My name found itself in the same sentence with Charlotte Bronte’s and now I can die happy.
My friend Rachel Fenton is a wonderful writer and graphic novelist (An Anthology of Aotearoa Women’s Comics and Island to Island, a Graphic Exchange between Taiwan and New Zealand are some of her publication credits), but above all, to me, she has been an incredibly generous friend that I do not deserve.
In this article on Something Rhymed, a blog celebrating female literary friendships, she talks about her new book, a biography of Mary Taylor, an intimate friend of Charlotte Bronte’s, with her own literary ambitions and radical views of the world and of women’s standing in it.
Rachel generously mentions my name in the article and makes it sound like I had some involvement with the book, although from where I stand it was more than minuscule and of little consequence, not at all deserving of all the praise.
But our friendship is indeed as special as it sounds. And I feel a lot of gratitude. I hope she finds a wonderful publisher for the Mary Taylor biography, a truly spectacular work (believe me, I know!).
Lori, I’m going to be Mary now and tell you to stop being so self-deprecating. YOu may have found it easy to make text boxes that look just like pieces of Mary’s and Charlotte’s letters, but that doesn’t mean you don’t deserve the credit. Now at least everyone can see how generous and wonderful a friend you are.
For anyone reading this, you probably already know Lori is a brilliant writer, editor, translator and website designer. She’s also very modest.
Thank you so much, Lori, for all your help, opinions, uniqueness and especially for your friendship. I’ll stop now, save the rest for a letter. xx