed, or has had placed, onto her. Allowing her to follow the life that she truly wants.

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Posted by Helen Redfern on September 2, 2008 in Helen's Heroines | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 26, 2008 11:18 AM

HELEN'S HEROINES: Maggie Walsh

I find Maggie Walsh, from the book Angels by Marian Keyes, to be a fascinating character. She is such an excellent example of a person who people believe to be a certain way, but in actual fact has many hidden qualities and thinks completely differently to how they are perceived. Her sister, Helen, cruelly compares Maggie to plain yoghurt at room temperature, whereas Maggie thinks she is more like a trifle with hidden depths. I have to say that Helen, witty as she is, does not look beyond the cover and there is, in fact, more to Maggie than meets the eye.

The example of this is where Maggie, seemingly the most sensible one of the Walsh sisters, leaves her husband, loses her job and jets off to LA leaving her family behind open mouthed in shock.

Compared to her sisters, however, Maggie is the sensible one. She has a pension, she pays off her credit card most months and has a separate savings account for Ladies' Nice Things.  But just because she is sensible in certain ways this doesn't stop her from hurting when her husband talks about the chocolates as though they'd had them before, when really it was with another woman. It doesn't stop her hurting when her sisters treat her as a figure of fun or unfairly treat Garv, her husband, as a tightwad.

But she doesn't get all diva-ish. She doesn't slam doors, have strops or shout a lot as her sisters do and say how this is all unfair. Instead she keeps it inside, turning it over and trying to make sense of it. Something I'm sure a lot of us can relate to.

Believe me, I'm not saying she is perfect and her sisters aren't. I love her sisters (except Helen, at the moment, I can't wait for her story to come out so I can see what is really happening in her head) and Maggie does let many of these assumptions about her go by without contradicting anyone.

Like the other sisters, Maggie is a fighter. She shows no self pity when she leaves for LA and instead, gets on with her new life, throws herself into it and eventually wakes up to herself. Claire Allan, author of Rainy Days & Tuesdays, describes Maggie as one of her favourite heroines in this interview because, she proved that you can find happiness right under your nose. Along with her hidden depths, making Maggie a far more interesting character than what she initially appears, I have to agree with that. She also has the courage, not only to leave a bad situation, but also to come back when she realises what is really important.

Posted by Helen Redfern on August 26, 2008 in Helen's Heroines, Irish Authors | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 19, 2008 11:05 AM

HELEN'S HEROINES: Maura Isles

Actually she is Dr. Maura Isles, medical examiner in the successful Maura Isles and Jane Rizzoli series of books by Tess Gerritsen. Following on from the recent news that there is to be a new book in the series (September release in the US and January 2009 in the UK) I just had to use her as this week's heroine.

She is so different from Detective Rizzoli. Where Jane is feisty, hot tempered, impetuous, Maura is cool, calm and, to use a cliche, collected. However, the two are similar in the fact they are both extremely brave.

Maura started off a lot like the author, Tess. Not physically (I always picture Maura, rightly or wrongly, a bit like Catherine Zeta Jones) but in her perspective on the world. She values logic and reason like Tess and also, obviously as she is a doctor, went to medical school.

In The Mephisto Club, however, she made an unwise and uncalculated decision. So she isn't always so self controlled and reasonable, which stops her from being too goody goody and almost, dare I say it, robotic.

On Tess's blog she has said a fan thought Maura was a bit boring. I have to disagree. Despite The Mephisto Club I feel she is quietly getting on with being a heroine, not getting into hysterics or shouting, but self controlled, determined and refusing to let the baddies affect her day to day life. If the latter isn't a sign of a good heroine, then I don't know what is.

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Posted by Helen Redfern on August 19, 2008 in Crime / Mystery, Helen's Heroines | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 12, 2008 11:16 AM

HELEN'S HEROINES: Maria Petrakis

With the release of Victoria Hislop's second novel, I have returned to The Island, her debut, for this week's heroine. I could have used a few women for the heroine from this book. Eleni, the mother to two girls, who contracted leprosy and was sent to Spinalonga or some of the other women on the island. I decided on Maria, Eleni's daughter. She had to live through losing her mother to the leper colony then having to go there as a patient herself.

When her mother was sent to Spinalonga Maria was ten. She was gentler in nature than her sister who was two years older than her. She often played peace keeper to her sister's outbursts and helped her father with domestic tasks, without complaint.

Her nature is instantly forgiving. She didn't blame Dimitri, the boy they thought had given the disease to her mother, although it hurt her terribly to lose her mother at such a young age.

In her twenties her sister left home for a marriage to a wealthy man, and even though Maria was viewed by the village as the dutiful daughter to her father, she was in danger of being stigmatised with being left on the shelf. She wouldn't even consider marrying someone from another village though, as it would disrupt her father far too much.

When she finds a strange patch on her own foot, she accepts her fate. I am not saying she wasn't upset, she was greatly and when she gets to Spinalonga and is given a dead man's house to live in, the shock and grief is huge. However, she adapts. She makes the house a home and returns to the herbs that she has used on the main island for treating minor ailments of the lepers. For me, this adaptation and ability to make the best of everything  is why she is this week's heroine.

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Posted by Helen Redfern on August 12, 2008 in Helen's Heroines | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 5, 2008 10:56 AM

HELEN'S HEROINES: Emily Prince

When we first meet Emily in The Secret Shopper's Revenge by Kate Harrison, she is a new mother and also newly single after her husband left her for a woman called Heidi and is now living in Geneva. Emily, in contrast, is struggling - being low on self esteem, low on money and low on friends.

Then she meets Grazia, who sees certain qualities in Emily, and a short time later Emily becomes a mystery shopper. Which, she comes to realise, she is actually quite good at. In return the mystery shopping helps with her self esteem, offers some financial security and, unexpectedly, also gives her friendships.

When I was reading this book for review I knew, as I read it, that Emily would make a great heroine for this column. We see Emily at the beginning, at her lowest, and watch as she recovers from the awful way her husband treated her, and blossoms into someone she wants to be, but has always been constrained, first by her parents and then by her husband.

Yes she has help along the way. First with Grazia offering her the job and secondly with the friendships she builds with Grazia, Sandie and later Will. But she nurtures those friendships, taking time to help the other women with their troubles too. Most tellingly, when she realises what has happened to a shop manager after one of her secret missions, she is outraged and feels a sense of duty towards him and the shop.

Emily is such a strong character.  After all, it's not easy being a mum. It's also not easy living on your own for the first time in London. And it certainly isn't easy when your husband leaves you for another woman. Having had all three happen to her at pretty much the same time, yet coming through it with a smile on her face, yes and the occasional wobble (she wouldn't be real otherwise), is pretty inspiring.

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Posted by Helen Redfern on August 5, 2008 in British Authors, Helen's Heroines | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 29, 2008 9:33 AM

HELEN'S HEROINES: Clare Abshire

Clare Abshire is an artist who has had a rather unusual childhood. She was visited by the same man who, each time he appeared, was of a different age, as he came to her through the element of time travel. She was first visited at the age of six when he is more of a father figure towards her, but as she gets older, and especially when she is eighteen, he becomes the man she is in love with, and whom she'll later go on to marry. Confused? How do you think she feels?

Appearing in the novel, The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, Henry DeTamble is afflicted with a genetic condition called chrono-displacement disorder, where he is suddenly pulled through time, either the past or the future, and it cannot be controlled. Clare is his wife. A woman who, despite unusual circumstances, tries to maintain a normal life. But as she states herself, "It's hard to be the one who stays". The one who worries where he is, the one who fears for his life and doesn't know what condition he'll come back in.

When Clare meets Henry that time in the library, Henry has no idea who she is. How can she explain to him that he had travelled back in time and was with her throughout her childhood? It hasn't happened for him yet. "I'm at a loss because I am in love with a man who is standing before me with no memories of me at all."

When they do finally meet with both of them in their proper times, Clare is a tiny bit regretful that her secret man is no longer a secret, but also exhilarated as now it all begins. She feels at peace with him because their future is all mapped out, but all of this comes at a very high price.

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Posted by Helen Redfern on July 29, 2008 in American Authors, Helen's Heroines | Permalink | Comments (6)

July 22, 2008 2:37 PM

HELEN'S HEROINES: Benny Hogan

Benny Hogan is the central character in Circle of Friends by Maeve Binchy. She is big hearted and generous, living with her parents in a village called Knockglen in Ireland. Her family own Hogan's Outfitters a gentleman's clothing shop which is run by Benny's father. A rather naive and unassuming man he hires the dodgy Sean Walsh. Her parents, bless 'em, have high hopes that Benny will marry this Sean, but Benny has no interest in him. He is rather too oily for her tastes.

Benny becomes friends with Eve, the girl from the convent in Knockglen and together they go to college in Dublin and become friends with Nan, a girl with an alcoholic father who is determined to marry well.

So why is Benny this week's heroine? Well, to be honest because I can identify with her so well.  She isn't very confident at all initially even though she is a lovely girl. I think she is what you might call "naturally curvaceous" but for her this spells unattractive. She falls for the good looking Jack Foley, never believing he would be interested in her, but they begin a relationship. He wants more from her, but she sticks to her guns and goes back home to Knockglen every night.

When there is a death in her family we see a strong Benny emerge. A Benny we always knew was there. She handles the missing money in the shop with tact but firmness, then she realises what Jack has been up to and deals with that also.

By the end of this gentle story, Benny has become a confident woman. Confident in her own skin and no longer feeling inferior to others.

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Posted by Helen Redfern on July 22, 2008 in Helen's Heroines, Irish Authors | Permalink | Comments (2)

July 15, 2008 10:33 AM

HELEN'S HEROINES: Kate Reddy

Kate Reddy is a working mum who feels guilty for just that. Working. So guilty that she bashes up shop bought mince pies in the middle of the night, for her children to take to school the next day, in order to make them look home made. When her husband tells her that no-one expects her to make mince pies in the middle of the night after arriving back from a business trip to the states three hours ago she replies, "I expect me to."

Appearing in the novel, I Don't Know How She Does It by Allison Pearson, this book wears me out. It is both a funny yet sad look at how mothers are trying to be brilliant at everything and in the process either making themselves ill, making themselves unhappy or making their children unhappy. For Kate it is very difficult to do it all in work and family life when she has a boss that thinks leaving at five o clock is lunch time.

Then there is the guilt. She wants to work, yet feels guilty for doing do and this guilt just weighs her down and affects everything around her. Kate feels the need to keep going to prove it can be done.

So why am I using her as a heroine? Well, the first reason, the obvious reason because she is trying to make it work. She is trying to be a positive role model and demonstrate to her daughter that mummy's can work if they want to.

The second reason is the journey that Kate goes on during the course of the book. Her developing awareness that "high achievement is not confined to high flyers". The compromises she makes for the sake of her family, but also manages to find a solution, some middle ground, for the sake of her own sanity.

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Posted by Helen Redfern on July 15, 2008 in Helen's Heroines | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 8, 2008 11:43 AM

HELEN'S HEROINES: Pauline Fossil

Pauline Fossil is sister to Petrova and Posy Fossil in the gorgeous children's story Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild. Each of the sisters were brought to the house in London by GUM or Great Uncle Matthew, where his niece Sylvia lives. Sylvia becomes the children's guardian and starts to bring them up along with her childhood nanny.

GUM provides for the family for five years, then the money runs out and Sylvia is forced into taking boarders. This turns out to be the best thing that could have happened to the children. Two of the boarders, Dr's Jake and Smith start to tutor them as the school fees are too expensive and another boarder suggests the children attend the dance and stage school where she teaches, as eventually they will be able to earn money from being on stage.

Pauline is the most talented actress out of the three of them. She takes to the stage easily and her looks also ensure she gets plenty of work. Except for the one time when she becomes too big for her boots, she keeps her feet firmly planted on the ground. After all she has the other two sisters to squash her if she doesn't.

Each of the sisters make a vow on their birthdays to get their names into the history books as their name Fossil was unique to them and they had no parents or grandparents to explain any gifts or talents.

When Pauline gets offered a film test then subsequently a film career, which she hates doing, she comes into her own. Instead of sticking to the stage which she loves, when Posy comes racing home with some exciting news Pauline signs up to the more hateful but more lucrative film industry in order for Posy to follow her dreams.

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Posted by Helen Redfern on July 8, 2008 in Classic Novels, Helen's Heroines | Permalink | Comments (2)

July 1, 2008 1:45 PM

HELEN'S HEROINES: Mia Thermopolis

Or to give her correct title, Amelia Mignonette Grimaldi Thermopolis Renaldo, Princess of Genovia. I haven't read a huge amount of young adult fiction, but I have to say, Mia, in The Princess Diaries series by Meg Cabot, is one of the finest heroines there is in this genre. No, not everyone will be lucky enough to find out they are secretly a Princess, but Mia's everyday actions, and the fact she always digs deep for strength and stands up for what she believes in, is surely something all girls can aspire too.

Mia is a girl after my own heart. Passionate about her beliefs, she prefers to wear boots instead of heels and she writes. A lot. We see, through her diaries, that she is young (obviously), naive and doesn't have lots of self confidence. The reader, by reading between the lines, often sees what is obvious, whilst Mia is completely unaware.

She hero worships Lilly, her best friend. Striving to be self-actualised like she is, Mia compares herself quite unfavourably to Lilly, and doesn't see that it is actually Lilly who wants to be more like her. In fact, when JP tells her that Lilly was jealous of her in book nine, Mia was astounded and demanded to know why. "For the same reason I imagine a lot of girls - including Lana Weinberger - are jealous of you. You're pretty, you're smart, you're popular, you're a Princess..." Notice how being a princess is the fourth reason. Mia could still be the other three without the title. Mia doesn't believe JP anyway, believing herself to be a five foot nine, flat chested freak. Mia also feels inferior to her boyfriend, Michael because of his cleverness.

Then, in book nine, we see Mia, wise beyond her years and passionate when she makes a speech about her ancestor, Princess Amelie. She says "sixteen year old girls are capable of so much more that wearing some navel baring outfit...or passing out from partying...and can achieve fame for taking a stand and coming to the aid of people in need." Well said Mia.

Underneath the lack of confidence and belief in her own talents is a strong girl who can rise to any challenge. Now she just needs to sort out her love life...

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Posted by Helen Redfern on July 1, 2008 in American Authors, Helen's Heroines, Young Adult | Permalink | Comments (10)

June 24, 2008 1:28 PM

HELEN'S HEROINES: Andrea Sachs

Some people don't like it when the protagonist of a story is a writer. I can understand that, it is a bit of a cliche after all.  Personally though, I love it. One of my favourite Marian Keyes books is The Other Side of the Story, which is about a writer and her agent (and no doubt a heroine will be appearing from that book soonish). I've also just reviewed a lovely book with an erotic writer as the heroine and Carrie Bradshaw is my idol. Not for her shoes, hair or her wardrobe, but because she writes.

So Andrea Sachs, in The Devil Wears Prada, was bound to be one of my favourite heroines for the simple reason that she is. A Writer.

A graduate with a degree in English, Andrea moves to New York to live with her friend Lily and to find a job within the magazine publishing industry.  Not having much luck elsewhere, she gets a surprise interview with Elias-Clark for a job "a million girls would kill for." At first she finds herself dismissive of "the clackers" but soon find herself sucked in to the ridiculous demands of her boss and into becoming a fashionista herself. She hates her job, neglects her friends and family and misses meals -  but she justs needs to stick it out for a year then she could have her pick of writing jobs in New York.

She knows this isn't the job for her, but her determination to keep going in order to gain the job she really likes is pretty inspiring. Having never had a boss or editor from hell myself, I don't know how I'd react to that sort of situation. I don't know if I would have had the strength to put up with it - even for a guaranteed job with The New Yorker. But I have a feeling I wouldn't have lasted a minute, if I'd got the job at all. When it all becomes too much though, I'm glad Andrea does what she does. No-one is paid enough to put up with the soul destroying efforts of her boss, free designer clothes or not.

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Posted by Helen Redfern on June 24, 2008 in American Authors, Devil Wears Prada, Helen's Heroines | Permalink | Comments (8)

June 17, 2008 11:13 AM

HELEN'S HEROINES: Bridget Jones

I have to say, I've been reluctant to post about Bridget Jones as a heroine. I didn't know how I could spin a chain smoking, wine guzzling, man desperate woman into a someone I looked up to. But, with some thought, I think I may have been missing the point. She has had such an impact on many of our (reading) lives it would be a shame to leave her out.

So why did she have an impact? Well perhaps most importantly, she reminded us of ourselves at that time in our lives. I'm not saying we were all obsessed about calories, slender thighs  or alcohol units but there were bits in each diary that we could relate to. Maybe you too have turned up at a party thinking it was fancy dress...and it wasn't. Even if you haven't, that feeling of embarrassment is something every woman has been through.

As I write this I am reminded of a sketch by Harry Enfield (although I could be wrong, I couldn't find anything in a search), where there were a lot of posh people around a dinner table and all the women were saying "I am Bridget Jones" "No, I'm Bridget Jones" and so on. It was mocking the fact that so many women identified with her.

We felt awkward when around a man, we had fat days, we wore big pants to cover out tummies. And maybe, for some of us (in our early twenties), we did stupid things to impress a man or went out our way to please him.

It is quite telling that when Helen Fielding brought her back in 2005 - again as a column in The Independent - it didn't go down as well with Bridget fans. Women felt Bridget had taken a step backwards with some of her choices and not learned anything from the previous two books. Which, to me, demonstrates that Bridget Jones opens up her very honest diaries to us readers where we see her warts and all (as we do ourselves) and cheer as we see her grow and find happiness. A very honest and, some might say, normal heroine.

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Posted by Helen Redfern on June 17, 2008 in Helen's Heroines | Permalink | Comments (8)

June 10, 2008 11:33 AM

HELEN'S HEROINES: Leah Pilgrim

This weeks heroine is an understated, unassuming kind of heroine. I am sure if she were told she was a heroine she would laugh it off with disbelief. She appears in Lisa Jewell's novel, 31 Dream Street, a wonderfully warm story, filled with magic and romance.

Leah lives across the road to Toby, whose house is filled with waifs and strays. Leah often finds herself staring out of the window wondering about all the characters that live there. She has named them all. Young Skinny Guy, Old Skinny Guy, the Teenager, the Girl with the Guitar, the Air Hostess and Sybil. When she has the chance to help out Young Skinny Guy, who turns out to be Toby, she does so, and actually ends up saving him. Literally and metaphorically. Yup, the heroine of the story saves the hero. Not, the other way round.

She has the intelligence to see where her relationship with Amitabh is going. She is insightful into people's characters, is sensitive, and thoughtful. She is go-getting and unwilling to be defeated. I really, really wanted to be her.

Leah is such a great character, she appears so normal with a special spark, just like every one of us. If you don't know what I mean, read the book. It is out now in paperback.

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Posted by Helen Redfern on June 10, 2008 in British Authors, Helen's Heroines | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 3, 2008 2:06 PM

HELEN'S HEROINES: Hermione Granger

Hermione is the brains and logic behind the Harry, Ron and Hermione team. She can come over as a bit of a know-it-all and a swot, and indeed this is why Ron and Harry considered her to be arrogant and disliked her initially in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. This dislike was overturned, however, when she lied to protect them from punishment after they saved her from a troll.

J.K Rowling has admitted that Hermione is partly autobiographical, although she never set out to deliberately make her so. Hermione's know-it-all characteristics reflect both her and Rowling's fear of failure.

Hermione's growth in character can be seen throughout the seven books. Arrogant with her knowledge at the beginning, she learns to think quickly under immense and dangerous pressure, puts others before herself and is incredibly brave. Even when she is unconscious she is able to provide Harry and Ron with crucial information (in the Chamber of Secrets). She is also incredibly loyal, particularly towards Harry. This is demonstrated particularly when she blackmails Rita Skeeter into writing the truth about him (in the Order of the Phoenix). She will go to great lengths to help out her friends - even Ron.

Hermione being bookishly clever is a fantastic role model to many young girls. Often schoolgirls don't try as hard as they can at their subjects. Maybe they don't want to appear the class swot, maybe they want to impress boys or just hang out with them and Hermione is just the opposite, showing that being  a bit of a nerd can be cool. I wish I had been more like her when I was a teenager.

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Posted by Helen Redfern on June 3, 2008 in Helen's Heroines | Permalink | Comments (1)

May 27, 2008 12:54 PM

HELEN'S HEROINES: Elizabeth Bennet

How could I have got so far into my series of Helen's Heroines and not yet have written about Elizabeth Bennet? She is surely one of the most well-known female characters in English literature and also one of the most loved. If the name Elizabeth Bennet means nothing to you (!) she is from arguably the most famous of novels by Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice.

So where do I start in summarising in a few hundred words a character that has been written about for decades?  (I have to admit to a small case of writers block here just for a little while until I pulled myself together.)

Elizabeth has some really admirable qualities. She is intelligent, clever, converses brilliantly and isn't intimidated by anyone - even those of a superior class to her own. She is honest, lively and has a clever wit. She rises above the bad behaviour, the spitefulness and general nonsense that pervades the time she lives in, instead with her father, she mocks her mother and sisters for their silliness.

Her ability to mock along with her tendency to judge on first impressions are her few faults. She looks favourably upon Wickham, although he is not all he appears. She views the dashing Mr. Darcy with disdain, initially because she overheard his remark about her appearance but then also because she believed the false accounts of what Wickham says about him.

Her strength of character is demonstrated not just by overcoming her prejudices against Darcy, but also earlier in the book when she resists the proposal of marriage from Mr. Collins - despite her mother's threats. This is in contrast to her friend Charlotte who accepts the proposal from Mr. Collins even though she neither loves him or respects him but because she doesn't want to become an old maid.

I think the reason why I haven't written about Elizabeth until now is because I was slightly in awe of her. In the end I decided to do as she would do, "My courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me."

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Posted by Helen Redfern on May 27, 2008 in British Authors, Classic Novels, Helen's Heroines | Permalink | Comments (2)

May 20, 2008 11:27 AM

HELEN'S HEROINES: Kate Klein

Jennifer Weiner is fast becoming one of my favourite ever writers. One of the reasons for this is because she creates such fabulous, strong, female lead characters. I have already written about Cannie Shapiro and this week I am going to talk about another brilliant character of hers from the sharply observed novel, Goodnight Nobody.

Thanks to a kind of sliding doors moment in her life, Kate Klein, a former journalist living in New York, is now living in the suburbs in Upchurch, Connecticut, with a daughter and twin boys. Kate is clever, sharp and funny and also deeply bored of her new life. She doesn't fit in with the mothers and wives that live in Upchurch, she feels intimidated by their perfect lives, their non nut non dairy food, their yoga honed bodies and impeccable taste in clothes. Upchurch, she says, "makes Stepford look like a hotbed of revolution."

When she finds one of these mums with a knife in her back Kate finds that her life could be more exciting. Whilst her children are in nursery she becomes "Kate Klein, ace investigator of suburban wrongdoings from eight thirty to eleven forty five on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays".

Determined to find the culprit she dives into the murdered woman's life. Why is she so determined? Partly because she found the body, partly because the woman reminded her of herself but mainly because Kate thinks she is a "nobody" that she is invisible. By investigating this murder she is trying to make herself a "somebody". It makes her feel alive, that she is more than "just a housewife" which is what her thoughtless husband, Ben, says to her. Ben also goes on to tell her to "find a hobby if you need something to do with your time."  Despite his non-support Kate continues with her investigations. Instead she is helped considerably by her best friend, Janie (who is, by the way, another fantastic character).

Kate refuses to conform to Upchurch's and her husband's expectation of mothers and wives. She refuses to give in, even when threatened and without giving the end away she shows that she is no coward. I really admire her.

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Posted by Helen Redfern on May 20, 2008 in Helen's Heroines | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 13, 2008 12:13 PM

HELEN'S HEROINES: Rachel Samstat

Heartburn, the novel in which Rachel Samstat appears, has been raved about here on Trashionista. I read it,tempted by the list of Top 10 chick lit precursors, but even though I enjoyed it I did wonder what all the fuss was about. Stuck for a heroine this week (I'm being honest!) I thought I'd use Rachel, not for me, but for the many fans of the book that read this site. Before I'm pelted with key lime pie though, I have to say, when I read it for the second time, I loved the book and thoroughly enjoyed Rachel's journey.

Cookery writer, presenter and mother of a small child, with another on it's way, Rachel is distraught and thoroughly angry when she reads an inscription from her husband's mistress to her husband in a children's book. Even worse, it's from Thelma a woman she knows socially. After confronting him, he tells her he is in love with Thelma and that he thinks Rachel is a "nag" and a "grouse" amongst other lovely words. So she goes to her father's apartment in New York with Sam her son, to think and cry.

We then follow her journey, watch her husband tell her to come home, until she finally regains her strength and makes a decision.

What I like about this novel is Rachel's ability to turn even the most painful of times into a comedy. As Vera, her shrink, says, "She makes jokes even when she's feeling terrible."  This book is often described as a "thinly disguised novel" and it is well known that Nora wrote this about her husband at the time, Carl Bernstein, and his affair with former British Prime Minister James Callaghan's daughter, Margaret Jay. Like Rachel (or as Rachel as they are one and the same) Nora has turned a painful time of her life into an honest funny book and subsequent film.

But why did Nora turn such a painful time into a story for the world to read? In Rachel's words,  she tells the story so she can "control the version," and "make you laugh." That way "it doesn't hurt as much," and then she "can get on with it." All thoroughly good reasons. Rachel does not come across at all bitter and doesn't even mention the word revenge. But, for Nora, it must feel sweet all the same.

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Posted by Helen Redfern on May 13, 2008 in Helen's Heroines | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 6, 2008 1:14 PM

HELEN'S HEROINES: Darrell Rivers

Hands up who wanted to go to boarding school after reading the likes of Malory Towers by Enid Blyton? Who wanted a French teacher like Mam’zelle? I definitely wanted to be friends with Alicia, Sally, Irene and Belinda. I also wanted to sit in the common room with them, do prep with them (even though I didn’t know what ‘prep’ was at the time) and play lacrosse (ditto). I wanted Midnight Feasts and to swim in the large, natural swimming pool carved out of the Cornish coast. And most of all, I wanted, of course, to be Darrell Rivers.

Darrell is twelve when she goes to Malory Towers for the first time. Her first term however doesn’t start too well as Darrell has a tendency to lose her temper quickly, a trait she inherited from her successful surgeon father. She does however, have a sound sense of what is just and right. Even if she does deal with it in the wrong way. For example, when Gwendoline pushed Mary Lou under the water, with typical Gwen spitefulness, Darrell gave Gwen a good slapping leaving red marks on her legs. What demonstrates her strength of character though is how quickly she apologises afterwards, to both Gwendoline and the rest of the form who were thinking about sending her to Coventry. And she means it.

In her first term she falls in with the mischievous Alicia meaning her school work suffers, as although Darrell has a good brain she cannot afford to coast. Unlike Alicia who is incredibly intelligent and sharp. Darrell didn’t much like Sally at first and her temper comes to the fore once more when she shoves Sally across a room, leaving Sally groaning about her stomach. It is appendicitis though and Darrell wasn’t to blame for the pain. She does however resolve to work much harder on her temper and be nicer to Sally.

When Alicia and the rest of the form, apart from Mary-Lou and Sally turn against Darrell, believing her legendary temper responsible for a malicious attack on Mary-Lou’s fountain pen, Darrell becomes best friends with the loyal Sally and likes her much more than the sharp Alicia. Sally is cool and calm to Darrell’s hot headedness. They compliment each other well.

From the first book, First Term at Malory Towers, we quickly get a good idea of what Darrell is like. Strong minded, courageous, loyal, just, forgiving. This is a theme that follows her throughout the rest of the books. As she progresses up the school she becomes games captain, head of forms and finally head girl of the whole school.

It is not a smooth ride, as she has to resign as head of the upper fourth but soon takes it up again when she sensitively sorts out a case of sibling rivalry. When Miss Grayling, the headmistress, said to Darrell, "You will all get a tremendous lot out of your time at Malory Towers. See that you give a lot back." That is exactly what Darrell does, providing entertainment and inspiration for little girls everywhere.

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Posted by Helen Redfern on May 6, 2008 in Helen's Heroines | Permalink | Comments (4)

April 29, 2008 11:10 AM

HELEN'S HEROINES: Jemima Jones

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

Jemima J is a controversial heroine. The book by Jane Green is either loved or hated here on Trashionista with the Yay or Nay Wednesday post (amongst others) showing some strong yays and some equally strong nays. Some find it inspiring, others dislike the disjointed style of writing, the flitting between first and third person, lack of endearing characters other than Jemima and the romantic interest being, shall we say, shallow.

I have stated on this site myself that Jemima J is one of my favourite chick lit books of all time. In my twenties I read it through often, inspired by her determination and complete change in her life. It has to be said though that on reading it through again today, with eyes that have been opened somewhat with experience I can understand the reasons behind the dislikes. I even agree with some of them. My opinion of Jemima the character though has not changed.

Jemima Jones is a large girl. Her first words on opening the book are ‘God, I wish I were thin’. She wishes this to occur instantaneously, perhaps with a mild case of gastroenteritis, not life threatening but enough to make the stones melt away quickly, as she still likes her food. Lots of it.

Even though Jemima herself defines herself by her size, I won’t. She is a journalist, she’s a fantastic writer but somehow can’t get past the Top Tips column for the Kilburn Herald. She has a great sense of humour, a pretty face and is a good friend. She is also lonely, has no confidence but I feel allows her size to get in the way of promotion. She feels hefty in her own head and therefore thinks everyone else is thinking it. Each time she goes to the editor to ask for a promotion to feature writer he says maybe but nothing ever happens. Yet when her more confident thin friend goes for it she is promoted, even though she can’t write for toffee. I don’t think that her size was the issue. It was Jemima's lack of confidence and self esteem (‘why would Geraldine want to befriend someone like me’) and as we read on this becomes more and more apparent. She turns to food for comfort whilst looking at thin models in magazines.

Her editor sends Jemima and Ben (her secret crush) on an internet course and soon Jemima is cruising the internet, immersing herself in it. So much so that she joins a chat room and starts to chat to a man from LA called Brad. He sends her a photograph and she is smitten. Thanks to Photoshop she sends one back of her looking seven stone less. Seeing that photo shows Jemima how beautiful she is underneath the layers of fat and she joins a gym, eats less, if anything at all, and begins a drastic makeover of herself.

On going to LA, she eventually finds out Brad is not all he seems and through looking at some pictures of overweight women who are proud of their body she realises a few things. She still has low self esteem even though she has lost weight. She should have been proud of how she looked before. Being thin has not made her happy. If anything she is less happy than when she was fat. She states, ‘I haven’t felt myself since I lost weight.’

It isn’t the weight loss that I found so inspiring about Jemima though that is in fact amazing (and in three months dangerous and surely not to be advised). The weight loss started a chain of events. Her determination and strong willpower is one of the reasons I am featuring her today. It gave her confidence, after all it takes guts to fly to L.A when you’re secure in a routine and panic about anything outside of it. Gradually though, she starts to learn about herself, piecing things together until she realises it wasn’t her body that needed to change, but the way she perceived herself.

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Posted by Aigua Media on April 29, 2008 in Helen's Heroines, Jane Green | Permalink | Comments (7)

April 15, 2008 11:40 AM

HELEN'S HEROINES: Rachel Walsh

Helen Redfern's weekly look at the fictional females she loves...

I didn’t like Rachel Walsh when I first started to read Rachel’s Holiday by Marian Keyes. To be fair though, I don’t think she liked herself much either.

Rachel is the middle child of five sisters. Claire and Margaret being the eldest two, appearing in Watermelon and Angels, then the youngest two being Anna and Helen. Anna appears in Anybody Out There? Helen’s story is still to be written. Along with their Mammy and Dad they make up the Walsh family.

Living in New York with her best friend from Ireland, Brigit, Rachel likes to party. By that I mean she dabbles in recreational drugs and enjoys a drink. That’s how she sees it. Brigit and her boyfriend, Luke, see it differently, as we find out later.

It comes to a head when, one day, she overdoses.

Her family bring her back to Ireland sharpish, putting her into Cloisters (which is like the Betty Ford clinic). Rachel believes it a mistake. She thinks she is nowhere near being a drug addict - for a start she’s not thin enough - but she goes anyway, imaging saunas, a gym and famous people galore. It’s only when she has been in there some time that we find out what Rachel Walsh in New York was really like.

She wasn’t just dabbling in drugs. As Luke explains, "If it’s a drug, Rachel will have taken it." She had done cocaine, crack cocaine, heroin, valium…and the list goes on. It is shocking for the reader because at this stage Rachel has convinced us she was just an occasional user of cocaine. Even when heroin is read out and the group gasps Rachel angrily thinks to herself "I’d only smoked it". As if that made it alright.

The funny thing is, as the mess of Rachel’s life is explained and read out, her drug taking, sleeping around, putting herself into unsafe situations, her stealing, we really start to feel for her. Having been in Cloisters for a while already we are seeing glimpses of the real Rachel, not the chemically induced Rachel and she is funny, kind and sensitive.

We discover how in New York she is embarrassed to be with Luke and if one of the women she aspired to be friends with saw them together Rachel would leave. Part of you thinks "poor chap" but the other part thinks "poor Rachel". To have no self belief or self confidence and to have others validate your decisions for you.

It’s not so much Rachel I find inspiring, but her journey. With a little bit of help from others she claws her way back from a pit of self destruction towards a bright future. I can’t help but think, good on her.

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Posted by Aigua Media on April 15, 2008 in Helen's Heroines, Marian Keyes | Permalink | Comments (3)

April 8, 2008 11:08 AM

HELEN'S HEROINES: Pandora Braithwaite

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

On Wednesday January 14th in 1981 Adrian Mole (aged thirteen and three quarters) wrote in his secret diary that a new girl now sat next to him in Geography. Her hair was the "colour of treacle" being "long like a girl’s hair should be". He was entranced and stated "I might fall in love with her." It is on this date that Adrian’s love for Pandora Braithwaite begins, reciprocated through their teenage years, but as they grow up Pandora moves onto bigger and better things leaving Adrian trailing after her.

Adrian and Pandora appear in the following books, written by Sue Townsend, The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole, True Confessions of Adrian Albert Mole, Adrian Mole: The Wilderness Years, Adrian Mole: The Cappuccino Years and finally Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction.

Obviously the books are written from Adrian’s point of view – being his secret diaries after all – so we have to read between the lines to get some sort of a picture of Pandora’s life.

She is the daughter of Tania and Ivan, both of whom are middle class, politically active labour party members who attempt to embrace the working class. Pandora is also politically aware from an incredibly young age. I suspect part of the initial attraction to Adrian was his working class background plus, of course, his act of rebellion by wearing red socks to school. So Pandora set up the Red Sock Committee and in the process she and Adrian fell into each others arms.

Despite her so called attraction to the working class she is a snob. When Adrian asked her to come on holiday with his family to Skegness she says, "Darling I would follow you into hell, but I draw the line at Skegness."

As Pandora gets older, Adrian becomes a bit of a pain. She goes to Oxford, to study Mandarin, Russian and Serbo-Croat, but he follows her, ending up living in her box room. He slips suggestive poems under her door, riffles through her underwear drawer and snoops through her desk.

She laughs at him behind his back, although to be fair she did recommend he went to see a counsellor friend of hers, which he did. She chooses quite unsuitable men, handsome and intelligent yes, but one a serial philanderer and her husband who is openly gay.

Pandora is ruthless, callous, manipulative and at times not very nice to Adrian, who is, after all, the hero of the books. So why am I using her as this weeks heroine? She is intelligent, an achiever, someone that works incredibly hard.  She is ambitious. She has been since she could walk and talk. On reading the secret diary as a teenager myself I was impressed with her knowledge, her confidence in herself and her beliefs.

She has never wanted to settle for marrying Adrian at 16, having lots of children and waiting for him to come home. On reminiscing with Adrian about this in Weapons of Mass Destruction they both started weeping. Later Pandora sends him a text. "Thanks, Aidy. I do love you." Would she really have wanted to marry him at 16 and become a housewife? I doubt that very much, but maybe part of her wonders what if. If you look hard enough, there is someone with a little bit of softness, of vulnerability underneath. Something that isn’t first apparent on first read of the books.

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Posted by Aigua Media on April 8, 2008 in Helen's Heroines | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 1, 2008 6:55 AM

HELEN'S HEROINES: Pip McCabe

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

When I first discovered Freya North I felt a breath of fresh air had blown into the book shop. I was delighted. The characters she wrote about were feisty and fun. There was Sally, Chloe and Polly. Then the McCabe sisters Cat, Fen and Pip. Except for Fen, whom I struggled to like, just a little, I loved these characters and found it difficult to choose one for this week’s heroine. I settled on Pip though, maybe because of her clowning, possibly because of her work at the hospital as Dr. Pippity, or maybe I just warmed to  her the most.

Pip is the eldest of the three sisters who each appear in a novel called rather straightforwardly by their first names.  They also appear in each other’s novels and in the sequel about all three of them, Home Truths. The story goes that their mother ran off with a cowboy from Denver when they were very small, their Dad died, so their uncle, Django, raised them in North Derbyshire.

Pip studies clowning and acrobatics. She creates two personas. One called Merry Martha for children’s parties and entertaining and another called Dr. Pippity for her work on the children’s ward of a London hospital.

As the eldest daughter Pip takes on the role as the mother to the sisters. She doesn’t stand and wail when things go wrong, waiting for everyone to rush round and help like Cat does. She doesn’t do that irritating thing of contemplating one hand or the other when trying to make a decision, as Fen does. No, Pip is a self contained woman. She is the great-looker-afterer, requiring no looking after herself. Of course being like this does have it’s negatives (she admits to herself about being a little lonely on Sunday mornings) but personality wise these are the traits that I warmed to the most.

She proclaims she isn’t in need of a man. She has her own flat and mortgage, her career, her sisters and her friends. Her life is rich already. This is a romantic story though and however good it is to see that she doesn’t need one, it is lovely when she finds a goodun'. Meeting Zac adds to the richness rather than diminishing her in any way.

Pip swears, she drinks, she has a few neurosis’. But she doesn’t let life pass her by. She goes out and grabs her chances when she can. If she’s feeling blue and has no work on to take her mind off it, she dons her  motley and slap and stomps off to the nearest shopping centre, raising money for charity in her bucket.

Whilst working at the hospital as Dr. Pippty she would spin laughs and weave smiles. She was told by a nurse that she had ‘brought into the ward the glorious sunshine and warmth of the high June day.’ Her fun and frolics spill out of the book and I feel like Pip is a mate, adding a little warmth and sunshine to my own life.

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Posted by Keris on April 1, 2008 in Helen's Heroines | Permalink | Comments (2)

March 25, 2008 8:06 AM

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.

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Posted by Aigua Media on March 25, 2008 in Classic Novels, Helen's Heroines | Permalink | Comments (1)

March 18, 2008 12:06 PM

HELEN'S HEROINES: Heather Wells

Helen Redfern's weekly look at the fictional women she loves...

I love my job. Not just because I can lie on my bed all afternoon on a Saturday reading and therefore working (this is, to be fair, one of the major highlights). It’s also because I occasionally find fascinating, gutsy but down to earth characters making for a cracking story that I just completely and utterly submerge myself in.

For the past week my attention has been grabbed by Heather Wells. Heather appears in a series of books for adults written by Meg Cabot. She is a residence hall assistant director of a New York College and amateur detective on the side, as there appears to be a series of murders at her residence hall.

This week’s heroine was going to be about someone completely different but Heather has just barged into my life and would not leave me alone until I was hooked (and a few pounds poorer as I had to go out and buy the third book in the series immediately after finishing the second one). Heather grabs you like she grabs the scent of the murderer in the books. She determinedly holds on and hunts the killer down even though people have told her to leave well alone. And this is how you feel when you are reading the books. You just have to keep going.

The titles of the books she appears in are Size 12 is not Fat, Size 14 is not Fat Either and Size Doesn’t Matter or Big Boned in the US. (I believe the size 12 referred to is a UK size 16 and the size 14 is a UK 18). The titles are great, but do not mean in any way shape or form that Heather rules her life by her weight. Far from it.

Because of her background Heather could have been a diva, as she’s an ex pop starlet, a child star used to touring the malls and then going on to live with the singer of a boy band. She is not like that though. She’s down to earth, funny, sharp yet, like most women, also worried about her looks and whether Cooper (her landlord and ex fiancé’s brother) is interested in her. Unlike a lot of so called heroines though she doesn’t sit around waiting for him to announce his love or live her life by the amount of calories she eats. No she works in Fischer Hall, which allows her to get an education, something she missed out on whilst touring the malls, and gets on with her life (and saving others whilst she’s at it).

Despite her mother disappearing with her money and her father being in prison for fraud she creates a family with those she works (and lives) with. They care for her and look out for her and she in turn for them. Some even fancy her. And when someone is murdered in her residence hall she gets angry and will not let it rest until the real killer has been caught. Even if it means putting her own life in danger. I am also happy to say that she never relies on a man coming to save her. She is well able to handle herself.

Heather is principled. She left the world of pop music because she refused to churn out any more sugary lyrics. She turns down an offer to get back into the business (of sorts) too. Refusing the easy money for her work and an education. You’ve got to admire her for that.

So. I have come to the end of the three books in the series and feel bereft. I enjoyed having Heather around. She has spunk and drive and a personality. But then all is not lost. As reported yesterday on Trashionista, Meg is writing two more books in the Heather Wells series. They will be out sometime next year and I can’t wait.

Related posts: Size 12 Is Not Fat review | Size 14 Is Not Fat Either Review | Size Doesn't Matter review

Posted by Aigua Media on March 18, 2008 in Helen's Heroines, Series | Permalink | Comments (2)

March 11, 2008 1:08 PM

HELEN'S HEROINES: Samantha Sweeting

Helen Redfern's weekly look at the fictional women she loves...

Even though I was highly entertained by The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella, I didn’t feel the main character, Samantha, was inspirational. She is clever and in a position of great importance, soon to be a partner of a law firm, yet I felt, a tad stupid at real life. As the story unfolds the message her character expressed to me is that women cannot cope with highly stressful jobs and should stay out of the city. Then, she is waiting for a man to ‘save her’. I thought this was a book with a plot set in the dark ages only dressed up as modern because the woman has a fancy career.

Yet when I was talking to a few of my friends this woman came up as a good inspirational character. A woman who had inspired them to look at their life differently and make a few changes. So I looked at her afresh. I saw she had turned her life around. She didn’t put up with the pompousness of city life. She saw through it and realised that there is more to life than working yourself to the bone. And maybe there is something in that. I gave up my city job when I’d had my child as I couldn’t face the politics, the egos, the trying to impress someone all the time. Until I rediscovered my love of writing I was disappointed with myself giving up on my old career, so maybe I was transferring some of these issues onto the unsuspecting Samantha. But then it isn’t a sleight at the feminist movement to not work all hours and have a brilliant city career. True equality surely means a woman has a choice.

Samantha Sweeting is a workaholic. Her working life is divided and dictated by six minute chunks. Every six minutes she is supposed to bill a client. She doesn’t have time for anything else. For sorting out her home life, for life with family, or even for having a life.  As Samantha says “You get used to measuring your life in little chunks. And you get used to working. All the time.”

Samantha is also highly intelligent. She has a fantastic head for figures but her office looks like a bomb has hit it. When she realises she has made a mistake she leaves the office in a daze and walks onto the nearest train, finding herself at the door of a household that requires a housekeeper. She is undomesticated, in her own words she admits “OK, maybe I can’t sew on a button. But I can restructure a corporate finance agreement and save my clients thirty million pounds.” This fails to impress her neighbour leaving Samantha to call out “Did you never hear of feminism?” And Samantha is right. Why should it be expected that women be domesticated. But by the same argument why are domesticated women seen as letting the feminist side down?

Of all the characters I have studied for this column, so far, Sophie Kinsella’s creation has been the character I have had to think about the most. She is not straightforwardly brave, like George Kirrin, or Nancy Drew. She isn’t doing a dangerous job like Tonks, or Jane Rizzoli. In this day and age where much is expected of women in the working world but there still aren’t the same opportunities as men, it is incredibly brave of Samantha to take on the law firm that accused her of messing up a £50 million deal, to clear her name, but then to turn her back on the partnership and the money for a calmer life. The man in the story didn’t save her. He just demonstrated that there is more to life than working. Samantha saw she had a choice and saved herself.

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Posted by Keris on March 11, 2008 in Helen's Heroines, Sophie Kinsella | Permalink | Comments (1)

March 4, 2008 3:00 PM

HELEN'S HEROINES: Nancy Drew

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

Whilst watching the film The Swiss Family Robinson the other day, I was struck at how the woman, ‘mother’, was left out of doing the work and therefore, it seemed to me, left out of having any fun. She was just sitting on the beach watching her husband and three sons, day after day. Being female looked really boring.

I couldn’t help but mutter to my son about women and their portrayal on the TV. I know The Swiss Family Robinson is meant to be about a family about 200 years ago, but I still continued to mutter (though my four year old wasn’t that interested to be honest). Growing up I was drawn to strong heroines which was also reflected in my choice of toy. I didn’t want a pretend ironing board; no, I wanted a train set. Or a magnifying glass so I could look for clues and be an ‘amateur sleuth’ just like this week’s heroine, Nancy Drew.

Nancy Drew was written by one of my writing heroines, Carolyn Keene. Imagine my shock when I discovered only a few days ago, that Carolyn is a pseudonym for the syndicate behind the series. Where have I been?! It has even been mentioned on Trashionista, and I am now reading about books* that have been written on the Nancy Drew phenomenon which will cover far more than I can here. So I am writing this as an innocent fan of both Nancy Drew and Carolyn Keene (who was really, amongst other writers, Mildred Wirt Benson and Harriet Stratemeyer Adams).

But another shock was to hit me. Nancy Drew is over seventy five years old. She was created in 1930 and in those times was portrayed as independent, active, driving at high speeds and carrying a gun – the latter is not something I’m advocating you understand – just a demonstration of how different she was from the era she lived in. A feisty girl was something different but something the girls’ living in the 1930s wanted and was ready for. From the 1940s onwards she became less reckless, and had more respect for adults but still retained that independent and active spirit.

She is neither a tomboy nor into the glamorous side of being a girl. She has her friends George and Bess to fulfil those roles. She falls somewhere in between. She isn’t boastful about her achievements (and in seventy five years she has solved a lot of mysteries for an eighteen year old) “I blushed slightly … I can face down a hardened criminal or recalcitrant witness without batting an eye, but its always a little unnerving when regular people recognise me based on my reputation for amateur sleuthing.”

She has her faults, as her good friend Bess says “…I don’t know how you can be so sharp and organised about solving mysteries and so scatterbrained about everything else…” But this just helps to make a fully rounded, inspirational heroine.

Nancy Drew is brave, confident and daring (so called male traits) and also polite, kind, sensitive and caring (so called female traits). She doesn’t give up on her passions or hobbies for a date with her boyfriend (poor old Ned Nickerson), but is plucky and goes out into the dark, on her own, with her trusty flashlight. She doesn’t wish that she were a boy. She doesn’t sit around looking bored. Instead she shows just how great and exciting it can be to be a girl.

* Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her by Melanie Rehak

Related: Helen's Heroines archives

Posted by Keris on March 4, 2008 in Helen's Heroines | Permalink | Comments (1)

February 26, 2008 12:13 PM

HELEN'S HEROINES: Cannie Shapiro

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

Candace Shapiro, more commonly referred to as Cannie, is the heroine from Jennifer Weiner’s debut novel Good In Bed. Happily beavering away as a writer of weddings for a Philadelphia newspaper, her life is thrown a curveball when her ex writes a magazine column about her being a ‘larger woman’ with him needing an ‘act of courage in our world’ to love her. This, quite understandably, plunges her into misery, bringing a lot of feelings she thought she’d conquered back to the surface and dramatically starting a chain of events that changes her life.

Cannie has similarities with the author. Both she and Weiner are Princeton Graduates, both were journalists in Philadelphia, both have a dysfunctional family and both have body-confidence issues. They also share the same fabulously ‘snarky’ (as Weiner describes it) sense of humour.

Cannie is bright, independent, sharp, and funny. She is ambitious; she had to be as her father left leaving the family with little money. She states that ‘With my college debts I was always scrambling for the next rung on the ladder…’ But she also has flaws and this is what makes her such a wonderful person. She is vulnerable. She quietly craves her fathers love and attention, only to be knocked back again and again. Her neuroses about her body stem from her father telling her that she was ugly, fat and hideous. It is little wonder she thinks so little of herself sometimes. ‘So here I am. Twenty eight years old, with thirty looming on the horizon. Drunk. Fat. Alone. Unloved. And worst of all a cliché, Ally McBeal and Bridget Jones together, which was probably how much I weighed…’ Even feeling at her lowest she still manages a sense of humour. But don’t be misled by this quote. She is nothing like Bridget (or Ally). She is bothered by her weight but her days aren’t consumed by number of calories eaten.

The main reason why I am inspired by her is summed up by her agent when describing the female lead in Cannie’s screenplay. “I loved that your lead character had such faith in herself. So many romantic comedies, it seems, the female lead has to be rescued somehow…by love, or by money, or a fairy godmother. I loved that Josie just rescued herself, and believed in herself the whole time.”

By describing the lead in the screenplay the agent is also, unknowingly, describing Cannie. Cannie achieves success and happiness despite her ex and her father. I can identify with her not only as a fellow writer, but as a woman and the journey that she goes on (not that any ex-boyfriend of mine has, to my knowledge, written about me). I am motivated by her almost to the point of leaving this book by my computer so I can see it and be reminded by her everyday.

Cannie’s life may have been changed by something out of her control. Initially she may have been made miserable by it. But she didn’t just roll over and accept it. On a rollercoaster ride she grabs the situation with both hands and turns it around into one big, huge advantage. All by herself.

The sequel to Good In Bed entitled Certain Girls comes out in April this year. I, for one, cannot wait.

Helen's Heroines archives

Look out for a special Jennifer Weiner giveaway in the next couple of weeks!

Posted by Keris on February 26, 2008 in Helen's Heroines | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 19, 2008 4:31 PM

HELEN'S HEROINES: Jane Rizzoli

Helen Redfern's weekly column on her female fictional faves...

Jane Rizzoli. 'Who’s she?' I hear you ask. This heroine is not as well known as some of my others. So let me introduce you to this character I only came across myself a year ago.

Jane Rizzoli is a Boston homicide detective in the Jane Rizzoli/Maura Isles series of books by Tess Gerritsen. These are hard hitting, graphic and a little gory, something I never thought I’d be interested in. I am officially a squeamish scaredy cat and could never, for example, read Stephen King. But after reading my first Tess Gerritsen book I was hooked. This partly because of the interesting and inspiring character that is Jane Rizzoli.

Jane is intelligent, insightful and as hard as nails. She’s a good cop and will not rest until she has caught the perp (that’s the perpetrator to you and me). She can be volatile and impulsive and indeed, particularly in the first book she appears in, she is initially brittle and not very likeable.

She has to work extremely hard as the only female in a male dominated homicide unit. Not only is she an outsider at work, she is also the only girl in a family of brothers. She is often the object of scorn and derision by her fellow detectives and her brothers don’t treat her much better either.

Dr. Maura Isles, a Boston Medical examiner, is a friend of Jane’s. They met on the job. Maura is the cool, calm and distant character based, in part, on the author. Jane is almost the opposite being, according to Gerritsen “hot tempered, passionate and painfully blunt.” She goes on to say, “Sometimes she infuriates me. (And infuriates my readers as well.) But one thing she never does is bore me.”

As the series of books progress we see Jane’s chip on her shoulder shrink substantially. She becomes softer and happier as her life changes. In the first book she appears in, The Surgeon, she played a secondary character that Gerritsen planned to kill off at the end. But “something stopped me … She’d grown on me. She had so much heart, she’d faced so many struggles, that to end her life there struck me as appallingly unfair. So I let her live. (And I’m damn glad I did.)”

So am I, Tess, because with Jane you have introduced me to a completely different genre of reading, one I never thought I would contemplate but has given me huge enjoyment (and has also spooked me on many occasions). For that I am incredibly grateful. Discovering Jane Rizzoli was a great reward for trying a different type of book.

Related posts: Bloodstream by Tess Gerritsen review | Roberta from The Railway Children | George Kirrin

Posted by Keris on February 19, 2008 in Crime / Mystery, Helen's Heroines, Series | Permalink | Comments (4)

February 12, 2008 12:15 PM

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

Posted by Keris on February 12, 2008 in Classic Novels, Helen's Heroines | Permalink | Comments (3)

February 5, 2008 8:34 AM

HELEN'S HEROINES: Nymphadora Tonks

Helen's weekly column on her fictional female heroes...

She is known simply as Tonks. A feisty but sometimes clumsy witch, she makes a smashing entrance in the Harry Potter series when Harry hears “a crash in the kitchen below.”  She may only be a secondary character, not making her appearance until book five (The Order of the Phoenix), but she is a young woman who makes a substantial impression on Harry and his friends. The warmth and affection for Tonks is evident from the many fan sites on the internet dedicated to her.

She is bright and talented but full of mischief. She delights in teasing the dour Professor Moody, rolling her eyes and asking him questions like, "Who d’you know who’s lost a buttock?" Along with her razor sharp wit comes her ability to change her appearance at will. Rowling tells us that technically this makes her a Metamorphmagus and throughout the books Tonks appears with a variety of colourful hair colours, only resorting to her normal colour when she is depressed.

Like heroines in previous columns she too prefers to be known by a variation of her real name stating, “So would you if your fool of a mother had called you Nymphadora.”

She is not much older than Harry, with a number of websites suggesting she was born in 1973 - having worked out a timeline for her based on facts from the books and snippets from Ms Rowling herself. Amazing. Working for the Ministry of Magic, Tonks is an Auror and is always to be found in the thick of the action, fighting death eaters in the Department of Mysteries, spying and guarding Hogwarts School. With all her powers, she is one of Harry’s staunchest allies and protectors as a member of the Order of the Phoenix.

Tonks may consider her mother a "fool" for calling her Nymphadora but her mother bravely chose to marry a muggle to the consternation of the rest of her family – the Black family. History repeats itself as Tonks herself also falls for an inappropriate man, the sometimes scary, sometimes kindly Professor Lupin – who has a very slight problem every full moon. Despite these challenges, Tonks perseveres – a sign of her determined character. Throughout the books she never gives in, in love and in fighting and unsurprisingly was there at the final battle.

She has courage, humour and isn’t afraid to show her feelings. She is one of the youngest characters aside from the students and may appear as a young rebel but there is far more depth beneath her gregarious and happy-go-lucky personality. Underneath the changing hair colour, the different faces, and her love for Lupin is a fiercely determined young woman, very talented, a great team player and a huge asset not only to the Order of the Phoenix but also to the entire Harry Potter phenomenon.

Related posts: George Kirrin | Jo March

Posted by Keris on February 5, 2008 in Helen's Heroines | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 29, 2008 4:20 PM

HELEN'S HEROINES: Jane Marple

Helen's weekly column about the fictional characters who've inspired her... (Can I just add that I wanted a non-TV/movie pic to go with this, but couldn't find one ... so I picked the one that made me laugh the most.)

Miss Marple. Some might feel a strange choice of heroine, especially considering my last two were tomboys, and shall I say, slightly younger. But, you see, I’m thinking ahead, to when I’m seventy plus, hoping that a) I make it that far, and b) my faculties are half as sharp as hers.

Created by the late, great Agatha Christie, Jane Marple is born around sixty five years of age in the late 1920s, appearing in her first novel The Murder at the Vicarage (she also appeared in several short stories around the same time). She lives in the quiet, pretty village of St. Mary Mead - which is the backdrop to many a murder.

She doesn’t look like a detective. In her earlier books she typically wore a black dress, black lace gloves and a lace cap. After the Second World War she reappeared a little more youthful, more contemporary. Still grey haired, wearing tweed and doing her knitting. She also has rheumatism, stiff fingers, a stiff neck, poor eyesight (at times), her hearing starts to go and occasionally she has pneumonia. This does not stop her quest for uncovering the truth, often saving innocent people from being hung for a crime they did not commit and instead trapping the real criminals.

In her time she has caught countless murderers, foiled burglaries, blackmail plots, embezzlements and other evil wrong doings. How? “You simply cannot afford to believe everything that people tell you,” she would say. As Christie herself said of her; “She always expected the worst of everyone and everything, and was, with almost frightening accuracy, usually proved right.”

Miss Marple acts like a frail, fluttery old woman, making people open up to her. After all how dangerous could she be, this harmless old lady?  But behind the clacking of the knitting needles, this intelligent, shrewd lady is observing. Listening. Letting people talk and letting them effectively, quite literally in those days, hang themselves. She often arrives at her conclusions through being reminded of parallel, but more trivial incidents in St. Mary Mead. Then she would ramble on with a seemingly irrelevant analogy talking “away about maids and desserts” until wham, she names the culprit and they realise she has known about them all along.  You can not help but be impressed.

At other times though, the fine actress as she is, can adapt her personality and become more astute, soothing, and at times incredibly cunning and devious, telling lies and setting elaborate traps. In certain cases she lends herself as bait or actually catches the murderer. A very brave woman.

‘Never judge a book by its cover’ is a cliché that applies rigorously to Jane Marple. She may look frail. The Police and criminals seriously underestimate her. For the criminals they do so at their cost. Many Chief Inspectors gradually come to respect this amazing woman. According to one Police Officer she has got “the Chief Constables of at least three counties in her pocket.” This women is formidable, even going into her eighties.

She isn’t a feminist, she can be quite old maid-ish and traditional at times, but she is a fine example of a strong, independent woman, capably getting on with her life.  For Miss Marple nothing could be nicer, in her twilight years, than having a nice juicy murder to solve.

Related posts: Jo March | George Kirrin

Posted by Keris on January 29, 2008 in Helen's Heroines | Permalink | Comments (1)

January 22, 2008 10:42 AM

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

Posted by Keris on January 22, 2008 in Classic Novels, Helen's Heroines | Permalink | Comments (1)

January 15, 2008 12:21 PM

HELEN'S HEROINES: George Kirrin

I'm very excited to introduce a new series - Helen's Heroines - a weekly look at a fictional character much loved by our regular writer, Helen Redfern.

The Famous Five. Well known for lashings of ginger pop, middle class children roaming the countryside and in the eyes of modern society, for being slightly politically incorrect.

For me The Famous Five books stirred my sense of adventure and imagination. I quickly devoured them all.

The character that stood out for me, whom I aspired to be like as a young girl (and therefore was the first person I thought of for this series) was George. It is with respect to her that I won’t call her Georgina.

‘Rude’, ‘haughty’ and ‘a funny little girl’ are just some of the words used to describe George. And these by her own mother.

As an only child the first eleven years of her life were rather lonely until one summer holiday her cousins, Julian, Dick and Anne came to stay. She was rather prickly with them at first, but, due to the kindness they showed toward Timothy her dog and the way he took to them, she was convinced that they were jolly nice cousins and so began the first of many adventures for The Famous Five.

George was ahead of her time, defying the traditional gender stereotype. In this respect, the author, Enid Blyton, was also defying traditional gender roles as this is the character she once admitted was based upon herself. If George were around today she wouldn’t need to act like a boy in order to prove that she was smart, strong and self assured. Girls have these qualities without cutting their hair short or calling themselves by a boys name.

George had a huge impact on me. I’m not saying she made me an ardent feminist but I did realise I had choices. Reading about George I realised I could be strong and bright and confident too.

Even simple things like her refusal to be called Georgina. Her belief that she is better than a boy whether swimming, climbing or rowing. When Anne her cousin describes Timothy the dog she reveals something of George’s character. “He’s like George,” said Anne with a laugh. “He never gives up, whatever happens to him.”

She is headstrong, courageous and has a fiery temper. She is kind hearted and loyal. Once a friend she is always your friend. Sometimes though she can be foolish especially where Tim or her island is involved.

George Kirrin firmly believes she is ‘as good as any boy’. I have to disagree.

To me, she is far, far better and hopefully an inspiration to little girls for many more years to come.

Related posts: Thursday Trailblazer - Enid Blyton | Best women authors of all time | What book first got you hooked?

Posted by Keris on January 15, 2008 in Helen's Heroines | Permalink | Comments (3)