Her sense of identification with Charlotte Brontë has continued in adulthood. She felt the same emotions as Jane, in imagination grew up with her. Like so many girls before her, Jolien at once identified with Jane, who at the start of the book is about the same age as Jolien when she first read it. And the other reason why it is the perfect subject for her is that she has loved and admired the Brontës since her mother introduced her to Jane Eyre when she was 12. In it Jolien will explore the history, everyday life, and politics of the city and how all these might have influenced the Brontës.
Her Dutch publisher liked the idea of a novel set in Brussels, a city that appeals to readers in the Netherlands. She had not realised this despite having read Villette as a teenager, and she knows that the Brontës' link with Brussels will be new for many of her readers too. She knew that she wanted her second to be a historical novel about a real person, but searched for some time for a subject before hitting on the Brontës when she discovered that they had lived in Brussels. Jolien’s first novel, Grammar of an Obsession, was well received. What is unusual about Jolien Janzing’s new novel is that it will concentrate on Charlotte and Emily Brontë’s stay in Brussels and will be written by a writer who lives in Belgium she is Dutch by birth but was brought up in the Ghent area, where she still lives. The flow of fictional biographies about the Brontës appearing on the market is never-ceasing in the last year or two we have had Syrie James’ The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Brontë and Jude Morgan’s The Taste of Sorrow, to name but two of many.
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