Ellen Cheshire

This Autumn sees the publication of Encounters with Jane Austen , a sparkling new anthology that commemorates the 250th anniversary of Austen’s birth. Edited and introduced by Professor Jennie Batchelor, the collection brings together over 30 writers, artists and scholars to share their personal, creative and often surprising engagements with Austen’s life and work. From essays and poems to short stories and interviews, it brims with affection, wit, and fresh perspectives on

Bucket list item checked! Prospect Cottage Visiting Prospect Cottage  has long been on my bucket list, and finally standing there, in front of Derek Jarman’s black-tarred cottage with its golden windown frames and wild shingle garden, felt quietly profound. The place holds a presence that’s hard to describe—at once fragile and defiant, personal yet universal. It’s a home, but it’s also a work of art, a manifesto written into the landscape. The tour itself was made unforgetta

This year’s Femme Filmmakers Festival (an online festival from 16 - 28 September 2025) highlighted the extraordinary contributions of...

Mandy Patinkin and Madonna in Dick Tracy Continuing my journey through Stephen Sondheim’s top 40 films, I have watched numbers 21–30,...

My first trip to Dirt in the Gate's Grindfest , a horror and genre festival with a wild line-up of cult treasures, oddities and rediscoveries. I caught 9 of the 13 programmed features, each one introduced with gusto, which gave the screenings a real sense of community and mischief. Here’s how they stacked up, from the best to the worst: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4 Stars) American Psycho 2000 – Directed by Mary Harron A deliciously dark black comedy horror based on Bret Easton Ellis’s novel. Chri

This post continues our series on writers in Sussex - those who found inspiration in its landscapes, towns and coastlines, weaving the...

When I first visited Efteling  in 2024, I stayed in Bosrijk, the park’s beautiful woodland accommodation. It’s the perfect halfway point between fairytale and reality: self-catering cottages tucked among whispering trees, close enough to hear the distant hum of the park yet peaceful enough for quiet evenings by the lake, watching the water shift and reflect the last light of day. That first trip was wonderful but all too brief. I saw enough to fall under Efteling’s spell but

Peter Dinklage in She Came To Me (2023) Here's the 23rd batch of #52FilmsByWomen watched since taking the pledge in 2016. This blog...

In this series exploring writers in Sussex, we trace how the county - its towns, landscapes and shifting coastlines - has left its mark...

In the second chapter of my Sondheim project, I continue watching Stephen Sondheim’s favourite films. Watching films 11 through 20, in...

Over the past month, I've watched 25 films featuring Jennifer Jones: 24 features and one short. I’d only seen six of the feature films...

H.G. Wells With Sussex Day (16 June) around the corner, those who enjoy exploring places through literary eyes will find a wealth of...

"There is nothing like staying at home, for real comfort" , this was not said about Jane's time in Bath, but is cited in reference to her life at Chawton Cottage, where Jane Austen lived with her mother and sister. It encapsulates the simple pleasures and domestic comforts she enjoyed there.  After leaving Bath in July 1806 (which you can read more about here) , Jane Austen, her mother, and sister moved to C lifton, near Bristol, for a short time. However, they did not settl

Virginia Woolf c. 1927 from one of her own photo albums at Monk's House which were acquired at an auction at Sotheby's in 1982. This is...

A few weeks ago, I had a 45-minute conversation with Hendrik Warnke from the German radio station Saarländischer Rundfunk (SR) about the popularity of bio-pics. About 30 seconds of the interview is featured in a 5-minute segment on bio-pics as part of their Crash Course in World Cinema  feature. Luckily, you don’t have to listen to me struggle with my one year of secondary school German, as they dubbed over me in German. However, you can still hear me in the background! If yo

This is the second in our series exploring writers in Sussex – those who were inspired by its coastlines, hills, and ancient villages....

4 Sydney Gardens basement apartment Bucket list item checked! In March 2025 a friend and I spent a few days in Bath, as we are both fans of Jane Austen's books we made a pilgrimage to visit the places she lived and visited. One of these was easy to find as we were staying in one! The basement apartment of 4 Sydney Gardens available to rent via AirBnB . Jane Austen moved with her parents and sister, Cassandra, to Bath in 1801 following her father’s retirement from his parish

One hundred and ten years ago this month, in March 1915, D. H. Lawrence found himself on the windblown coast of Bognor Regis in West...

In my first blog post, 2025: A Year of Sondheim and Storytelling , I outlined my 2025 film and theatre project: a year dedicated to immersing myself in the world of Stephen Sondheim – both through his own work and through the films that shaped his artistic vision. As part of this journey, I’m watching all 40 of Sondheim’s favourite films in chronological order. Here are the first ten, spanning a mix of countries and cinematic traditions, each revealing something about the st

Ahead of the UK premiere of Andrew Ahn’s reimagining of Ang Lee’s The Wedding Banquet  (1993) at BFI Flare this week, here’s an extract...