Taking inspiration from the world of the Brontës - Miriam Halahmy

Haworth 1847. When Mother and her beloved twin brothers are taken by the Haworth ‘miasma’, to keep her family from the workhouse, Kate, 15, takes a job at the Parsonage, home to the Brontë family. Kate dreams of being a writer. Poverty and gender stand in her way and Luke Feather who wants to marry her, believes writing a waste of time.
When Charlotte Brontë discovers Kate’s passion for books and writing, an important friendship develops. Kate begins to embrace Charlotte’s radical ideas of equality and is thrilled when she spots clues that the Brontë sisters are writing stories. But how can Kate achieve her ambitions to write, while locked into the daily struggle to survive in Haworth?

I have also written since childhood and have been fascinated by the Brontës’ ever since I first visited their home, The Parsonage in Haworth, Yorkshire and saw one of the tiny books displayed under a magnifying glass. Patrick Brontë, their father, was the Reverend in the church which they could see from their bedroom windows. Sadly the children lost their mother and two older sisters in early childhood. The four remaining children became very close and their writing was the centre of their lives together.

I have read the Brontë novels and have always loved nineteenth century fiction. But in 2016 a new biography of Charlotte Brontë was published by Claire Harman. In this book she writes how a new servant comes to work at the Parsonage, Martha Brown. Martha is strong and very willing – but she is only eleven years old!

The Bronte Parsonage (Photo: Miriam Halahmy)

“I am just going to write because I cannot help it.”

Charlotte Brontë wrote these passionate words as a teenage girl. By that time, together with her sisters and brother, Emily, Anne and Branwell, she had been writing since childhood. These were the famous little books written in very tiny script, so that adults couldn’t spy on their imaginary worlds. It is estimated that Charlotte wrote about 100,000 words before she started Jane Eyre, her most famous novel.

Charlotte's little book - 1830 - aged 14 years (Photo: Miriam Halahmy)

Now here comes the mystery of fiction. This sentence triggered a What If in my mind. What if a girl – Kate, fifteen years, very poor, – comes to work at the Parsonage. Kate has a secret ambition to write, and she is gifted. And what if Kate comes to the attention of Charlotte Brontë?
That was enough to send me into a spin. I immediately began reading everything about the Brontës I could lay my hands on and started writing scenes and characters. This was a very exciting idea and I was determined to write the book. But I needed some help.
I was awarded an Art Council Grant to research and write the book. Ann Dinsdale, Principal Curator at the Brontë Parsonage Museum opened the archives for me.

Researching in the Bronte Parsonage Museum archives (Photos: Miriam Halahmy)

Haworth is such a gift to a novelist. The old village is untouched in many places. It is really possible to walk down the steep cobbled Main Street and imagine walking in the footsteps of the famous novelist family. In the Parsonage you can enter their rooms, the kitchen, Patrick’s study and even see the dining table where the sisters wrote their novels. I would stand for ages, imagining scenes for my book and taking photos.

Main Street, Haworth (Photo: Miriam Halahmy)

The sisters' dining table (Photo: Miriam Halahmy)

We also know that the sisters and Branwell walked all over the moors above the village. I walked in their footsteps in snow, sunshine and rain, with the wind wuthering and the larks rising above me on fine days. I’ve seen heather in bloom, the dew ponds left behind from the old quarries and the remains of the three Withins farms. Top Withins might have been the setting for Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë.

At the ruins of Top Withins (Photo: Miriam Halahmy)

I spent a year researching my book and then a year writing it. It's been a wonderful journey and now I have all the pleasure of taking my book out into the world. It is proudly on display in the Parsonage Museum bookshop and I have been invited to speak in schools and universities. I hope that my story of a poor girl who comes under the influence of Charlotte Brontë, will encourage a whole new generation of readers to explore the writing and the radical ideas of the Brontë sisters, as much as they have inspired me.

On the shelves at The Bronte Parsonage bookstore (Photo: Miriam Halahmy)

Miriam Halahmy has published eleven novels, three collections of poetry, short stories, articles and book reviews. She has been writing 'since she could hold a pencil' and the most important thing she did as a child was reading. Miriam was a teacher for twenty five years and continues to enjoy meeting young people to talk about her lifelong love of literature and her personal commitment to writing. Her books have been published in America, translated into several languages, adapted for the stage and she has been twice nominated for the Carnegie Medal. Miriam has been fascinated by the Brontë family since childhood and her latest novel, The Bronte Girl, has allowed her to immerse herself in the work and lives of the most famous literary family in the world.

Website : www.miriamhalahmy.com

Instagram : miriamhalahmy

You had me at hello – Ally Sherrick reveals what it is that makes the opening of a favourite book so special

This tear-jerker of a line spoken by the romantic heroine in the 1996 Hollywood movie Jerry Maguire after her successful sports agent husband makes a last ditch attempt to save their marriage, might not at first glance appear to have too much to do with a roll-call of classic novels that have endured the test of time. But it does if you think about how some of the best of them begin.    

 ‘All children except one, grow up.’

‘It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.’ 

‘In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.’ 

These are all great story openers. Whether for children or older readers, they are lines that draw you in, make you curious, even desperate to find out more.

Every one of us will have our favourites of course.

This is the one which resonates most with me. As with the others, you’ll know which book it comes from, I’m sure:

‘There was no possibility of taking a walk that day.’

With that line Charlotte Bronte pushes open the door to her story, inviting the reader to step inside. To find out who is speaking and why something as simple as a walk is such an impossiblity. And the person who lies waiting on the other side? Why it’s poor, unloved young orphan, Jane Eyre. She’s hiding behind a thick red curtain in a window seat, doing her best to escape both the rainstorm outside and the harsh treatment by her adoptive family within by burying her head in a book. But it’s not just any old book. It’s one full of shipwrecks, abandoned churchyards and ghosts. Pure catnip for any bookworm, especially if, like me, you enjoy reading stories with a gothic twist.

Caption: From film version of Jane Eyre (2011)

And now you’re in, there’s plenty more the author does to keep you there – to make you want to read on.

At first it seems that Jane has been successful in getting away from the scolding tongue of her Aunt Reed and the cruel taunts of her three cousins. But this is merely the calm before the real storm. All too quickly Jane’s hiding place is discovered by her nemesis, John Reed, the bully-boy of an older cousin who likes nothing better than to taunt and belittle his poor relation.

You’re well and truly hooked now. What is going to happen to poor Jane? Will she manage to slip past him? Escape his clutches and run to her room? But no. The beastly John has trapped her. True to form, he humiliates her, reminding her that if it wasn’t for them, she’d be on the streets begging. Then, after trying unsuccessfully to make her call him ‘Master’, he turns violent. Snatching up the book she’s been reading, he throws it at her, knocking her to the ground.

But Jane isn’t the sort of heroine to take things lying down. She gets to her feet and shouts back at him and when John raises his hand to strike her, she makes to defend herself. We’re well and truly on her side by now – but what will happen next? John is so much bigger than she is ...

It’s then that the author delivers her master-stroke. The door bangs open and in walks Jane’s Aunt Reed, a woman who we know already from what Jane tells us, refuses to blame her beloved son, John for any of his many crimes. Who calls him her ‘own darling’ and believes he can do no wrong. Jane’s troubles have clearly gone from bad to worse. We are compelled to stay with her, to find out what might be in store, though we have a nasty feeling already that it will not end well.

And of course, it doesn’t. Things become worse still. Jane is accused of starting the fight and on her aunt’s orders, the servants cart her away and lock her in for the night in the dreaded ‘Red Room’, a place Jane believes to be haunted by the ghost of her long-dead uncle. She falls down in a faint and ... Well, if you don’t know the story already, the author will surely have done more than enough by now to encourage you to read on.

 

I was lucky enough to have the chance to do my own
retelling of ‘Jane Eyre’ for schools

Jane Eyre was first published in 1847. It is a book of its time – the many credibility-stretching coincidences of plot, the unsympathetic portrayal of Mr Rochester’s mentally-ill wife, Bertha Mason, and the final third of the novel in which Jane comes perilously close to becoming the missionary wife of her devoutly religious cousin, St. John Rivers, are a serious test for our credulity and modern sensibilities. But all that withstanding, it is deservedly a classic, not least because of its brilliant opening pages, which for me, ensured that it did indeed have me at hello ...   

This week's YouTube writing challenge is available to watch here.

Ally Sherrick is the author of books full of history, mystery and adventure including Black Powder, winner of the Historical Association’s Young Quills Award 2017, The Buried Crown and Tudor-Set adventure, The Queen’s Fool. She is published by Chicken House Books and her books are widely available in bookshops and online. You can find out more about her and her books at www.allysherrick.com and follow her on Twitter: @ally_sherrick

Ally's version of Jane Eyre is available to buy here.