Becoming Jane

Blogger Women Rule Writer, Nuala Ní Chonchúir, recently had a post quoting Roddy Doyle's advice in this Observer article about having photographs of writers over your desk. I won a copy of her Templar poetry book, Portrait of the Artist with a Red Car, by guessing that she had a photo of Sylvia Plath over her desk. The collection is a very well produced booklet containing an impressive selection of poems dealing among other things with relationships, pregnancy and childbirth in language which is deceptively calm and straightforward.

I looked to see whose picture I have over my desk. The sign above with the familiar silhouette of Jane Austen is close to, though not over, my desk. Part of the film Becoming Jane was made near Trim and during the film signs like this were attached to poles along the road showing the way to the cast and crew. Some remained after filming and I snipped one off a pole and it's now on the wall of my office/library/playroom.

As the original home of Jane Austen was demolished in 1824, scenes at Steventon Rectory were filmed in Higginsbrook House, a few miles off Trim in County Meath, Ireland (spring 2006). The house was built circa the first half of the 18th century and now belongs to Christopher Gray and his family. Apparently, Higginsbrook performed well, for later in autumn 2006, it appeared again as the house of the Morlands in Northanger Abbey (ITV 2007). (Wikipedia)

Picture of the house on this page.