Jane Austen's 250th Birthday - More Updates

Next week (16 December) will be Jane's Austen's 249th birthday, and I have some more updates regarding her 250th birthday next year. The Jane Austen Centre website has a list of 2025 events, including some in America and even one in Australia! It just shows that Austen and her works continue to be a global phenomenon. 

The Jane Austen Society is asking Janeites from all over the world to record a 2-minute tribute: 'What Jane Austen means to me'. You can find details on how to contribute here. You can begin uploading your contributions from 16 December this year - the final submission date is 15 December 2025. What a wonderful way to celebrate Jane's work!

Last week, Jane Austen's House Museum presented a mini-documentary, Jane Austen and the Art of Writing', discussing Jane's unfinished novel, The Watsons. You can watch the film here on YouTube. 

2025 is going to be absolutely epic for Jane Austen fans!

Image from the author's collection: December Fashions for 1803, Lady's Monthly Museum. 

Jane Austen 250th birthday - update

 

Here's an exciting update for you! Jane Austen's House Museum is hosting a special Pride and Prejudice festival during the last week of January 2025. 

'Jane Austen and the Art of Writing', a new exhibition, is on now, and on 22 January a new exhibition, 'Austenmania', will look at the TV adaptations of Jane's works. 

The Hampshire Cultural Trust is also planning some events around the county for next year. 

Image from the author's collection: Evening dresses for November 1803, Lady's Monthly Museum. 

Jane Austen's 250th Birthday

 Jane Austen fans are already looking forward to a very special anniversary! 16 December 2025 will be the 250th anniversary of Jane's birth. It may seem a long way off, but events and exhibitions are already being planned. 

I will be posting updates on this blog whenever I hear of anything new, but in the meantime, you can sign up to a special newsletter here on the Jane Austen's House Museum website.

Some Southampton events are now on the Visit Hampshire website. Her burial place, Winchester Cathedral, will be holding a special service in memory of our favourite author, and is also planning to unveil a new statue of Jane. 

And of course, a reminder that you can find out more about Jane Austen's life and times in my book!

Byron Bicentenary

Sail over to my history blog for my blog post on the bicentenary of Lord Byron's death.

Images: Frontispiece, and illustration of 'Mazeppo bound to the Wild Horse',  from the 1827 edition of George Clinton's Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Lord Byron.  Author's collection.

An Update

 

As you may have guessed, I've been struggling to keep two blogs updated at once! I'm primarily posting on my history blog. 

If any really exciting Jane Austen news pops up, then I will return, I promise!

'Forgive and Forget', postcard c.1900, author's collection. 

Cautionary Tales

 

My latest feature for Jane Austen's Regency World discusses 'Cautionary Tales' for children. When Jane was a little girl, many moralistic tales were available to help set children's feet on the right path in life. 

Stories  like these were parodied in some of Jane Austen's juvenilia, such as Love and Freindship.

One of Jane's favourite stories was the History of Little Goody Two-Shoes. Anne Fisher's Pleasing Instructor or entertaining moralist (c.1756) was another extremely popular work. 

Children’s literature was an area of publishing where women authors like Mary Wollstonecraft, Mrs Barbauld, and Mme de Genlis increasingly gained acceptance. 

In Emma, the eponymous heroine says that Mrs Weston’s new little girl will be “educated on a more perfect plan” like Adelaide in de Genlis’ story Adelaide and Theodore. 

Of course, Austen's mature fiction, like Mansfield Park, also includes some cautionary tales for her readers.

Image:

Title Page of Anne Fisher, The Pleasing Instructor or Entertaining Moralist, T. Fisher, c.1780. Author’s collection.

A Visit to Mauchline

 

Do pop over to my other history blog for a visit to Robert Burns' Mauchline!