Miss Austen - A New BBC Drama

Jane Austen fans are in for a treat as her bicentenary yearbicentenary year kicks off with a new BBC/Masterpiece drama, 'Miss Austen', which is based on Gill Hornby's novel, centred on Jane's sister Cassandra. The new series airs on BBC1 on Sunday 2 February, and you can see a trailer here.

Full dress and morning dress for January 1806, Lady's Monthly Museum. 

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'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!

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.

New Audio-book!

 I'm thrilled to announce that A Visitor's Guide to Jane Austen's England will be released as an audio-book on 6 April! The book is narrated by Christine Rendel, and you can listen to an MP3 sample of the book here on Tantor Media. 

The audio-book is also available to pre-order here on Amazon. If you purchase the Kindle version of the book, then you can buy the audio-book at a specially reduced price - or you can get a free copy of the audio-book with an Amazon Audible trial. 

I do hope you enjoy listening to - and reading - my book!

Illustration (right). Evening dress, Ackermann's Repository, March 1816. Author's collection. 

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Jane Austen In Early 1816

Early in 1816, Jane Austen's brother Henry retrieved her manuscript 'Susan', an early version of Northanger Abbey, from a publisher named Crosby, who had bought it from Jane for £10 thirteen years earlier but never published it. It's thought that Jane revised it during this year, and gave her heroine a new name - Catherine Morland. However, Jane may have felt that her novel was now rather out of date, because although she wrote an advertisement for the work, it was not published until after her death. 

The second edition of Jane Austen's Mansfield Park was published by John Murray sometime in February 1816. (There are some fascinating documents relating to Austen in the John Murray Archive at the National Library of Scotland). The first edition, published by Egerton, had sold out fairly quickly but had not been reprinted, so Jane must have been hopeful that a more well-known publisher would help 'puff' her book. 

However, in the event, Mansfield Park did not sell at all well, and Murray had to reduce the price. You can see some readers' opinions of Mansfield Park and Emma (published in December 1815) collected by Jane Austen here. 

Image from the author's collection: a 'carriage dress' or 'morning dress' made from 'finest dark blue ladies' cloth' and head-dress 'a la mode de Paris', Ackermann's Repository, January 1816. 

Emma 2020: A Review

I went to see the new adaptation of Jane Austen's Emma with some trepidation, as I was very disappointed by the recent TV series 'Sanditon' (and I know that many other Austen fans were, too).

Well fear not, ladies (and gentlemen), you can visit your local cinema and watch Emma, safe in the knowledge that the movie is true to the spirit of Austen's novel.

This is not to say that it gives a completely faithful recreation of the novel - it doesn't - but I hope to whet your appetite without too many spoilers.

As you would expect, the movie opens with the marriage of Emma's governess Miss Taylor, and Emma's 'gentle sorrow' at losing her friend.

Then we have Mr Knightley's first appearance! I was initially worried by Mr Knightley's 'artistically necessary' scene - I thought, please no, not another Sanditon - but once our leading man dons his breeches, the movie soon hits its stride.

Johnny Flynn gives Mr Knightley a less stately air than in the novel - more the Romantic hero - but none the worse for that! He still acts as Emma's moral guide as she arrogantly rearranges everyone's love-lives. 

Emma Woodhouse is played by Anya Taylor-Joy, who does a good job of conveying Emma's snobbiness and the high-handedness of her dealings with Harriet Smith. Bill Nighy plays a surprisingly sprightly Mr Woodhouse, but there are some good gags re his fussiness which I won't spoil for you.

Before seeing the movie, I'd had qualms when I heard that Miranda Hart was playing Miss Bates. (I feared a reprise of Alison Steadman's immensely irritating Mrs Bennet in Pride and Prejudice). But her performance is very nicely judged, and we feel her genuine shock when Emma is rude to her at Box Hill.

Mr and Mrs Elton are cringe-worthy, as they should be - Mr Elton does seem to be channeling Mr Collins at times.

The 'detective story' bits of Emma are rather underplayed. Frank Churchill is primarily the focus of Mr Knightley's jealousy, of course, but I felt we do not see enough of Jane Fairfax. 

There are some nicely stroppy female characters. Isabella Knightley is quite pushy, and by the end of the movie, Harriet Smith upbraids Emma very spiritedly for pushing her into refusing Robert Martin.

John Knightley does not feature quite as much as I would have liked, but perhaps this was to keep the main focus on George Knightley and Emma.

The costumes are gorgeous - and as far as I can tell very accurate - for the ladies' and men's fashions and hairstyles. Emma's frocks and bonnets in particular look as if they were copied straight from a fashion print from any of the contemporary magazines.

The sets and locations are beautifully shot and presented.  A couple of caveats - why was the Bates' supposedly humble home hung with Flemish-style tapestries? And - perhaps because of the cinema's sound system? - sometimes the 'background' farmyard noises were so loud, one wonders if Regency sheep carried megaphones!

The movie has lots of very funny comic visual touches - although in my view one was rather out of place during Knightley's proposal to Emma (!) - but overall, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Anyway, do go and see it, and judge for yourself. I feel this is the best Austen adaptation I've seen for some time.

Out Now!

I'm very pleased to announce that Vignettes is now available in paperback! It's available exclusively from Amazon - here in the UK, and here in the USA. I do hope you enjoy reading it!

A Visit to Blaise Castle

Blaise Castle

"Blaize Castle!" cried Catherine. "What is that?"
"The finest place in England—worth going fifty miles at any time to see."
"What, is it really a castle, an old castle?"
"The oldest in the kingdom."
"But is it like what one reads of?"
"Exactly—the very same."
"But now really—are there towers and long galleries?"
"By dozens."
"Then I should like to see it..."

In Northanger Abbey, Catherine Morland, who loves 'horrid' novels, longs to explore the wonders of Blaize (Blaise) Castle and 'all the happiness which its walls could supply—the happiness of a progress through a long suite of lofty rooms, exhibiting the remains of magnificent furniture, though now for many years deserted—the happiness of being stopped in their way along narrow, winding vaults, by a low, grated door; or even of having their lamp, their only lamp, extinguished by a sudden gust of wind, and of being left in total darkness.' 

Blaise Castle House Museum

However, she was completely misled by that sad 'rattle' John Thorpe. Far from being an 'old' castle, the Gothic edifice they planned to visit was only about thirty years old when Jane Austen was composing her novel.

The Castle, built in 1766 by estate owner Thomas Farr, was described as 'paltry' in size, but a 'very pleasing object' by Charles Heath in 1819 (Historical and Descriptive Accounts... of Chepstow, 6th edition).

Farr's manor house was replaced in the early 1790s with a beautiful neoclassical house (now Blaise Castle House Museum) designed by William Paty for new owner John Scandrett Harford (the elder).

Humphry Repton's view from the House.

Nash's Dairy.

Humphry Repton designed the picturesque views and park for the house, and John Nash added a charming Orangery and thatched Dairy (1804).

 Sadly, the Orangery was looking somewhat neglected when we visited earlier this year.









Blaise Hamlet, a wonderful collection of cottages also designed by John Nash, is just a couple of minutes' walk from the Museum.

 The houses, built in 1812 by George Repton, one of Humphry's sons, are now cared for by the National Trust.

One of Nash's cottages at Blaise Hamlet. 

Free Preview of Vignettes!

Illustration for S. Richardson's 'Pamela'. 

A reminder that you can enjoy a free preview of my new Amazon Kindle e-book Vignettes here!  Click on the link to read a free sample and discover the wonderful literary world of Jane Austen. 

VIGNETTES - My New E-book!

I'm very pleased to announce that I've just published a new book on Amazon Kindle: 'Vignettes: Literary Lives in the Age of Austen'.

Here's a copy of the blurb:

'Jane Austen lived in a ground-breaking era for English Literature. This was the age of William Wordsworth, Percy and Mary Shelley, John Keats, and others. Austen herself drew inspiration from the writers who came before her, like Doctor Johnson, Thomson and Cowper. She faced stiff competition from the rival novelists of her day like Ann Radcliffe, Mary Brunton, Fanny Burney and Walter Scott.
Away from the novelists’ world, writers like Mary Wollstonecraft argued passionately for women’s rights, and Parson Malthus, Robert Owen and Thomas Bernard discussed how best to deal with the poor.

Anna Laetitia Barbauld.

Based on the author’s previously published articles in Jane Austen's Regency World magazine, this lively exploration of Austen’s times also looks at popular literature. How did our tradition of Christmas ‘annuals’ begin? Were female novel-readers really the ‘slaves of vice’? Find out more in 'Vignettes'. '

Statue of Dr Johnson, Lichfield.

The book also discusses the career of poet Robert Burns, writer Robert Southey, and publisher Rudolph Ackermann. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I've enjoyed researching the stories of all these wonderful writers over the years!

A Visit to Lyme Regis

The Cobb, Lyme Regis. 

'The young people were all wild to see Lyme...the remarkable situation of the town, the principal street almost hurrying into the water, the walk to the Cobb, skirting round the pleasant little bay, which, in the season, is animated with bathing machines and company; the Cobb itself, its old wonders and new improvements, with the very beautiful line of cliffs stretching out to the east of the town, are what the stranger's eye will seek; and a very strange stranger it must be, who does not see charms in the immediate environs of Lyme, to make him wish to know it better', (Persuasion).



In Jane Austen's day, the most respectable houses were in the upper part of town. 'To be a person of consideration in Lyme, it is necessary to toil up hill, and to fix one's abode where it is in danger of being assailed by every wind that blows', (John Feltham, A Guide to all the Watering and Sea-bathing Places for 1813, London, 1813). The houses in the lower part of town were rather 'mean', with 'intricate' streets.

View from the Cobb. 

The Golden Lion and Three Cups were the most respectable inns, and lodgings could be procured there 'on easy terms'. Lyme also boasted a 'small Assembly-Room, Card-Room, and Billiard-table' under one roof, and several bathing-machines. The beach was considered too pebbly for pleasant walking. Feltham was also rather sniffy about Lyme's libraries, which were 'neither copious nor select' and the book collections were 'principally composed of novels'.

The Cobb was Lyme's 'harbour of a most singular construction...where ships ride in perfect safety'. And of course Anne Elliot, Captain Wentworth and the Musgrove girls enjoyed walking along it - except on the day of Louisa Musgrove's accident: 'There was too much wind to make the high part of the new Cobb pleasant for the ladies, and they agreed to get down the steps to the lower, and all were contented to pass quietly and carefully down the steep flight, excepting Louisa; she must be jumped down them by Captain Wentworth'.

But which steps did Louisa fall from? For my money, these horribly gappy ones (left) look like the obvious candidate.















However, there are some very ancient-looking ones (right) near the end of the Cobb which could also be the steps which Jane Austen meant (and which look easier to jump a young lady down from).

Harville Cottage, Lyme Regis. 

There are some nice Regency-era houses on Marine Parade, but they were probably built after Jane Austen's visits in 1803 and 1804.

More On The Way!

A Visitor's Guide to Jane Austen's England has now sold out! But the good news is that it will be re-released at the end of November. You can pre-order here from Pen and Sword, or in the meantime, order one of the last few print copies here at Amazon, or order a Kindle copy.

Exciting News About Sanditon!

Andrew Davies, the screenwriter behind the famous 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice starring Colin Firth as Mr Darcy, is to create a new version of Jane Austen's last, unfinished novel Sanditon for ITV and PBS Masterpiece.
This will be very interesting to watch as Davies will be able to make up his own ending! Filming is expected to begin some time next year.
Even though Jane was writing Sanditon when she was extremely poorly, there are some wonderful touches of humour in her novel set in the seaside. We can only imagine what the final novel would have looked like - what an immense loss. You can see facsimiles of Jane Austen's original manuscript of Sanditon here.
Illustration courtesy the Library of Congress.

Regency Cheshire on Kindle!

Eaton Hall, Cheshire.

I'm very pleased to announce that my book Regency Cheshire is now available here on Amazon Kindle!

My book explores the scandals, sports and pastimes of the great county families such as the Grosvenors of Eaton Hall. Their glittering lifestyle is contrasted with conditions for humble farmers and factory workers. The gentry and mill owners created elegant new villas and beautiful gardens while workers huddled together in slums with inadequate sanitation. The Prince Regent and his cronies danced and feasted while cotton and silk workers starved.


In Regency Cheshire, I explore the county’s transport system and main industries: silk, cotton, salt and cheese. Stage coaches rattled through the streets, and packet boats and barges sailed down the canals.

Reform and revolution threatened the old social order. Blood was spilt on city streets during election fever and in the struggle for democracy. Balls and bear-baiting; highwaymen and hangings; riots and reform: Regency Cheshire tells the story of everyday life during the age of Beau Brummell, Walter Scott and Jane Austen.

You can read a free sample of Regency Cheshire here.

Jane Austen's Landscapes

Wooburn

This year is the bicentenary of Humphry Repton's death, and several events are planned: visit http://thegardenstrust.org/events-archive/tags/repton/. 

My latest feature for Jane Austen's Regency World magazine (Mar/April issue) is on the way Austen uses landscapes in her novels. 

Jane Austen grew up during the great age of the ‘improvers’ like Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown and Humphry Repton. Austen loved William Cowper's poetry. In his poem The Task, Cowper deplores the rage for 'improvement' which swept away the past:

Capability Brown

Improvement too, the idol of the age,

Is fed with many a victim.  Lo! he comes—

The omnipotent magician, Brown, appears.

Down falls the venerable pile, the abode

Of our forefathers, a grave whiskered race,

But tasteless…

He speaks.  The lake in front becomes a lawn,

Woods vanish, hills subside, and valleys rise,

And streams, as if created for his use,

Pursue the track of his directed wand

Sinuous or straight, now rapid and now slow,

Now murmuring soft, now roaring in cascades,

Even as he bids.  The enraptured owner smiles.

’Tis finished.

This tension between the old and new is explored by Jane Austen in her last, unfinished novel, Sanditon. The enthusiastic Mr Parker has built a new home at the seaside: ‘Trafalgar House, on the most elevated spot on the down’. It is a 'light, elegant building, standing in a small lawn with a very young plantation round it’ 

He pours scorn on his wife's fondness for their old home, in a ‘little contracted nook, without air or view’. 

Mrs Parker, more practical, reminds him 'It was always a very comfortable house'. Parker ripostes that ‘We have all the grandeur of the storm’ at Trafalgar House.  His wife still longs for their old garden, however: ‘a nice place for the children to run about in. So shady in summer!' 

Images from the author's collection:

Wooburn (Woburn) in Surrey, the seat of Philip Southcote. He designed it as a ‘ferme ornee’ (ornamental farm garden). The Universal Magazine c.1770. 

Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown, Monthly Chronicle of North Country Lore & Legend, Walter Scott, 1889

A Visit to William Cowper's House, Olney

Cowper and Newton Museum, Olney.

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope you had a good Christmas.
Summer seems a long time away, so I thought it would be nice to look back at my visit to the Cowper and Newton Museum at Olney last year.

Cowper House rear view, showing the two buildings' junction.

Jane Austen loved William Cowper's poems - his work is often quoted in her letters and novels.

In Mansfield Park, Fanny Price mourns the potential loss of the trees at Sotherton, and quotes from Cowper's poem The Task: “Cut down an avenue! What a pity! Does it not make you think of Cowper? ‘Ye fallen avenues, once more I mourn your fate unmerited.’”

The museum is a real gateway into the past - as you explore the Georgian house and garden, you can really imagine what everyday life was like in Jane Austen's England. The museum is actually two buildings joined together; you enter through the original kitchen, then move on through Cowper's hall, parlour, bedroom and so on.

Cowper's summerhouse, Olney.

Cowper's personal life was rather sad; he suffered from poor mental health for many years, but he found great comfort in nature, and the changing seasons.

William was a very keen gardener. The gardens are very beautiful, and Cowper spent many hours in the summerhouse composing his work in peace and quiet.

He famously kept three tame hares called Puss, Tiney and Bess. 

Cowper was greatly affected by the poverty endured by the local lace-making families, and there's a lace-making gallery at the museum.

There's also a room devoted to John Newton, Cowper's friend and fellow hymn-writer.

The gardens.

The museum re-opens in February 2018; you can find out how to become a Friend of the museum here.




All photos copyright Sue Wilkes.

Christmas Theatricals at Steventon

Jane Austen loved the theatre!

She was about seven years old when family theatricals first began at Steventon Rectory, circa December 1782. Dr Thomas Francklin’s Matilda was seemingly the first play performed, probably in the dining-room. Jane’s big brother James penned some additional verses to accompany the performance.

George Austen taught fee-paying scholars at home, so the plays only took place during the summer and Christmas holidays, when his pupils were away. At some point some stage scenery was painted to accompany the Austens’ theatricals, which must have added to the fun.

In 1787, Jane’s cousin Phila Walter wrote in a letter that Eliza de Feuillide (another cousin of Jane and Cassandra’s) was planning to visit Steventon at Christmas and that the family 'mean to act a play, Which is the Man? and Bon Ton. My uncle's barn is fitting up quite like a theatre, and all the young folks are to take their part. The Countess is Lady Bob Lardoon [sic] in the former and Miss Tittup in the latter. They wish me much of the party and offer to carry me, but I do not think of it. I should like to be a spectator, but am sure I should not have courage to act a part, nor do I wish to attain it.' (Phila sounds amazingly like Fanny Price in this letter!)

Eliza wrote to Phila to ‘assure you we shall have a most brilliant party and a great deal of amusement, the house full of company, frequent balls. You cannot possibly resist so many temptations, especially when I tell you your old friend James is returned from France and is to be of the acting party’.

But Phila was not keen, so Eliza wrote to her again, begging her to come for a fortnight to Steventon, provided she could bring herself to act, 'for my Aunt Austen declares "she has not room for any idle young people'.

Jane’s recollections of these family theatricals clearly influenced the Bertrams’ performances in Mansfield Park – but surely none of the Austen brothers acted like that ‘ranting young man’ Yates, who was ‘almost hallooing’ as he rehearsed his part?

A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all Janeites everywhere!

Images

 ‘ Hints to managers, actors and authors / G.M. Woodward, del.1790, courtesy Library of Congress. 

Hugh Thomson illustrations for Mansfield Park. 

Jane Austen and Gardens

Temple of Echo, Rousham Park.

I'm very pleased to say that this week I've got a guest article on Jane Austen and Gardens at Pride and Possibilities, the e-zine for the Jane Austen Literary Foundation - a very worthy cause, do support it if you can!