Beginner’s Pluck: Nicola Edwards on reimagining Heathcliff via colonialism
Nicola Edwards, author of This Thing of Darkness
An only child in a family of non-readers, Nicola always had a vivid imagination.
“I loved my library card, and I kept up a diary from the age of 12.” When she first read , aged 14, she hated it, but rereading it three years later, she changed her mind.
“Heathcliff became this antagonist and a force to be reckoned with,” she says.
“I taught for A-level, and asked the class to imagine where Heathcliff goes during his absence. They came up with all kinds of ideas, but I relish historical realism, and I decided to make him a product of his environment, with a link to colonialism and the slave trade. The Bronte’s read , so they would have been aware of the Empire.”
Nicola wrote the novel as the culmination of her MA.
“I started it when my son was four, and I was teaching part-time,” she says. “It won the Michael Schmidt Prize for the best manuscript.”
Nicola has lectured on race and representation for the Race Council of Wales and has published non-fiction in the Wales Arts Review.
1980/ Bangor, North Wales.
Secondary school, Ysgol Dyffryn Ogwen, Bethesda, (learning through Welsh.) Glasgow University, English Literature; Teacher training in Bangor; Manchester Writing School, MA in creative writing.
Conwy North Wales.
Husband, Glyn Edwards, (a poet), son Arthur, 11.
Part-time teacher of English and classics, taking a PhD at the University of Bangor.
“I’d do an anthropology degree and become a classicist.”
Hilary Mantel; Claire Keegan; Beryl Bainbridge; Sarah Waters; Anthony Doerr; Colson Whitehead, and Maggie O’Farrell.
“It’s set in Wales and is about the strike of 1900.”
“Persevere. And write what you want to write rather than think about the market.”
nicolaedwards.co.uk
@Nick_writes.
At 16, Heathcliff runs from Wuthering Heights determined to gain revenge and seek his fortune. After severe hardship, he gains employment and a role for himself. But the cost was experiencing the darkness of England’s colonial past.
Utterly compelling. Edwards has the tone just right. Emily Bronte would be delighted!
