Pride, Prejudice and Philippe Petit

It is Jane Austen's birthday today! Happy 234th birthday! In celebration, I watched (yet again) the final part of Lost in Austen, the delicious retelling of Pride and Prejudice through the eyes of a modern Janeite living in Hammersmith. Altogether more affecting and better acted than even the best British TV series of P&P. Yes, Austen is a profound influence on my writing, along with Annie Proulx and Cate Kennedy. What a disparate bunch, all jostling for pole position in my head. My current inspiration is Colum McCann's latest novel Let the Great World Spin, a brilliantly constructed story hingeing on Philippe Petit's 1974 tight-rope walk between the twin towers. Not surprising that a great writer should take that story and run with it.  I saw Petit last year in a Q&A session after the Melbourne screening of Man on Wire, the film about his highwire walk. He could not sit still in the 'comfortable' chair, but sprang up to answer questions. His comfort zone is high in the sky, joyriding on a wire, finding ecstasy through the fine-tuning of his nerves. He keeps alive the spirit of the absurd and theatrical sixties and the romantic and serious seventies. He embodies curiosity, passion and creativity. What better inspiration for a writer!