Searching
For Captain Wentworth
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| Searching for Captain Wentworth |
In
the present, Sophie's friendship with Josh gets off to a shaky start. She
cannot help being attracted to a man who loves Jane Austen's Persuasion as much
as she does - though she's determined not to fall for any man again. Besides,
it seems Josh is already taken …
Torn between her life in the modern world
and that of the past, Sophie's story travels two hundred years and back again
as she tries to find her own Captain Wentworth. And as she comes to believe
that her happiness may depend upon risking everything, she learns that she
isn't the only one caught in a heartbreaking dilemma. Her friend, Jane Austen,
has her own quest for happiness, her own secrets and heartache.
I enjoyed writing this book so much - blending fact and fiction together, drawing on Jane Austen's life, novels and letters, in
an attempt to create a believable world behind the
inspiration for Jane Austen's beloved novel, Persuasion.
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| The garden of 4 Sydney Place |
Some
of the experiences Sophie has in the book are based on dreams I’ve had or on
real (or what I thought were real) events. I’m not usually someone who believes
in ghosts but I’m pretty sure I’ve a friendly teasing one, who visits me
occasionally when I’m in Bath. It opens doors in the night that I know I have
firmly shut and it will occasionally pull my hair - so slightly that I wonder
if it’s just got caught in a clasp of a necklace - before I realise I’m not
wearing one! But, you’ve only got to walk around Bath for an hour or so
especially on a winter’s day when it’s shrouded in mist and decorated with
cobwebs sprinkled with sparkles of raindrops, to “feel” and “see” its Georgian
inhabitants walking along the cobbled streets. There is such an atmosphere!
Blink - and I think you could pass through a layer of time to the one of your
choice.
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| Jane Odiwe |
The
portrait and its history made me wonder about the time before much of Jane’s
life is documented. We really don’t know much about what went on in the family
when she was in her early teens. The painting is said to have been commissioned
by her Great-Uncle Francis and then there are all sorts of references in her
books which seem to provide clues about the portrait - notably in Mansfield
Park. The dress given to Fanny by her uncle is white with a glossy spot, as is
the dress in the portrait, and I know I’m not the first person to wonder if she
was remembering this dress when she wrote her book. Professor Marilyn Butler
spotted the reference to a locket in Sense and Sensibility - Elinor says ‘…they
had not known each other a week, I believe, before you were certain that
Marianne wore his picture round her neck; but it turned out to be only the
miniature of our Great Uncle.’ Could it be that the locket Jane wears around
her neck was one given to her by Great Uncle Francis around the time the portrait
was painted?
I
started to wonder whether there were reasons that the portrait is cloaked in so
much mystery. Were there other stories hidden in time and secrets never to be
told? After all, Jane had said in Emma, ‘...There are secrets in all families, you
know.’ And because there is so little written about Jane’s time in Bath, it was
the perfect chance for a novelist like myself to imagine some of the time that
she spent there.
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| Lyme Regis |
Museum
develops slowly, she’s very wary of becoming involved with anyone after her
last disastrous relationship. And weaving alongside is Jane’s own story of lost
chances. I drew on much for inspiration here - Jane’s novels, in particular
Persuasion, her letters, the Rice portrait and her “seaside romance.”
Sydney
Gardens is opposite Jane Austen's house in Bath. It features in several pivotal
scenes
in my book. The gardens have changed since Jane Austen's day - known as pleasure
gardens then, they featured such delights as bowling greens, a Labyrinth or
maze, a “small, delightful grove”, waterfalls, pavilions and Merlin's Swing,
which stood at the heart of the Labyrinth - a revolving swing wheel from where
the “lost” could be watched in the maze below. There were alcoves to enjoy tea,
castle ruins, a millhouse and wheel, a hermit's cot and a Grotto with an
underground passage leading to the centre of the Labyrinth. The New Bath Guide
in 1801 describes some of the walks - “serpentine walks, which at every turn
meet with sweet shady bowers furnished with handsome seats, some canopied by
Nature, others by Art.” A Ride provided “a healthy and fashionable airing for
Gentlemen and Ladies on horseback free from the inconvenience of dirt in winter
and dust in summer and not incommoded by carriages of any kind.”
The
wonderful description of a pleasure garden below was written by Tobias Smollett
in his book, The Adventures of Humphry Clinker.
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| Sydney Gardens today |
Pleasure
gardens developed naturally from the custom of promenading, and in Bath the
concept was taken a step further with Sydney Gardens when the traditional
promenading area was combined with a scheme of houses so that the owners could
look upon green spaces as if they owned the land. Thomas Baldwin, the architect
to the Pulteney family who owned the estate drew up the first plans, but only
one of his terraces was completed before financial problems hit in 1793. Great
Pulteney Street was completed, as were the houses in Sydney Place where Jane
Austen came to live in 1801. Bath stopped at this point, the countryside
stretched beyond, and a ten minute walk took you into town, much as it does
today. You can see why the Austens would have chosen this end of the city. They
were country people at heart, and Jane wrote of walking in the gardens and
visiting the Labyrinth every day.
A silver token was issued to each shareholder as a free pass into the pleasure garden - the coin featured an image of what we know as the Holburne Museum today. Back then the museum was a hotel and tavern at various different stages, and sitting (as it still does) at the end of Great Pulteney Street made a fabulous focal point at the end of this classically inspired vista. The museum has recently undergone extensive re-modelling, and the new exhibitions inside are wonderful. There is a lovely cafe at the back where you can enjoy some refreshment, inside and out, and you can get a sense of what it must have been like to attend 'public breakfasts' in Jane Austen's day.
Sydney Gardens opened in May 1795 with the Tavern building known as Sydney House nearest to the city, containing dining rooms and meeting rooms. There were two wings on both sides of dining cubicles, a movable orchestra, and a space for fireworks. There was a main, wide walk, and narrower pathways leading off into shrubberies and winding walks. The gala Jane Austen attended on 4th June 1799 was spoilt by rain, so she went to the repeat performance two weeks later. She enjoyed the fireworks and illuminations, but not the music, which she avoided by not arriving until nine o'clock!
Constance Hill wrote about the interior of the house the Austen family lived in for a while at number 4, Sydney Place, a hundred years after Jane had left.
We
sat in the pretty drawing-room with its three tall windows overlooking the
Gardens. The morning sun was streaming in at these windows and falling upon the
quaint empire furniture which pleasantly suggests the Austen's sojourn there.
The house is roomy and commodious. Beneath the drawing-room, which is on the
first floor, are the dining-room and arched hall from which a passage leads to
a garden at the back of the house. The large old-fashioned kitchen, with its
shining copper pans and its dresser laden with fine old china, looked as if it
had remained untouched since the Austens' day.
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| 4 Sydney Place |
Writing
about my favourite places in Bath and Lyme has been so exciting and imagining
the lives and loves of my characters in those places has made this book a joy
to write. I would just caution you to be extra careful when passing through
gateways and doorways in Bath - especially look out for a white cast iron gate
in Sydney Gardens and the revolving doors of the Pump Rooms - you never know
where you might find yourself in time.
And, as a final word, please do be careful on those Granny’s
Steps in Lyme!