Page Turners: ‘Charlotte’ author Martina Devlin

Martina Devlin is a bestselling author and award-winning journalist, who has been shortlisted for the Irish Book of the Year awards three times. A former Fleet Street journalist, she writes weekly current affairs columns for the Irish Independent and has been named National Newspapers of Ireland columnist of the year.

Her enthralling new novel, Charlotte, Devlin weaves back and forth through Charlotte Brontë’s life, reflecting on the myths built around her by those who knew her, those who thought they knew her, and those who longed to know her. Above all, this is a story of fiction: who creates it, who lives it, who owns it.

Charlotte Brontë, who dazzled the world with some of literature’s most vital and richly-drawn characters, spent her brief but extraordinary life in search of love. She eventually found it with Arthur Bell, a reserved yet passionate Irishman. After marrying, the pair honeymooned in Ireland – a glimmer of happiness in a life shadowed by tragedy.

Did you always want to be a writer? Tell us about your journey to becoming a published author.

I won a Hennessy Literary Award for my first short story and, buoyed up by beginner’s luck, had a crack at a novel. That was 12 books ago. Prizes don’t make you a better writer but they do give you confidence.

What inspired you to start writing?

The oral storytelling gene is present on both sides of my family. My mother told chilling ghost stories – because she believed them – and my father loved retelling Irish myths and episodes from history. Both are dead but I have their voices in my head.

Tell us about your new book, Charlotte. Where did the idea come from?

The novel is about memory, family secrets and the power of objects. It tells of Charlotte Brontë’s brief marriage to Irishman Arthur Nicholls through the voice of his second wife, Mary. The idea sprang from my interest in the Brontë sisters and their work – they wrote women characters with emotional depth who were independent and resourceful, like themselves. I’ve visited Haworth several times and the museum in the parsonage where they lived is a little jewel.

What do you hope this book instils in the reader?

For people to realise that Ireland exerted a stronger pull on Charlotte Brontë’s imagination than has necessarily been acknowledged. And that although the Brontës are regarded as jewels in England’s literary canon, they had an important Irish connection which fed into their work. Their father, Patrick, was Irish and fired his children’s imaginations with stories, books and newspapers.

What did you learn when writing this book?

That in marrying Arthur, Charlotte was reaching out to life and hope. We have a view of the Brontës as doomed, tragic figures but Charlotte was happy with Arthur during their nine months of married life; also, the sisters’ letters show them to be creative, loyal, resilient, witty and sharp observers. They were proto feminists in an era where women were more or less the property of a father or husband.

Tell us about your writing process?

There is no magical ingredient, you just sit down and persevere with it. Some days it’s like having teeth pulled without anaesthetic – but come what may, you have to show up for the work. There’s a saying: hard writing makes easy reading.

Where do you draw inspiration from?

I’m fascinated by women who play a part in a larger story, whose role isn’t acknowledged. I like to look at a story side-on: “tell all the truth but tell it slant,” as Emily Dickinson puts it.