![]() ![]() When it surfaced again, it was only for the fact that she caught the attention of a great writer, Charles Dickens. And in 1876, when she married, that name disappeared. Her name, Ellen Lawless Ternan – Nelly – has no resonance. Even in the diary of her lover she was no more than a letter 'N'. ![]() She lived from 1839 to 1914, and it is not possible even to be sure about where she was and what she was doing for some of that time. And, as the title of The Invisible Woman tells us, its subject was an obscure person. Biographers search for traces, for evidence of activity, for signs of movement, for letters, for diaries, for photographs. For years The Invisible Woman seemed destined to be yet another unmade film.īiographies are, in their nature, far more difficult to make into films than novels, because novels come with plots constructed and dialogue written, whereas I don't invent dialogue for my subjects or plot their lives for them. Much the same happened with Mrs Jordan's Profession: a lot of interest and excitement, then it fizzled out (twice). I had forgotten until I looked up old notes that I sold the film rights of my first book, a life of Mary Wollstonecraft: there was a lunch, a contract, a small sum of money, then nothing. M ost writers can tell stories of how their books failed to be made into films. ![]()
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