Whatever Wednesdays – Where I imagine myself as fictional characters

Every Wednesday/Thursday I’ll be blogging about the topic that comes through my email courtesy of Shay & Alissa.

If you could live in a different decade, what would it be, and why?

What a difficult question.

I’ve always said that I am so incredibly grateful to be living in an age where women can have a credit card, own property, and vote without a husband.
So as much as I fantasise about living in a Jane Austen era, I know that I probably wouldn’t survived too happily.

So to answer this question I’m going through the historical fiction section of my bookshelf where I can imagine myself as living in my favourite books (neatly avoiding a lot of problems which would occur if current-day-beks was herself in these decades).

Pride & Prejudice – All that focus on getting a husband? No thanks, although wet white shirt Colin Firth might persuade me. Plus I think all that delicate needlepoint would get me down. I rather prefer embroidering swear words.

Anne of Green Gables – Canada sounds so beautiful, all the trees, all the reading, all the spare time, plus Gilbert Blythe is dreamy. I’d quite happily be a red haired trouble maker running around PE Island having adventures and eventually going to college and being a teacher. I think I could live that life rather happily.

Persuasion – Possibly my favourite Austen (even without wet white shirt Colin Firth), and it’s probably because I relate to Anne Elliot so much. I fact I think 1814-1815 England may have suited me, if I had the life of Anne Elliot. She had a certain autonomy within a rigid class structure which would suit me quite well. I could at least survive in that life. Plus Captain Wentworth! (swoon) [it is becoming very apparent that I have the hots for a lot of fictional men. Totally normal right? Wet white shirt Colin Firth amiright?]

Seven Little Australians – I had to stop myself from re-reading this as it has been a long time since I flicked these pages, although the pages are so well worn. What would it have been like to grow up in Australia in early 1900s, when English customs were still observed even though they were impractical. I never saw myself as any one character like I have with all the other books I’ve mentioned in this post.

Rilla of Ingleside – Who would possibly choose to go back in time and experience world war 1. in spite of that, part of me wants to live this story. It was written so soon after the end of the war that history wasn’t set in stone and attitudes completely formed. It would be terrible to have lived that life, such hardship, loss, and uncertainty, but something keeps drawing me back to this story. It is a romanticised look at the horror of war from a young girls perspective.

The Other Boleyn Girl – I have such a fascination with the Tudor period. The dress, the manner, the patriarchy and the religious upheaval. With history so often we get the condensed version, it was (once again) a frightening time to be alive and be a strong woman, but if I had a time machine I would go to the Tudor period in a heartbeat.

Any of the famous five series – I would travel on all the Five’s adventures in a heartbeat. From the descriptions of caravans, to all the adventures. I really want to travel the 1940s English and. Welsh countryside drinking ginger beer and eating raspberry ices.

So really I want a tardis to visit all these fictional worlds and live the life of fictional characters. Which probably means I’m more than content to live in the decade I live now. But travelling through time and fiction would be nice.

Did I happen to mention wet white shirt Colin Firth??? If you’re confused, then the video explains it. If you know what I’m talking about, you’ll probably watch the video anyway.