Happy Birthday Charlotte – British Library

Charlotte Brontë has to be my all-time favourite author. Jane Eyre was the first ‘classic’ that I ever read, and it is still my favourite book: I find something new in it every time I read it, and I adore Charlotte’s vivid prose.

Yesterday, 21 April 2016, marked the 200th anniversary of Charlotte’s birth, and to celebrate the British Library hosted an event with some guest speakers. Facilitated by Xanthe Arvanitakis, curator at the Soane Museum (where an exhibition about Charlotte’s time in London is currently taking place), it featured Charlotte Cory, Ann Dinsdale and Dame Jacqueline Wilson.

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Charlotte Cory is an artist whose series, Charlotte Brontë in Babylon, was recently broadcast on BBC Radio 4. She is the curator of the aforementioned Charlotte Brontë at the Soane exhibition, which sounds fascinating (Charlotte B never visited the Soane, but it was certainly around when she visited London – and hasn’t changed much since – and Charlotte C has tried to present a “what if?” scenario, giving her in a way the chance to visit after her death). Ann Dinsdale is the Collections Manager at the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth: she has worked for the Brontë Society for over 25 years and has written many books on the Brontës and Haworth. Dame Jacqueline Wilson is a bestselling children’s author, and was appointed Ambassador for Charlotte by the Brontë Society recently.

It was lovely to be in a room full of people who are as enthusiastic about Jane Eyre and Charlotte Brontë as I am. In particular I had no idea that Jacqueline Wilson – whose books I read as a child – was such a big fan. Ann Dinsdale and Charlotte Cory also love the book and it was interesting to hear them compare notes about their first introduction to Jane Eyre. All seemed to agree that it was the opening chapters of the novel featuring the young Jane that initially attracted them to the book, which is something that rings true with my own experience.

Even more fascinating if possible were the anecdotes which all of the speakers regaled us with. Charlotte Cory told us a ghost story about a friend who travelled back to London with the manuscript of Jane Eyre (usually kept in the British Library), which had been lent to Haworth for an exhibition. On getting out of the taxi at the British Museum (where the Library was then housed), the taxi driver insisted that there was another passenger in the cab with them: a small woman, who had inexplicably vanished. I also liked the story of the same friend telling off Princess Margaret for turning the pages of the fragile manuscript!

We got to hear about Charlotte’s time in London, in which she spent lots of time visiting tourist sites as well as some time visiting Bedlam – about which she was, uncharacteristically, silent. We were treated to a performance of the “Hippapotamus Polka” which was a popular work at the time, inspired by a hippo which had recently been introduced to London Zoo.

Afterwards, we were treated to a G&T and a slice of birthday cake to celebrate the 200th anniversary of my favourite author.

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