
I received this book for a birthday in my last year of junior school. I first read it at the age of 11. Adult me wonders why anyone thought it was a suitable book for an eleven year old. Just because I could read it doesn’t mean that I should have read it. This was the exact edition that was gifted to me. I found it recently in a charity shop. I’ve always created cimematic images in my head when I read books. My images are significantly different from actual Cinema or T.V productions that I have seen. Finding this book showed me why. My image of the whole story is completely played out in the colours of autumn. Not the monotone and dusty decor that traditionally surrounds Miss Havisham. A bunch of flowers, well passed their best reminded me of her wedding bouquet, the one in my.head.

Although the charity shop book is old and faded if I perk it up a little I can see the colours that inspired my 11 year old imagination.

Memory is a funny thing, the first thought I had when I found the passed their best bouquet in my kitchen, my first thought was ‘ Miss Havisham’s bouquet.’

Not that I am suggesting that my colour palate is more correct than T.V or Cinema but slightly surprised that I stick with it despite most other media prefering dust and monotone. I remain stubbornly stuck in my 11 year old head on this one, should you be interested the wedding dress is sepia and coffee coloured. What would be my colours of choice if my first read of the novel was in a plain school version at the age of 15 having watched it as a T.V drama in black and white. Colour imagination is an inexplicable thing . I am very glad to have solved this one and still uncertain if the story would ever been fully understood by an eleven year old.
