#WWWBlogs ‘Why I wrote The Eyre Hall Trilogy, a Sequel to #JaneEyre’ Part 2 #HistoricalFiction

In my previous post I wrote about my inspiration and reasons for writing The Eyre Hall Trilogy and why Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte needed a sequel, which would incorporate the themes and characters in Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys, and take the story one step further into the next generation, twenty-two years later.

I had four objectives in mind as I wrote The Eyre Hall Trilogy:

Firstly, my aim was to expose Rochester as a tyrant and revindicate Bertha Mason as his first victim.
Secondly, I wanted to make sure that amends would be made, so Bertha’s daughter, Annette Mason (my literary creation), would be reinstated.
Thirdly, I wanted Jane to realise that Rochester had been a villain and to find love again.

Fourthly, I have loved Victorian fiction since I started reading, about 46 years ago! I have looked to my favourite writers for inspiration. The Eyre Hall Trilogy is meant as a tribute to the following Victorian (and some 20th century) authors and their literary creations, who have all influenced the characters and events which appear in some form or other in my trilogy. To name a few; Mary Shelley, Charlotte, Emily and Anne Bronte, Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Christina Rosetti, Elizabeth Barrat Browning, Robert Browning, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Thomas de Quincey, Robert Louis Stevenson, Oscar Wilde, Daphne du Maurier, Jean Rhys, and so many more, whose works are firmly lodged in my literary mind.

Finally, I aim to write novels that will entertain and engage readers by transporting them to another time and place, to a pre-digital and pre-electronic age, where our great-great grandparents lived and loved, just as intensely as we do today, in spite of not having light-blubs, modern bathrooms or kitchens, cars, phones or tablets.

The Eyre Hall Trilogy are three fast-paced, entertaining, historical novels, with gothic elements, suspense and romance, which I hope contemporary readers will enjoy.

If as a result of reading my novels, my readers are encouraged to read or reread Victorian novels, such as Jane Eyre, (as many have told me), that is an extra bonus!

Here are more of my posts about the Eyre Hall Trilogy

Important news! Freebie over the Halloween weekend!

Book One of The Eyre Hall Trilogy, (International link follows) All Hallows at Eyre Hall will be free for the first time on kindle deals to coincide with Halloween, from 29^th October to the 2^nd November. Make sure you download your copy!