Wednesday, 20 March 2019

Jane Austen


In 1804 Jane Austin stayed in a tiny flat over looking the sea at Lyme. She wasn't happy with the choice her mother made, the landlord was slimy and overbearing. The rooms were not particularly clean. She argued over a broken jug. 

Even out of season (she was there in November) she did walk on the Cob, dance at the local Assembly rooms, and enjoy the quaint views of the town tumbling down to the sea. She even unwisely, indulged in some sea bathing.

Persuasion was published after Jane's death in 1818, but who can forget the wry little smile and tip of the hat from a young handsome man that thrilled Jane so much as she walked off the beach? So much so that it made it into her book.

Surfers in the cold waters of Lyme Bay. Unwise I think!


Black Ven and Golden Cap where Mary Anning made her living collecting fossils.
Image result for mary anning 
Poor Mary has become the latest in a line of extraordinary women who have had their life turned into a film. Not a film about her achievements, not a film about the first female palentologist who paid to learn French, so she could communicate with the top men in the field. Not how she supported her brother after her father died, or how she died of breast cancer at the age of 38. No. It is a fictional story that tells Mary's life as a nanny (she wasn't) and as a lesbian. (She wasn't). It's another fiction to titillate men into watching a history film about a strong woman.

Being a woman is hard enough. All my life I have fought for women's rights and been called frigid, and a lesbian. I am a happily married hetrosexual woman, with one son. I have had a wonderful career in television behind the camera, and now as a writer. Being a hetrosexual woman is not a crime.

Changing history to suit modern life is.



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