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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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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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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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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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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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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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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

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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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

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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.

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

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

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: 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

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

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?

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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?