Tuesday, March 19, 2013

The Bronte sisters - 'They could be savage and sensual’


Sheila Hancock talks about her love for the Brontë sisters, Charlotte, Emily and Anne

Sheila Hancock
'I find the work of the Brontë sisters shocking, erotic, profoundly moving and quite wonderful,' says Sheila Hancock Photo: Martin Pope
Sheila Hancock’s famous turquoise eyes widen with emotion. She is in full flow on the subjects of enduring love, sex, passion, addiction and the extremes of human obsession. It’s a pretty arresting sight.

At 80 years old, she might be talking about aspects of her own tempestuous life, which, she says has been lived unfettered by emotional caution. For now, the talk is of literature, specifically the genius of the three Brontë sisters and their larger-than-life creations, most notably Heathcliff and Mr Rochester.

“I find the work of the Brontë sisters shocking, erotic, profoundly moving and quite wonderful,” she says. “In fact, I rate each of them among the greatest novelists I have ever read.”
Waterstones, then, should stock up on copies of Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre and the lesser-known Tenant of Wildfell Hall – written respectively by Charlotte, Emily and Anne. Hancock, after all, is about to present a documentary about the three of them called, compellingly, The Brilliant Brontë Sisters.

Forming part of ITV’s Perspectives series – in which various public figures explain their passion for an aspect of the arts (Michael Portillo on Picasso, Jonathan Ross on Hitchcock, for example), Hancock argues her case so persuasively that nearly two centuries after the Brontë’s penned their masterpieces, they might well top today’s bestseller lists. 
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