The Story Behind The Bronte Mysteries by Bella Ellis

 

I first visited the Bronte Parsonage Museum on a rainy day when I was about ten years old, and it made a lasting impact on me. That day I discovered a passion for the Brontë family, their novels and lives, that would never fade, playing an integral part in my journey to becoming an author myself. Their breath-taking talent, boundless imagination, determination and resilience has always been a constant inspiration to me. I love the combination of resourceful and fearless female characters with dark and often dangerous plots and settings that made the novels of all three sisters revolutionary. Combine that with my love of a really good, old fashioned gothic mystery and it’s not too hard to see how the idea for the Bronte Mysteries and the first two books in the series, The Vanished Bride and The Diabolical Bones came about.

There are multiple reasons why it seemed really natural to me to weave the true stories of their biographical lives around a crime and mystery series of novels. Firstly, there has been a fairly long tradition of Bronte inspired fiction, which goes over the events of their lives and struggles in a fairly straightforward, if heartfelt way. As enjoyable as it is, that kind of fictionalisation is not for me, so when it comes to the Bronte Mysteries, it was the crime solving element of the novels that came first. The truth is, though we know a lot about the lives of the Brontës, only about 5% of their lives are documented. As far as I’m concerned, this leaves lots of room for stories. 

When you think about it, it’s not so much of a leap to see the Bronte sisters as something of mystery writers themselves. There’s the horror of the Red Room in Jane Eyre, followed by the mysterious goings on in the attic at Thornfield, resulting in one of the best rug-pulling moments in literature there is. In Wuthering Heights, we have a psychological thriller about boy with a murky past who becomes an angry man with a grudge, obsessed with the narcissistic girl he grew up with, resulting in a violent and deadly eruption of passion and fury. (Please note Wuthering Heights is not a romance) and in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, our heroine is living under an assumed name, having escaped an abusive marriage with the threat of discovery looming ever closer. So, the sister’s body of work is already steeped in mystery, intrigue and twisty plots. Add that to the equally compelling stories of their lives and you have the perfect ingredients for lady detectors shining a light in the dark and dangerous world of the mid 19th century. 

When the first novel in the series opens, they are all living under one roof again for the first time in a long time, Charlotte nursing a broken heart from her unrequited love for her married tutor, Branwell disgraced after being discovered carrying on an affair with his bosses wife, Anne forced to resign from her governesses job because of the scandal, and Emily living quietly at home looking after her father and her pets. They are reunited against the backdrop of tumultuous emotion and high drama, in their tiny house on the edge of the wild moors, and a village where the average life expectancy was only 24 years old. 

Formal policing was very much in its infancy in Yorkshire at the time and the local constable would be employed by the magistrate and paid on a no arrest no fee basis, which as you can imagine led to a less than reliable judicial process. 

Juxtapose this against the backdrop of the ever-increasing industrialisation of the area, the wide spread poverty, disease and equality as well as the last remnants of the old Yorkshire folklore that the Bronte children were raised on, then you have the perfect background for some seriously dark and gothic mystery fiction. 

Finally, from my point of view, the opportunity to take these three fantastic women that I love, women that each died far too young, and let them loose on the moors in search of the truth and adventures was my very small way of giving them just a little bit more of the life that they should have had, a life they so deserved. 

The Diabolical Bones by Bella Ellis.

It's Christmas 1845 and Haworth is in the grip of a freezing winter. Charlotte, Emily and Anne Bronte are rather losing interest in detecting until they hear of a shocking discovery: the bones of a child have been found interred within the walls of a local house, Top Withens Hall, home to the scandalous and brutish Bradshaw family. When the sisters set off to find out more, they are confronted with an increasingly complex and sinister case, which leads them into the dark world of orphanages, and onto the trail of other lost, and likely murdered children. After another local boy goes missing, Charlotte, Emily and Anne vow to find him before it's too late. But in order to do so, they must face their most despicable and wicked adversary yet - one that would not hesitate to cause them the gravest of harm. . .

Manda Scott Revealed to be the Winner of the McIlvanney Prize Scottish Crime Book of the Year Award 2019.

David Baldacci announced at the opening of Bloody Scotland that the winner of the 2019 McIlvanney Prize is Manda Scott for A Treachery of Spies published by Transworld.

It is only the second time in its 8-year history that the prize has been won by a woman. Two previous winners – Denise Mina and Chris Brookmyre (this time as Ambrose Parry with wife Marisa Haetzman) were amongst the four finalists along with Doug Johnstone – but A Treachery of Spies was the unanimous winner. 

The panel of judges which included Guardian journalist Alison Flood; Chair of Publishing Scotland, James Crawford and former Head of Programmes at Channel 4, Stuart Cosgrove, described A Treachery of Spies as: ‘A powerful, complex and remarkable espionage thriller: a present-day murder links back to Resistance France.  An intricately plotted novel which keeps the reader guessing right to the end.’

Lee Child described it as: ‘a beautifully imagined, beautifully written, smart, sophisticated – but fiercely suspenseful – thriller’

Born and raised in Scotland, Manda has been, variously a veterinary surgeon, veterinary anaesthetist, acupuncturist columnist, blogger, economist – and author. She began her writing career with a series of crime novels, the first of which was shortlisted for the Orange Prize. No Good Deed, the dark, edgy thriller which followed, was nominated for an Edgar Award and hailed as one of the most remarkable thrillers of the year in 2001. 

The McIlvanney Prize recognises excellence in Scottish crime writing, includes a prize of £1000 and nationwide promotion in Waterstones.

This year Bloody Scotland also introduced the inaugural Bloody Scotland Scottish Crime Debut of the Year and special guest, Richard Osman, presenter of Pointless on TV and soon to be a debut author himself, presented it to Claire Askew for All the Hidden Truths published by Hodder. She is a poet, novelist and the current Writer in Residence at the University of Edinburgh.

Both winners accompanied David Baldacci at the head of the torchlit procession from Stirling Castle to his event at the Albert Halls which begins at 8.30pm. 

Festival Director, Bob McDevitt commented:

‘I am delighted that a woman has won both the McIlvanney Prize and the Debut Prize. Coincidentally we had already planned a panel on Spy Sisters about how women are beginning to enter the male dominated preserve of spy fiction. When Manda was longlisted for the prize we added her to the panel. Now anyone who had booked to see that event at 2.30pm tomorrow will be lucky to hear from the McIlvanney Prize winner.’

Manda Scott was born in Glasgow but now lives in Ludlow, Shropshire. She will be in Stirling until Monday afternoon. If you would like to talk to either of the winners, the judges or the Director of Bloody Scotland Bob McDevitt please contact fiona@brownleedonald.com 07767 431846.

ADDENDUM

Immediately after being presented the McIlvanney Prize 2019 by David Baldacci, Manda Scott announced that she wished to share the prize equally with all finalists - Doug Johnstone, Denise Mina and Ambrose Parry (Chris Brookmyre & Marisa Haetzman.

She invited them all to join her on stage on this day of climate protest and said 'This is the proudest moment of my life. We need to change if we're going to get through this moment of climate and ecological crisis and we need to change the way we do things - this starts with abandoning rivalry. We need to cooperate. We need to share. I would like this to be a grain of sand in a tide that sweeps us to a new way of being.

Manda and the other winners went on to lead the torchlight procession with David Baldacci.

Ali Knight On not writing about what you know

Today's guest blog is by author Ali Knight.  She is the author of four novels the most recent being The Silent Ones.  She is also a freelance contributor to a number of newspapers and magazines.

There’s a cliché often told to aspiring novelists: write about what you know.

My advice: Don’t.

Writers’ actual lives (including my own) are mind-numbingly repetitive and constrained: there’s only so much fun one can have staring at the same office wall every day, which for most writers is a corner of the bedroom or a half space under the stairs. It’s an event worth cheering if I even leave the house. But I have been blessed with an imagination, and it’s the job description to make full use of it.

In my crime novels I’m drawn to the delicious and tantalising otherness that is out there in the world. Creating characters, places and dilemmas that are far removed from my everyday experience is what makes me return to my laptop day after day, week after week, year after year.

Ideas for characters, for example, bubble up in the most humdrum places: when I’m sitting watching someone on the Tube, or standing in the pay queue at Pret. Perhaps behind a young man. With buds in his ears and wide, slouchy shoulders, like he doesn’t quite know where to put them. I notice a skateboard in his bony hand, this young man who doesn’t seem to fit in the world. He’s got a tattoo or three, and maybe a piercing somewhere I can’t see.

And then later in the day or week, I see this young man again, or one a bit like him, as I pass the music college at the end of my street. There he is, in a huddle of intense students with guitar cases over their grubby green parkas, smoking and scuffing his feet. His distance from me in terms of sex, age, experience and lifestyle is vast. I don’t know him, and that’s why I’m excited, because being so different from me he could become a character I could use.

That man eventually turned into Darren Evans, the hero of my new novel, The Silent Ones.

Darren’s a recently graduated art student living squashed back into his parents’ house in South London. He’s directionless, disorganised, lazy, debt-ridden and smokes too much dope. But he’s also a romantic and a caring son, who’s worried about his mum, who is having treatment for cancer. He’s haunted by terrible dreams, of the tragedy that struck his family ten years ago when his sister Carly disappeared, aged 13, presumed to be a victim of notorious female child killer Olivia Duvall.  

Driven by a desire to alleviate his mum’s physical and mental suffering, Darren breaks the law to get a job as a cleaner at the psychiatric hospital where Olivia is imprisoned to try and find answers about what happened to Carly.

Now, I’ve never met a middle-aged, female serial killer, and you can bet Darren never has. But I’m a writer, I’ve got an imagination, and I assure you sparks will fly…

Follow Ali on Facebook and Twitter: @aliknightauthor.  You can also find out more about her work on her website.

Ali Knight’s fourth novel, The Silent Ones, is published on June 18, 2015, by Hodder.