Book Challenge Day 6

Day 6 of 7 - I've accepted the challenge from Ali Williams to post the cover of a book I love every day for 7 days than this one.

. Well, today there couldn't be any other book than this one:

I was just ten years old and living just a few miles away from Haworth where the Bronte sisters grew up when one day, at school, to distract us - appropriately enough - from the wild thunderstorm outside, the teacher started to tell us the story of Wuthering Heights. We only ever heard the start of the story - up to the moment when Heathcliff turned his back on Cathy and walked away to make his fortune - so I didn't know what happened until I found a copy on my mother's bookshelves and found out what happened in the rest of the book. I was hooked instantly - and have been hooked ever since.

If you read my post of a couple of weeks ago, you'll know that I was part of a panel on Romance and The Brontes for the Romantic Novelists Association- not that I think Wuthering Heights is a romance, it's a book about passion, power and possession - and that I wrote my MA thesis on the childhood writings of Emily and Charlotte and their influence on the adult books the sisters wrote. I even wrote my own tribute to Wuthering Heights as a Modern Romance called The Return of the Stranger.

So today there can really only be one book that I'm posting about. I do still have the small, dark blue Nelson Classics edition of Wuthering Heights - the one that saw me through both my degree and my MA - and was used by my mother in her degree studies too. It's full of scribbled notes by both of us - well it was a study aid! But today I'm posting the treasure that a very special friend gave me because she knew how much I loved the book. It was enough of an amazing gift 30+ years ago - but now of course it's over 30 years older and even more antique. In fact even this book is 160 years old this year!

Happy 200th Birthday, Emily Bronte! I just I had the time to sit and reread your amazing novel - and some of your magnificent poetry - to celebrate the big day., today there couldn't be any other book than this one.

 Packing and planning ready to head for the RNA Conference tomorrow - via an overdue visit to a dear friend - and then to the Leeds Library for the Brontes and Romance panel tomorrow night - and then a fantastic weekend 'conferring' with so many friends from the RNA. I may have to drink a little wine

to stop my throat from getting too dry

My reading for the weekend - On Thursday evening I'm part of a panel at Leeds Library - discussing Romance and The Brontes. I'll be there with Janet Gover and Alison May

Date/Time: 12th July 2018, 7.30pm-9.30pm
Venue: The Leeds Library, Commercial Street, Leeds
To celebrate the 250th anniversary of The Leeds Library and 200 years of the Brontës, there will be a panel of RNA members discussing modernising Brontë classics and the enduring appeal of the themes. The panel will include ‘Juliet Bell’, the collaborative pen 

name of Janet Gover and Alison May, whose latest release is The Heights and Kate Walker, who wrote her MA on the Brontë sisters and their childhood writings. Kate is the author of a ‘Modern Romance’ reworking of Wuthering Heights entitled The Return Of The Stranger; part of a mini-series called The Powerful and The Pure, written for Harlequin Mills & Boon.

The event is free. Places are limited and can be reserved in advance Date/Time: 12th July 2018, 7.30pm-9.30pm
Venue: The Leeds Library, Commercial Street, Leeds

Return of the Stranger USA
To celebrate the 250th anniversary of The Leeds Library and 200 years of the Brontës, there will be a panel of RNA members discussing modernising Brontë classics and the enduring appeal of the themes. The panel will include ‘Juliet Bell’, the collaborative pen name of Janet Gover and Alison May, whose latest release is The Heights and Kate Walker, who wrote her MA on the Brontë sisters and their childhood writings. Kate is the author of a ‘Modern Romance’ reworking of Wuthering Heights entitled The Return Of The Stranger; part of a mini-series called The Powerful and The Pure, written for Harlequin Mills & Boon.  

The event is free. Places are limited and can be reserved in advance:http://www.theleedslibrary.org.uk/events/?eventPage=1

My reading? The Modern Romance Return of The Stranger that was inspired by Wuthering Heights. The interview I did for Laura Vivanco discussing that book - and my own - long ago MA thesis on the Bronte sisters and their childhood writings. (I thought I'd better remind myself of what I thought back then!) And then of course, there's the book itself - not sure how many times I've read Wuthering Heights, but I find I view it differently each time I do

.

A Date With Kate

It's the third Friday of the month - is it really? How did it get to that date when I wasn't looking?  I meant to blog yesterday. . . and the day before but life has been so hectic and so many things to do that I blinked and found myself ast Friday before I realised it.

So - Friday is Pink Heart Society day and that's where you'll find my main blog.  I'm starting to talk about my next book out - The Return of The Stranger which is out on September 2nd  -  and today I'm adressing one of the, for me, really important points about this book and the whole mini-series it's in.  The Powerful and the Pure.

Now as I've mentioned before, some people have got their knickers in  a twist over the fact that these books have been  created by looking at the plots of four of the great classics of romantic fiction - Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, Emma and , in my case Wuthering Heights.  Some readers have screamed  'plagiarism!' or 'stealing!' , but in that case they don't understand what plagiarism is. And these books are not stealing  from but inspired by the wonderful great books. - using that inspiration to create something new and hopefully enjoyable. 

I'm proud of the fact that, as one reviewer said over on the Mills & Boon web site -
 Mrs Walker triumphantly produces a powerful and intense novel which involves your emotions from start to finish.
That means I have done what I set out to do - to create a  book that stands on its own, can be enjoyed on its own - but if you know some of the references in it - references not copies or stealing! - then that can add an extra dimension to your reading.

Anyway - have a read of my full blog for yourself.

One thing  about this book that has thrilled me this week (OK, other than the fact it's been at #1 on the bestseller list on the M&B site for the past two weeks)  I meant to say yesterday, but time ran away with me. And that is that on Wednesday I heard that The Bronte Society  are putting a copy of The Return of The Stranger in their  collection of Bronte-inspired fiction in the research library at the Parsonage Museum. So it will be permanently stored there in the future.

For someone who once spent long day trips to Haworth first with my family, then with my husband, who has read and reread Wuthering Heights more times than I can count  and who studied the book both for my first degree twice! In Year One and then in the 19th century course) and then wrote my MA thesis on Emily and Charlotte Bronte  - to have one of my books acquired by the Parsonage Museum library , well  it doesn't come much better than this!