INSTEAD of reaching the end of a good book and wondering what happened to her favourite character, one Wokingham resident took matters into her own hands.
Rosi Morgan-Barry recently published the second edition of her novel The Bitter and the Sweet which explores the life of a Pride and Prejudice character.
Miss Anne de Bourgh, described by Austen herself as a ‘sickly creature’, was the inspiration for the story.
“I had a lightbulb moment where I thought about writing the novel a while back,” Ms Morgan-Barry said, “but then I put it off for a bit.
“I gave the initial copy to a dear friend who has sadly passed away, but they were the one who encouraged me to go further and send it around to publishers.
“Anne mainly serves as a contrast to Elizabeth Bennett in the book and I always thought ‘well what did happen to her?’ so I decided to tell it myself.”
The book tells the love story of Miss de Bourgh after Pride and Prejudice comes to an end, and it’s not the first time the Wokingham resident has put pen to paper.
Ms Morgan-Barry moved to the borough in 1985, but prior to that she lived in Germany where she first began writing.
“I was quite homesick so I decided to do something useful and started to write here and there, and now this is the third book that I’ve written,” she explained.
But this is the first time Ms Morgan-Barry has taken a character which already exists and developed their story further.
“I had to be very careful not to exceed what Jane Austen had already written,” she said.
“I think the characters actually took over and told me what to write.
“Miss de Bourgh developed a little bit more and a little bit more as I began to write about her, but it took a huge amount of research into 18th century life.”
Looking back, Ms Morgan-Barry says she has learnt a lot from the experience.
“I’ve taken away a great deal of respect for the people of that time,” she said.
“There were a lot of socially orientated, socially motivated upper class people who did what they could to help those who were less well off.
“Doing all the research was fascinating.”
The Bitter and the Sweet was originally published in 2007 by Austin Macauley Publishers, and the second edition was released last month.
To find out more about Ms Morgan-Barry’s Austen-inspired tale, visit: www.austinmacauley.com/author/morgan-barry-rosi
