Jane Austen loved a garden. She took a keen interest in flower gardening and kitchen gardening alike. This book strolls through the sorts of gardens that Jane Austen would have known and visited: the gardens of the great estates, cottage gardens, gardens in town, and public gardens and parks. Some of the gardens she owned or knew exist still in some form today; among the gardens highlighted is the restored garden at Jane Austen’s House Museum in Chawton, England, complete with a sample planting plan of the flowers grown there now. The book also includes touring information for gardens featured in film adaptations of the novels. With lush photos, social history, excerpts from the novels, information on her life, and period drawings, this book brings Georgian and Regency gardens and Jane Austen’s world to life. In the Garden with Jane Austen captures the essence and beauty of the traditional English garden. As the heroine of Mansfield Park Fanny Price observes, “To sit in the shade on a fine day, and look upon verdure, is the most perfect refreshment.”

Eccentric Fran wants a second chance. Thanks to her intimacy with Jane Austen, and the poet Shelley, she finds one. Jane Austen is such a presence in Fran's life that she seems to share her cottage and garden, becoming an imaginary friend. Fran's conversations with Jane Austen guide and chide her - but Fran is ready for change after years of teaching, reading and gardening. An encounter with a long-standing English friend, and an American writer, leads to new possibilities. Adrift, the three women bond through a love of books and a quest for the idealist poet Shelley at two pivotal moments of his life: in Wales and Venice. His otherworldly longing and yearning for utopian communities lead the women to interrogate their own past as well as motherhood, feminism, the resurgence of childhood memory in old age, the tensions and attractions between generations. Despite the appeal of solitude, the women open themselves social to ways of living - outside partnership and family. Jane Austen, as always, has plenty of comments to offer. The novel is a (light) meditation on age, mortality, friendship, hope, and the excitement of change.

While to us tea is an everyday commodity, in Austen's time it was relatively expensive, and to be able to offer it to visitors implied some degree of social status. This book examines the social customs of the time, and includes recipes.

Explore the homes which shaped our best-loved novelist. Jane Austen is among the most widely read and beloved authors in English literature. Her novels vividly depict the society and world in which she lived with humour and sharp social commentary. Jane’s own life and emotional experiences, deeply influenced by where she lived in southern England and her travels to other parts of the country, are reflected in her works and in the importance of house and home to her characters. With newly commissioned photographs of Chawton House and Steventon Church and village in Hampshire, and a wide range of contemporary illustration, Kim Wilson explores the homes which shaped this best-loved novelist, bringing to life the domestic settings of her great works.

A study of Jane Austen's life and writings, this work surveys two centuries of editing, censorship, and fiction that created a pious, wistful, romantically pining, and frustrated Austen. It serves up an antidote to that icon - a dynamic, brave, and buoyant writer - by examining subtle self-portraits in the author's works.

Secrets, intrigue, and meddling in love – I Was Jane Austen's Best Friend by Cora Harrison is a historical romantic comedy, perfect for fans of Bridgerton. Jane says that if I am to be the heroine of this story, something will throw a hero in my way . . . I Was Jane Austen's Best Friend is the secret diary of Jenny Cooper, Jane Austen’s teenage friend and confidante. Their evenings are a blur of beautiful dresses, balls, gossip and romance; their days are spent writing about them – Jenny in her diary, Jane in her first attempts at fiction. When Jenny falls utterly in love with a handsome naval officer, obstacles stand in their way. Who better to help her than Jane herself, who already considers herself an expert in love and relationships?

This beautifully illustrated book contains all seven of Jane Austen's novels, beautifully retold as stories for children. The retellings are true to Austen's elegant phrasing and language, while reducing and simplifying the stories for a young modern reader, and include quotations from the original text throughout. The perfect book for children studying Jane Austen, or those who simply enjoy reading wonderful stories. Each story has an introductory plate showing all the main characters and introducing the plot, as well as single and double plate illustrations depicting scenes from the story. Includes a section all about Jane Austen, her times and her other writings. An heirloom of the future, this beautiful book is richly produced to a standard this timeless classic deserves, with a padded Hardback cover, a ribbon marker and traditional binding.