How sibling rivalry made Anne the 'neglected' Brontë

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How sibling rivalry made Anne the ‘neglected’ Brontë

Anne Bronte and the Art of Life

Take Courage

Anne Brontë - literary wallflower or radical heroine? Samantha Ellis stomps off to Haworth to find out

I thought that everything had already been said about the Brontës. But Samantha Ellis has looked at the family from a new angle, and in doing so brought Anne out of the shadows and placed her front and centre amongst her splashier siblings. I was wowed and moved

A lively, intelligent tribute to the forgotten Bronte sister, Anne… Her indignation is salutary

A fascinating and compelling read... what Ellis does extraordinarily well is to convey the emotion of her own deeply personal voyage of discovery about Anne and herself... [makes] you long to rush off and reread Anne's novels and poetry: what more could you ask for?

This is a very personal book about what the short life of Anne Bronte can tell us about wringing every drop out of existence… A great pleasure to read and a more fitting tribute to Anne than her gravestone in Scarborough.

A lovely and imaginative investigation into a serious and searching woman whose last words were "take courage". It's inspiring stuff

The Brontës have spawned innumerable spin-offs and imitations, and Ellis cites and analyses many of them, from Hollywood movies to graphic novels, from television adaptations to stand-up comedy and online magazines. She has obsessively pursued them into every cultural realm, and she has read all the biographies, both scholarly and popular... It takes some time for an ageing reader to settle into this startling frame of reference, but once adjusted, the rewards are considerable

Her personal approach is the source of both the book's immense charm and also its considerable power... ultimately the book is a deeply moving depiction of how reading and writing allows us to forge an emotional and intellectual connection with someone who died over a century before we were born... brilliant

Wonderful... Ellis lives and breathes Anne's life...  the feeling of being a Bronte becomes movie-screen vivid... If the experience of reading Anne's poems feels for Ellis "like being let in on secrets", that feeling is mirrored for the reader of Ellis's illuminating book

Take Courage is as much an account of Ellis’s own discovery of Anne's work as it is that of her subject’s life, and herein lies the book's unique appeal. Ellis – who is, it should be noted, as intelligent and perceptive a reader as she is an evocative storyteller – truly writes from the heart, which isn’t to say she hasn’t done her research... a deeply sympathetic and interesting re-evaluation of a woman ahead of her time who has much to teach us all about living courageously

Anne is the Cinderella of the Bronte sisters... Anne was, in fact, the secret firebrand of the family... The dominance of the two elder sisters means that there remains a need to bring her out of the shadows. In Take Courage, Samantha Ellis has risen to the challenge... Take Courage is almost as much about Ellis's vicarious relationship with her subject as it as about Anne Bronte. If scholarly footnotes are your thing, it isn't for you. But if you want to share in a biographer's emotional journey, you will find insights aplenty. The account of Anne's death from TB at the age of 29 is truly moving

It really feels as if Anne Brontë is finally having her moment in the sun... Often overlooked due to the higher profile of sisters Jane and Emily and even her wastrel brother, Branwell, in Take Courage, Samantha Ellis skilfully reclaims Anne as a truly modern, feminist writer whose work is just as relevant today

Ellis is at her best when she is furious and direct about the tragedy of Anne’s short life and the ways she has been dismissed as sweet, virtuous and dull... Most compellingly, she reflects on how Anne’s pragmatic attitude to Branwell’s abusive behaviour made Tenant more mature and realistic than any of her sisters’ works... Take Courage is a timely reappraisal — and if Ellis sends readers back to Anne Brontë, she’ll have performed a valuable service

A spirited attempt to bring Anne Bronte out from under her sisters’ shadow.

For Ellis, the general ignorance of Anne Bronte's works is a source not so much of regret as near fury ... Ellis turned to Anne's two novels. To her surprise she found them more brave and radical than anything her sisters ever wrote. Anne has been in her sisters' shadows for too long and the time has come to give 'the other Bronte' her proper due

Ellis's bracing look at Anne forces a radical rethink of the younger sister... Inspired

Ellis [is] an engaging, perceptive and sympathetic writer […] and her personal approach is the source of both the book’s immense charm and also its considerable power.

A robust, emotionally charged defence of the writer, whose death at 29 left us with a handful of poems and two novels ... a woman misunderstood by historians and obscured by her sisters, despite a mind blindingly sharp and progressive

This is a poignant and often surprising journey into the life and work of a woman who emerges as a strongly feminist writer well ahead of her time and who has much to teach us today about how to find our way in the world.

Take Courage is Samantha’s personal, poignant and surprising journey into the life and work of a woman sidelined by history. A brave, strongly feminist writer well ahead of her time — and her more celebrated siblings — and who has much to teach us today about how to find our way in the world… The Bronte’s are a fascinating family and this is a really interesting book which really helps to bring light to Anne Bronte and her work… This book goes a great way to providing a more balanced view of Anne, what she thought, how she lived as well as gives great insight into her poems and novels. I can’t wait to re-read her novels, and maybe even try some of her poems too

The daughter of Iraqi-Jewish refugees, Samantha Ellis is the author of the books How to be a Heroine and Take Courage and her plays include How to Date a Feminist, Cling to me Like Ivy and Operation Magic Carpet. Her journalism has appeared in the Guardian, TLS, Spectator, Literary Review and more. She worked on the first two Paddington films. She lives in London.

'I was wowed and moved' Tracy Chevalier 
 
Anne Brontë is the forgotten Brontë sister, overshadowed by her older siblings - virtuous, successful Charlotte, free-spirited Emily and dissolute Branwell. Tragic, virginal, sweet, stoic, selfless, Anne. The less talented Brontë, the other Brontë. 
 
Take Courage is Samantha's personal, poignant and surprising journey into the life and work of a woman sidelined by history. A brave, strongly feminist writer well ahead of her time - and her more celebrated siblings - and who has much to teach us today about how to find our way in the world.

Or, what I’ve learned from reading too much

How To Be A Heroine

A funny, touching, inspiring exploration of the role of heroines, and our favourite books, in all our lives.

Any woman with a remotely bookish childhood will find great pleasure in How to be a Heroine... like Ellis, I find it reassuring that Lizzy Bennet can admit that she was wrong about Darcy, have used Scarlett's indomitable mantra in times of adversity, and have every sympathy with the women who keep their bank accounts separate as in Lace

This is quite simply a genius idea for a book.... A fantastically inspirational memoir that makes you want to reread far too many books

Brilliant... From Lizzy Bennet to 'go-getting Judy Jordan' from Lace, Samantha Ellis did what we all do, mostly without realising: tried other people's lives on for size in literature

The best kind of book: one that I gobbled up, wanting to go slow to savour it but unable to stop reading until it was all gone. One that made me want to run to the bookshop to buy copies of novels I’ve never got round to reading and devour those, too

It's not so much self-help as shelf-help, as Ellis applies fresh insights to her own life dilemmas and proffers some inspiring solutions to everyday problems. A truly brilliant read

A treasure-trove of once beloved characters, if you spent your childhood and adolescence with your head in a book, you'll love How To Be A Heroine

An honest and open-hearted book by someone whose life has been informed and enriched by her reading

Samantha Ellis, a playwright brought up in London in an Iraqi-Jewish family, offers herself up in this warm-spirited biblio-autobiography... She is endearingly open about her vulnerabilities, superstitions, love tangles and defeats and is adept at droll asides

This warm, witty memoir is perfect if you're the kind of woman for whom the Louisa May Alcott quote, "She is too fond of books and it has turned her head" reverberates... At the end of the day, this is a life-affirming feminist text, but one delivered with such dexterity and sly humour that it never feels like a polemic or prescription, making it well worth your time

It fizzes along, thanks to Ellis's warm humour and interesting back story... Plus, how could we resist a book that reminisces about Judy Blume novels?

Ellis not only makes you want to go and re-read your own teenage canon but to recapture that mode of absorbing novels... If this is a defence of "reading for wisdom", then the wisdom in her own writing makes an eloquent testimony

How to Be a Heroine is an honest, warm and readable book about the plots we follow in order to make sense of our lives, the selves we adopt as we grow up and the selves we shed... Wise, courageous and endlessly generous, Ellis is something of a heroine herself.

I was a bookworm as a child, and practically everything I learnt about life came from fiction... If you did too, then this is the book for you

How To Be A Heroine happily reminds all bookworms of years of their life spent in the company of Scarlett, Katy, Jane Eyre, the March family and all those wonderful friends that only really exist in our hearts.

Listen up, ladies: it's never too late to become your own heroine. This warm, spry tale of a textual coming of age leads the way through a gallery of literary role models, introducing and reintroducing warriors and worriers, spinsters and seductresses. Plucked from the pages of authors from Jane Austen to Jilly Cooper, there are heroines here to make you bold, make you laugh, and make you mad. They'll all get you thinking.

A thoughtful, celebratory book that leaves you believing Ellis enjoyed writing it as much as you'll enjoy reading it

[A] vivid, passionate study of literary heroines

How to be a Heroine is Samantha's funny, touching, inspiring exploration of the role of heroines, and our favourite books, in all our lives

This book is at its best and most amusing in the autobiographical passages which describe the author’s volatile and close-knit family and her place within it

Funny and thoughtful, this will have you remembering your favourite characters when younger – and perhaps have you reaching for a reread

Ellis is a nimble, effervescent storyteller... Anyone who expresses an interest in Eat, Pray, Love should be handed this book instead

Ellis' tone is warm and welcoming – like chatting to a big sister ... there’s a nice mixture of stories you’ll recognise, as well as more niche books which I’ll now be rooting out like a pig seeking literary truffles

A joy to read. Well written, and engaging on her own story, Ellis analyses books often dismissed as childish or light in an intelligent but never pretentious manner

Ellis proves funny and thoughtful, alive both to the indulgence of reading (preferably in the bath, with a glass of wine) and to her own capacity for false enchantment. Her synopses are always lively and perceptive but she’s at her best when she gets stuck in to interrogating her characters

An utter joy to read: a whirlwind walk down memory lane

A delight. It’s a memoir-slash-accessible-literary-criticism, slash-your-next-read

Fascinating and insightful... This is a book that can teach so much about the self; it can make struggles so wound up in the past and in the novels that stay with you come clear. Nostalgic, warming and a stern lesson for life, How to Be a Heroine should be on everyone’s bookshelf

A wonderful summary of all the different literary heroines she has  loved, from Anne Of Green Gables to some interesting downmarket choices,  like Valley Of The Dolls. She makes me think there are about five books  I have to re-read immediately, starting with Wuthering Heights.

Ellis’s sensitive and witty analyses reflect the power classic fictional  heroines have not only to inspire but also – as in Jane’s Eyre’s case –  to endlessly surprise, even horrify

A charming, amusing autobiography told through the classic literary heroines

One of my 2014 new best books, without doubt, has been Samantha Ellis’s wonderful How To Be A Heroine: Or What I’ve Learned From Reading Too Much

Ellis’s journey of reading and self-discovery offers a fresh perspective on the classics

Cathy Earnshaw or Jane Eyre? 
Petrova or Posy? 
Scarlett or Melanie? 
Lace or Valley of the Dolls? 
 
On a pilgrimage to Wuthering Heights, Samantha Ellis found herself arguing with her best friend about which heroine was best: Jane Eyre or Cathy Earnshaw. She was all for wild, passionate Cathy; but her friend found Cathy silly, a snob, while courageous Jane makes her own way. 
 
And that’s when Samantha realised that all her life she’d been trying to be Cathy when she should have been trying to be Jane. 
 
So she decided to look again at her heroines – the girls, women, books that had shaped her ideas of the world and how to live. Some of them stood up to the scrutiny (she will always love Lizzy Bennet); some of them most decidedly did not (turns out Katy Carr from What Katy Did isn’t a carefree rebel, she’s a drip). There were revelations (the real heroine of Gone with the Wind? It's Melanie), joyous reunions (Anne of Green Gables), poignant memories (Sylvia Plath) and tearful goodbyes (Lucy Honeychurch). And then there was Jilly Cooper... 
 
How To Be A Heroine is Samantha’s funny, touching, inspiring exploration of the role of heroines, and our favourite books, in all our lives – and how they change over time, for better or worse, just as we do.

Samantha Ellis

Ellis’s book is a useful reminder that Jewish generational trauma is not confined to the descendants of those who survived the Holocaust. In fact, given the ubiquity of refugees in the modern world, Chopping Onions on My Heart’s aching sense of loss has a truly global resonance

An optimistic and often wryly funny book... a gift to the future, rich with insights about the nature of belonging that are not limited to one community but matter to all of us

I am amazed at the breadth and range of Samantha Ellis’s knowledge and insights, and love the endearing and humorous way she shares information that is tragic and frightening as well as heart-warming and full of hope

An engaging mix of harrowing history, earnest reflection, recipes, common sense, love, humour and life

As an Iraqi Jew, reading Chopping Onions on My Heart felt like being seen: the entire book felt like a fierce, honest, and profoundly comforting hug

Easily my non-fiction book of the year

I loved this book so much. It's a heart-opener and an eye-opener, an invitation to understand our world better. Think: The Body Keeps the Score in practice not theory

ELLA RISBRIDGER, author of Midnight Chicken

A profound meditation on loss and the importance of language as a means of remembering... Thoroughly recommended

ANNE SEBBA, author of The Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz

A beautiful tale of painful cultural loss, delicious food, rich history; and the bittersweet grief that only the perfect recipe can solve. A truly enlightening book that will leave you hungry yet satisfied

CARIAD LLOYD, author of You Are Not Alone

A wonderfully immersive and sensitive meditation on belonging and identity

VIV GROSKOP, author of How to Own the Room

A book about loss written with pure, irrepressible joy

MARINA BENJAMIN, author of Last Days of Babylon

Chopping Onions on My Heart is quite simply wonderful - a lyrical meditation that sparkles with life and joy. Such an elegant study of identity, loss, and hope, and so beautifully written

Utterly absorbing… every page sparkles with anecdotes, facts, adventures and asides

Beautiful and vibrant, funny and engrossing, this book is full of insights, passion and fascinating twists

I devoured this touching, vivid, joyous account of both belonging and not belonging

What begins as a shapeless mass, a grey cloud of uncertainty, slowly morphs into a full-colour, defined picture of a more confident, peaceful acceptance of Ellis’s duality…of belonging to two places at once… Like her identity, Ellis’s book contains multitudes

On Losing and Preserving Culture

'An optimistic and wryly funny book... rich with insights' OBSERVER 
'I couldn’t put it down’ RUKMINI IYER 
‘I loved this book so much... Think: The Body Keeps the Score in practice not theory’ ELLA RISBRIDGER 
 
Samantha’s mother tongue is dying out. An urgent need to find out more becomes an expansive investigation into how to keep hold of her culture – and when to let it go 
 
The daughter of Iraqi Jewish refugees, Samantha grew up surrounded by the noisy, vivid, hot sounds of Judeo-Iraqi Arabic. A language that’s now on the verge of extinction. 
 
The realisation that she won’t be able to tell her son he’s ‘living in the days of the aubergines’ or ‘chopping onions on my heart’ opens the floodgates. The questions keep coming. How can she pass on the stories without passing on the trauma of displacement? Will her son ever love mango pickle? 
 
In her search for answers Samantha encounters demon bowls, the perils of kohl and the unexpected joys of fusion food. Her journey transports us from the clamour of Noah’s Ark to the calm of the British Museum, from the Oxford School of Rare Jewish Languages to the banks of the River Tigris. As Samantha considers what we lose and keep, she also asks what we might need to let go of to preserve our culture and ourselves. 
 
This is a life-affirming memoir about resilience and repair, and the healing power of dancing to our ancestors’ music, cooking up their recipes and sharing their stories. 
 
‘A moving and resonant lament for the past but also a thought-provoking siren call for the future' ANNE SEBBA 
'Urgent, alive, propulsive. I adored it' MARINA BENJAMIN

Samantha Ellis

Praise for Chopping Onions on My Heart

Ellis’s book is a useful reminder that Jewish generational trauma is not confined to the descendants of those who survived the Holocaust. In fact, given the ubiquity of refugees in the modern world, Chopping Onio ...

An optimistic and often wryly funny book... a gift to the future, rich with insights about the nature of belonging that are not limited to one community but matter to all of us

I am amazed at the breadth and range of Samantha Ellis’s knowledge and insights, and love the endearing and humorous way she shares information that is tragic and frightening as well as heart-warmin ...

Ellis’s book is a useful reminder that Jewish generational trauma is not confined to the descendants of those who survived the Holocaust. In fact, given the ubiquity of refugees in the modern world, Chopping Onio ...

An optimistic and often wryly funny book... a gift to the future, rich with insights about the nature of belonging that are not limited to one community but matter to all of us

I am amazed at the breadth and range of Samantha Ellis’s knowledge and insights, and love the endearing and humorous way she shares information that is tragic and frightening as well as heart-warmin ...

Ellis’s book is a useful reminder that Jewish generational trauma is not confined to the descendants of those who survived the Holocaust. In fact, given the ubiquity of refugees in the modern world, Chopping Onio ...

An optimistic and often wryly funny book... a gift to the future, rich with insights about the nature of belonging that are not limited to one community but matter to all of us

I am amazed at the breadth and range of Samantha Ellis’s knowledge and insights, and love the endearing and humorous way she shares information that is tragic and frightening as well as heart-warmin ...

Books by Samantha Ellis

Articles featuring Samantha Ellis

How sibling rivalry made Anne the ‘neglected’ Brontë

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