Out Now!

My new book A Visitor's Guide to Jane Austen's England has just been released by Pen & Sword! You can also order a Kindle edition via Amazon.  I hope you all enjoy reading my intimate look at daily life in Austen's day for the middle and upper classes.
By the way, if you gallop post-haste to my Austen blog, my latest post on Jane and Bath is now online.

Austen Blog Update

Assembly Rooms, Bath.

You can read the latest instalment in my series of blog posts on Jane Austen and Bath here on my A Visitor's Guide to Jane Austen's England blog.

Austen and Bath

I've just posted the first in a series of blog posts about Jane Austen and the city of Bath on my Austen blog.

High St, Bath. Illustration by Hugh Railton. Coaching Days and Coaching Ways, (Macmillan & Co, 1910).  Author’s collection.

A Grand Day Out

I had a smashing day out in Bath on Saturday. First I met up with fellow author Jane Odiwe for lunch, which was lovely, thank you, Jane. Then on to the Guildhall for a fascinating talk by Claire Tomalin on the art of biography, sponsored by Jane Austen's Regency World. Claire gave the audience some intriguing insights into the way she approached writing her biographies of Jane Austen, Thomas Hardy and Charles Dickens. She advised would-be biographers to ‘travel the ground’ where their subjects lived whenever possible. The Guildhall is a beautiful building; the room where we had the talk was decorated in pastel green and gilt, illuminated with huge sparkling chandeliers. After the talk I met up with Tim Bullamore and other luminaries from Jane Austen’s Regency World, and we had a lovely afternoon tea at the Jane Austen Centre. So a big thank you to Tim for inviting me, and for the warm welcome I received. It was wonderful to meet everyone.

Image: The author and Jane Odiwe, author of Willoughby's Return, outside the Guildhall in Bath. © Sue Wilkes.