Author Deborah Moggach had great fun adapting Jane Austen, she tells Jane Wright

DEBORAH Moggach is caught between the pull of film in one direction and the cloistered life of the novelist in the other.
At the moment, her focus is on writing for the big screen. In September a film version of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, starring Donald Sutherland and Keira Knightley, is released.
Although the book is frequently voted the nation’s favourite novel Deborah has still had the temerity to write the screenplay.
She has also just completed the first draft of a film adaptation of her own latest novel, These Foolish Things, published last year, which imagined the out-sourcing of a British old people’s home to India.
And on Wednesday the Hampstead resident will be the speaker at a Heath and Hampstead Society Literary Lunch, her topic: Writing for Film.
All of which is the more surprising considering last year also saw her become the most high-profile victim of government tax changes which scuppered at the 11th hour the filming of her novel Tulip Fever. Set in 17th-century Holland it was also set to star Keira Knightley, this time with Jude Law.
At her home in South End Green Deborah says: “It would have been the biggest film of the year, and so classy, but it was knocked on the head by number-crunching men in suits who haven’t a clue.
“If I was the producer, I’d go into a corner, curl up and say never again, but as a writer I’ve got a solid, not very admirable work ethic, and I just plough on.”
She admits her current preoccupation with film has squeezed out the novelist in her, she doesn’t know for how long. She reflects: “I haven’t had the great adventure of a novel like Tulip Fever for a long time. It’s like not having a love affair. The world becomes greyer and flatter when you don’t have a private adventure going on which renders ordinary life insubstantial.”
Yet Deborah also confesses: “I have the temperament for films. I’m sociable. I love collaborating with people. I always miss it when I’m stuck at home with my collie dog Jessie, writing novels. Then of course, with films, people fling money at you.”
Which must be useful, bearing in mind the “huge” mortgage she took on 10 years ago when she moved from Camden Town to overlook Hampstead Heath.
She adds: “And I don’t have a huge ego.” This is just as well.
On Pride and Prejudice, West Hampstead Oscar-winner Emma Thompson was brought in to make changes to the script, without consultation.
Deborah, who likes to appear in all her films as an extra, says: “She re-wrote a scene where I was going to be drinking in a tavern, by setting it in an oak wood, so I didn’t do it.”
But she continues: “Emma Thompson has Jane Austen in the marrow of her bones. Jane Austen is just so good, it feels presumptuous to put in your own.”
So why would she want to muck about with such an icon of English literature?
“Because, as the producers said to me, every new generation needs a new Pride and Prejudice,” she says. “Of course, they could just be cashing in but the BBC adaptation was for television and there hasn’t been a film of it since the fluffy version where Laurence Olivier over-egged the charm 50 years ago.
“Besides, there are some pretty modern themes in it, like having embarrassing families, and that love stems from quarrels and friction. Pride and Prejudice is sexy. Young girls who don’t give a hoot about Jane Austen will love it.”
Ten years ago, the BBC sexed it up by having Colin Firth as Austen’s romantic hero Mr Darcy dive into a country pond and emerge dripping like an entrant in an 1800s wet T-shirt contest. “There’s a lot of rain in our version,” rejoins Deborah, “and as a homage to Colin, our Darcy writes a letter describing how he tore all his clothes off to go swimming, before the arrival of a gamekeeper ‘put a stop to such foolishness’.
“In the book he’s cold and snobbish and pretty unsympathetic but I’ve made him much more human by depicting him as an intelligent man rendered restless by endless female tittle tattle at a country house party which goes on for two months.
“The film also puts the Bennett girls in a very old-fashioned house with dresses so old they’ve practically got stains under the arms. So it makes it really matter that they get married.
“I know I’m terribly gushing, but I usually downgrade my own stuff, only in this case I can’t. It really is incredibly good. It’s beautiful to look at and the young and very emotional director, Joe Wright, brings a great intensity. You really care about these girls.”
Back in the 21st century, however, talk of ponds provokes an entirely different reaction in Deborah. Every day during the summer she swims in Hampstead Heath ponds and was a campaigner in April’s High Court victory over the Corporation of London to allow unsupervised swimming.
Her involvement is symptomatic, reflecting her support for the conservation aims of the Heath and Hampstead Society, which extends well beyond presiding at this month’s fundraising literary lunch.
Deborah says: “The Corporation was to blame for mismanaging its finances and getting the priorities wrong. They invaded our magical, tranquil Heath, with aggressive, polluting and staggeringly expensive 4x4 vehicles for their police, and had no idea that the ponds mean everything to people.
“But there is a culture clash between the bureaucrats in their strange, closed off, secretive fiefdom where nobody is accountable and the free spirits who like swimming in wild places in the open air.
“Rather than confronting our deep attachment to the ponds, they should use it to work together to find City firms to sponsor the ponds.”
It sounds as if it’s not just films keeping Deborah Moggach from her next great novel. She reflects: “Maybe it’s no great loss. There are enough novels in the world. And in the meantime, think of all those trees I’m saving.”

• Writing for the Movies with Deborah Moggach, is at Globe restaurant, Avenue Road, NW3, at 12.30pm on June 15. Tickets £25.