It’s my North and South anniversary this week! Ten years ago, in the middle of October 2009, I watched the first two episodes of North and South on Netflix with a friend who was at my house for girls’ movie night.
She came over the next week to watch episodes 3 and 4 with me. And after she left, I promptly replayed the train scene again at least twice. This is only normal procedure, right?!
The train scene was terribly beautiful. The best screen kiss I’d ever seen (still is!). But I think I know the exact moment I fell in love with the story’s hero. I was a goner when he made that breathy gasp of anguish, uncertain if he dared to hope Margaret might have feelings for him—that unbelievably vulnerable scene with his mother. This moment…
Honestly, I didn’t realize the impact the mini-series had made on me until I discovered that I COULD NOT STOP THINKING ABOUT IT.
Do you know what I mean? And here I was, rather isolated in a small California beach town with no one to talk to about it! And so I searched the Internet for “Richard Armitage.” Because WHO THE HELL WAS THAT MAN?! This was 2009. That is what you did then.
Blessedly, I was led to the N&S fan forum site: C19.ProBoards.com.
Huge sigh.
I had found my tribe. I was assured I wasn’t insane. At the C19 forum I discovered that many, MANY other perfectly respectable and well-educated women had tumbled into an obsession with the BBC’s North and South and Richard Armitage.
I admit it. Here and forever. As much as I profess to be in love with Elizabeth Gaskell’s book, I’m aware that it was Richard Armitage’s embodiment of John Thornton that threw me into the passion for North and South in the first place.
I’m not ashamed to say that I fell in love with a film production, a character, a story, a message because of one particulate actor’s magnificent, breath-taking, jaw-dropping, staggering performance of a relatively unknown romantic hero.
I am grateful for Richard’s part in this. I’m acknowledging his pivotal role in bringing Gaskell’s story to life for thousands. And I recognize that the entire film production was a masterpiece, and that it wasn’t just him.
BUT IT WAS HIM, in the end. Armitage made John Thornton real. And it was magnificent. Unforgettable.
So that’s what happened to me. I began to engage in the discussions about N&S at C19, even bravely beginning new threads of discussion with my own inquiries. And I discovered the wonderful world of fan fiction. Thus, I could indulge in more N&S and John Thornton for several weeks through some delightful stories posted there.
I bought the book about a month later and read it. I was expecting more Thornton. I rushed through it for the Thornton bits. I didn’t appreciate it as well as I should have the first go around. The impression of the film was still so strong.
But I was amazed at how vulnerable Gaskell made Thornton. She lets the reader see the struggling internal emotions of his angst. It is incredible. I’ve not found any classic literature to match it. And I’ve tried.
My original copy of North & South is full of penciled markings.
I started reading Austen, Hardy, Brontë, Dickens, Elliot, Trollope, and of course more Gaskell. Nope. Nothing beat North and South for the internal anguish of the romantic hero. John Thornton was king of all classic literature heroes. I had stumbled upon the gold standard. No wonder my world had been impacted when I saw him in the flesh on my TV screen.
Three months later, I was beginning to imagine an alternative scene to the “good-bye” scene in the mini-series. A month later I began to write it down as a story. And since C19 had fan fiction and welcomed new stories….I started to post my story that May.
In 2011, I published my story, A Heart for Milton. In 2014, I published another N&S variation, In Consequence. I’m still amazed I became a published author. It was never an aspiration of mine. I owe it to the passion I have for N&S that I discovered my talent for writing.
Along the way, I developed friendships, became a moderator at C19, read more classic literature. I helped promote other authors at The Armitage Authors Network blog and started this blog in 2016.
Right now, I’m excited to be working with eleven other authors to publish a collection of short stories! Falling for Mr. Thornton will be published in the coming weeks.
North and South has enriched and expanded my world. I certainly never expected my world to change forever when I pressed “play” ten years ago on Netflix. What happened to me is just proof of how powerful great works of art are to make us feel, to connect us, to make us explore being human.
I treasure most all the many friends I’ve made, and the great joy of reaching other people through my writing.
Thank you to everyone who has ever read this blog or my stories. Thank you to the BBC for an exquisite film production. Thank you, Richard, for making John Thornton come alive for us.
And thank you, Elizabeth Gaskell. Bless you for creating North and South. Bless you for creating John Thornton.
It’s been an amazing ten years.