hopeless 18 October 2009
I tried reading Jane Austen about 25/30 years ago and just didn’t ‘get’ her and I am ashamed to say I have not made any decent attempt since – even though I have the most wonderful entire matching hardback collection on my bookshelves. However, over the years I have adored the tv and film adaptations of the work and am obviously untroubled and unfettered (see above) by how accurate or faithful they are to the original written word. She is fiendishly clever at getting people out of impossibles situations, it seems, and can wring a heart like no other when it comes to romance. I am awash after tonight’s EMMA and will DIE if Jonny Lee Milller doesn’t end up with Romola Garai (which, of course, he will…he MUST) and as you can see I am now even mixing fiction with real life names. I adore anything that handles falling in love so well and can even accept that it all ends happily ever after (in apote of getting all cynical in actual life sometimes) cos, well, sometimes it does…doesn’t it??? I love to write a bit of romance myself and it can be a cathartic moment when you bring two wonderful characters together – I will confess that I am more than a little in love with a few of the men I have invented…and I would lie under a moving tank to protect my right to make them up and then have affairs with them…swoon…well, time for a cold shower and bed now – up at 6am and there ain’t nothin’ romantic about that…
