Juliet says:
One of the reasons I became a biographer is
that other peoples’ lives are much more interesting than my own! Though it’s
often thought that the life of a writer must be glamorous and exciting, for
most of the time it is just slogging away: researching, reading, writing and
rewriting. I usually spend at least three years on each of my major books
(though The
Brontës took five) and I divide my time into two years researching and one
year writing. Apart from writing the occasional article or review and
contributing to radio and television programmes, all my effort goes into my
books. Unless a deadline is looming, when there are never enough hours in the
day, I work normal office hours: the rest of my time is devoted to my family,
especially my husband, son and daughter. I try not to let my work intrude on
them but holidays are often spent retracing the footsteps of the people I write
about – you can imagine how much my children enjoy this but you can’t begin to understand your subject unless you know the
landscapes and places they knew and lived in. I’d written the first draft of Agincourt before I’d followed Henry V’s campaign trail from England to France and back
again: after I’d done it I rewrote the book.
I
am a Yorkshirewoman born and bred and, unlike so many writers who feel the need
to uproot themselves for the bright lights of the city, I have never felt the
lure of London. I still live in Yorkshire by choice – and it’s a
completely different life to that of many other writers. I’m conscious when I
attend literary festivals that most other writers seem to know each other and
move in the same London circles, whereas I’m necessarily an outsider. This has
its advantages – not least with subjects like the Brontës and Wordsworth
who also lived in the north – but it can sometimes mean feeling cut off
as I can rarely make a special trip to London just to accept an invitation to
attend a lecture or a book launch. The saving grace is that this does keep my
feet on the ground. Like Charlotte Brontë, for the most part I walk invisible
and that’s how I’d like to keep it! It’s wonderful when my books achieve
success but for myself I’d rather remain anonymous.