Bridgerton effect

The Guardian discusses the dangers of the so-called 'Bridgerton effect'.

The Costa award-winning author Sara Collins said she wrote The Confessions of Frannie Langton, about an enslaved Jamaican woman in London, as a “black Jane Eyre” to fill a gap, as there were not enough stories about the reality of black people’s history.

Collins said her gothic romance was “entirely different” from the “colourblind” casting of Netflix hit show Bridgerton: “This is colour-focused casting. Bridgerton is a fantasy; it’s a nice fantasy but what really interests me is we don’t lose sight of the truth.” (Tara Conlan)

The blunder of the day comes from Inside Croydon and its article on an 18th-century vicar of Croydon.

This was to be no Jane Eyre moment though. When Jane Austen’s heroine was about to marry Mr Rochester, it was Mr Briggs, the family solicitor, who shouted out that the groom was already married and stopped the ceremony from going ahead. 

Frances O'Connor has won the best director award for Emily in the recent Stockholm Film Festival. A live Q&A  with her at the Festival can be seen here.and picture of her after receiving the award is here.

AnneBrontë.org discusses 'The Stormy Passage of Charlotte Brontë’s Villette'.