Branwell Bronte...

... is very much on my mind this evening, partly because I am gathering my thoughts before doing an event at the Bronte Parsonage Museum on Friday (with Lady Tessa Montgomery, Daphne du Maurier's daughter, who went with her to Haworth in the 1950s). And also because he remains such a shadowy, enigmatic figure. Alice -- who commented on the previous post -- has done some very interesting research into Branwell, as you'll see if you read what she's just written.
But no one has yet found "the novel in three volumes" that Branwell referred to writing in a letter to a friend. It's possible he never finished it -- that his writing was fragmentary, clouded by alcohol and opiates. And yet he showed such promise in his early writing in the Angrian Chronicles -- the imaginary landscape that he constructed with his sister Charlotte -- that you can see why Daphne du Maurier was so hopeful of proving his literary worth, and rehabilitating him with her biography.
As for Branwell's affair with Mrs Robinson, the wife of his employer, when he was working as a tutor, alongside his sister Anne, at Thorp Hall -- well, there are a number of differing views on this. Du Maurier believed it was a fantasy -- as colourfully imagined as an Angrian romance. Juliet Barker -- who is usually the definitive authority on all things Bronte -- says that the evidence does point to Branwell having an affair. Me? I can't make my mind up, even after spending several years reading around the subject. It's this uncertainty that continues to make Branwell a tantalisingly mysterious figure; and it's also why I'm guessing -- or should that be hoping? -- that there will be other manuscripts by Branwell that turn up in the next few years.

After the British Library...

Just back home, and feeling almost too tired to write. Anyway, it was a really interesting evening at the British Library. Rebecca Fraser, who is the president of the Bronte Society, as well as a biographer of Charlotte Bronte, was brilliant at chairing the proceedings, as well as contributing her expertise; and the audience -- an extremely knowledgeable lot -- asked me questions about everything from Freemasonry (Branwell and Symington were both members of a masonic lodge) to spiritualism. There were several descendants of Symington in the audience, who fortunately like the book. They said they saw it as a sympathetic portrayal of him... Anyway, lots to think about tonight... I'm hoping Cristina will pop over from the Bronte Blog, with some more information on Branwell Bronte and Freemasonry.

Virago Modern Classics in the Sunday Telegraph today

I've posted the link to my article (over on the left), in case anyone wants to read it. Thanks to all of you who contributed to such a lively debate last month (the comments ran to over a hundred, as you'll see if you go back to the various Virago posts in March).
I haven't yet seen the finished copies of the new VMC books that will be published next month, but the covers do look very attractive -- I particularly like the Cath Kidston rose print for "Diary of a Provincial Lady". Anyway, you'll be able to see them all in the Telegraph piece. I'll be interested to know what you think of them.

British Library on Monday...

I'm doing an event with Rebecca Fraser on Monday at the British Library, which I think will be interesting (not least because this is the home of T.J Wise's collection; and Wise -- for anyone who hasn't read 'Daphne' -- was a former president of the Bronte Society, tainted by a scandal that I explored in an article for the Times last month). Anyway, here are the details of the BL event, in case anyone can come:

Possession: A Brontë Mystery

Monday 14 April 2008

The trail that leads to the Brontë manuscripts is a shadowy one, crossing continents and centuries, and over the borders into criminality. Justine Picardie's new novel, Daphne, is based on her research into a true literary detective story, uncovering a series of forgeries and thefts. She will be in conversation with Rebecca Fraser, the acclaimed biographer of Charlotte Brontë, discussing the whereabouts of missing manuscripts, and the obsessive collectors through whose hands they passed.

Justine Picardie is author of four books including My Mother's Wedding Dress and Daphne (Bloomsbury , March 2008) and writes for the Sunday Telegraph Magazine and Harpers Bazaar. Rebecca Fraser is a writer and broadcaster. Charlotte Bronte (Vintage) and A People's History of Britain (Pimlico) are her most recent books.

Event time: 18.30-20.00
Location: Conference Centre, British Library
Price: £6 (£4 concessions)

J.M.Barrie

I'm looking forward to reading a new book by Piers Dudgeon, who I met a couple of years ago at the Du Maurier festival in Fowey, when we did an event together on Daphne and the macabre. It's called 'Captivated: J.M Barrie, the du Mauriers and the Dark Side of Neverland', and I've just emailed Piers, asking for a proof copy, as soon as they are available. I avoided making Barrie a central character in my novel -- (and yes, I confess, I was a bit spooked by Barrie's promise to curse anyone who attempted to write about him after his death!) -- but he is definitely a presence in 'Daphne', standing in the stage wings. He's such a mysterious, enigmatic character; far more elusive, I think, than Johnny Depp's portrait of Barrie in "Finding Neverland" (though Depp is never less than interesting to watch). On the basis of previous conversations with Piers, I know that he sees Barrie as deeply sinister, and that certainly comes across in the synopsis of his book, which I'm including here:

"Captivated" is a true story of genius and possession. The background is the turn of the century, when a late-nineteenth-century world of mesmerists, psychics, trancers and table-turners gave way to a new twentieth-century age of psychology. The central character is the creator of Peter Pan, the famous novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie, a man tormented by inner demons since childhood. Barrie developed a consuming interest in the du Maurier family, beginning with George du Maurier, author of "Trilby", a bestselling novel featuring his creation Svengali. In "Trilby", George showed how it is possible, by means of hypnosis, for one person to gain control over the mind of another. Barrie made his move on the du Maurier family immediately after George died, assuming George's mantel and using his ideas to dominate both his daughter Sylvia and his son Gerald.Soon Barrie was 'Uncle Jim' to Sylvia's five sons and Gerald's three daughters, playing romping games of adventure and make-believe, and inviting the children into the transcendental world of Neverland. Four of the boys (the 'lost boys' of "Peter Pan") and one of the girls (the imaginative tomboy Daphne) were captivated.
This fascinating book delves deep, makes links and yields up secrets. It is a story of bliss corrupted by greed which masquerades as supernatural power. It tells how Barrie's victims - whom he would have not grow up - were lost to breakdown, suicide or an early death when they did. Daphne du Maurier, author of "Rebecca", emerges as the lost boys' surprise companion and the enigmatic chronicler of their fate."Captivated" is about writing and the world of the imagination: it is a singular example of art being used not only to imitate life, but darkly to transform it. Piers Dudgeon knew Daphne du Maurier and worked with her in the 1980s. When he discovered that she had put a moratorium on publication of her adolescent diaries until fifty years after her death, he was prompted to begin his researches into her background. What was the mystery that had Daphne been so keen to suppress?

Last night in Hampstead

There was such a lively audience at my talk at Hampstead Waterstones yesterday evening -- and as an event, it felt unusually atmospheric, because we were a stone's throw away from Daphne's childhood haunts, and from the graveyard in Church Row where the Du Mauriers are buried. Lots of good questions from the audience -- including one about Gertrude Lawrence's relationship with Daphne (Gertie was Noel Coward's favourite actress; and she was the last of Gerald du Maurier's lovers). I said that I didn't know the definitive answer to the question -- did Gertrude and Daphne have an affair? -- because I wasn't in the bedroom, though obviously, the speculation has been intense. In a way, what I think is more revealing is the blurring of boundaries -- hence Gerald's affair with Gertie, a young actress not much older than his daughter, at a time when he was intensely jealous of Daphne's romantic relationships with other men (including her cousin Geoffrey, who was the same age as Gerald, and a great friend of his).
What does everyone else think?

The morning after the night before...

Or rather, the afternoon, because I have been taking my son to the orthodontist this morning (and oddly enough, given crimeficreader's earlier comment, I was at the dentist myself yesterday, but she will be glad to hear that my teeth stayed firmly in their sockets, praise the lord).
Anyway. I am impressed to discover that you are such sensible people, far more interested in Virago Modern Classics than George Clooney. Nevertheless, having introduced him to the proceedings, I feel it my duty to report back.
He was, as you suspected, a little smaller in life than he is on the screen. But his smile was even more dazzling. He was very polite, and did that thing of making sure that he looked everyone in the eye, for the few moments he was talking to you, thereby proving that he shares something in common with good politicians.
I can also reveal that he turns out to be a fan of David Gray (the singer-songwriter). So, there you have it. George Clooney for president (or governor of California?), with a heartfelt campaign tune.
Anyway, back to books. I'm off to Hampstead this evening at 7pm, to do that talk at Waterstones. I think it is safe to say that George Clooney will not be in the vicinity. But I hope you will be. And I''ll have that free book with me for the first person who says the special blog password -- Dear Brutus -- which, as blogreaders will know, is the title of the play by J.M. Barrie in which Gerald du Maurier starred, and the ten year old Daphne watched in the audience, before she burst into tears.