Get this pretty Proud to be British" slim notebook from Jan Constantine to write down memos plans or elaborate fictions! The notebook has ruled pages & is based around the love of Britain theme with Union Jack patchwork heart designs." ...

Get these pretty Proud to be British" Sticky Notes from Jan Constantine to use as page markers or to jot down important reminders! They come in a silver tin & come in 8 different designs all based around the love of Britain theme with Union Jack patchwork heart designs." ...

This pretty patterned writing set from Jan Constantines Proud to be British" collection will be a fabulous addition to your stationery. It features a Union Jack patchwork hearts design on a keepsake box &

Includes:: 30 sheets of writing paper 20 envelopes & envelope seals. The bold design makes a fabulous statement in your home or on your desk!"

...

Over the years as Barbara Pym replaced Nancy Mitford Georgette Heyer even Jane Austen as my most loved author I devoured all her books but JANE & PRUDENCE remains my favourite. Even an umpteenth reading this weekend was punctuated by gasps of joy laughter & wonder that this lovely book should remain so fresh funny & true to life Jilly Cooper The setting of this very funny novel one of Barbara Pyms earliest is an English village where Janes husband is the newly appointed vicar & where Prudence will pay Jane a visit & find herself courted by a fatuous young widower. Prudence at twenty-nine has achieved nothing in life but a dull research job in London & a string of dud affairs; Jane now in her forties was Prudences tutor at Oxford. Jane cheerfully concedes that she is an incompetent housewife but she hopes that the move to a rural parish may transform her into a Trollopean vicars wife as well as a crafty matchmaker. There are many comic complications here as Jane learns that matchmaking has as many pitfalls as does housewifery The New Yorker ...

Jane Austen is the celebrated biography by bestselling author Claire Tomalin. A perfect biography: detailed witty warm. Tomalin involves us so deeply that Austen's final illness & death come almost as a personal tragedy to the reader". (Dirk Bogarde Daily Telegraph Books of the Year). " Truly marvellous. I cannot think that a better life of Jane Austen then Claire Tomalin's will be written for many years. Her readings of the novels are full of brilliant insights. She often seems to be standing behind Austen's desk observing her writing". (Philip Hensher Mail on Sunday). " As near perfect a Life of Austen as we are likely to get: intelligent feeling suggestive. Tomalin presents Austen as remarkably clever; sensitive but sentimental; tough yet observant; guarded; & a woman with the devil of a genius in her". (Carmen Callil Daily Telegraph). " Tomalin has written a biography that reflects Austen's own exacting standards a book that radiates intelligence wit & insight". (Michiko Kakutani The New York Times). " Of all the Austen biographies this is the best.. .leaves the reader with a much deeper appreciation of the circumstances & motivation behind the creation of those six perfect novels". (Harpers & Queen). From the acclaimed author of Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self Charles Dickens: A Life & The Invisible Woman this virtuoso biography is invaluable reading for lovers of Jane Austen everywhere. Claire Tomalin is the award-winning author of eight highly acclaimed biographies including: The Life & Death of Mary Wollstonecraft; Shelley & His World; Katherine Mansfield: A Secret Life; The Invisible Woman: The Story of Nelly Ternan & Charles Dickens; Mrs Jordan's Profession; Jane Austen: A Life; Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self; Thomas Hardy: The Time-Torn Man & most recently Charles Dickens: A Life. A former literary editor of the New Statesman & the Sunday Times she is married to the playwright & novelist Michael Frayn." ...

In the middle of the nineteenth century one of the vergers of Winchester Cathedral where Jane Austen is buried was mystified by the number of visitors who requested to be shown her grave. ' Was there anything particular about this lady?' he asked. There was no indication on the tablet marking Jane's grave that she was a famous author as her importance as a novelist had not been recognised at the time of her death & her grieving family did not consider it worth recording. Jane Austen a parson's daughter who grew up in quiet rural Hampshire in the eighteenth century became a famous & much-loved English novelist. Drawing on a little-known family diary family memoirs & letters this book tells the story of Jane's life largely in her own words & those of people who knew her. It also traces her development as a novelist & the growth of her reputation & fame following her untimely death at the age of forty-one. ...

The story of Jane Austen's links with the idyllic village of Adlestrop & Stoneleigh Abbey the ancestral homes of the two branches of the Leigh family has not yet been fully told. Jane's mother Cassandra was a Leigh a dynasty that boasted an Elizabethan Lord Mayor ducal marriage alliances a peerage granted by Charles I Oxford luminaries as well as the spectre of lunacy & threats of bankruptcy. Jane Austen visited her Leigh cousins at Adlestrop several times & kept in constant touch with events there by letter. In Gloucestershire she first heard of Sir Humphry Repton who was employed by the Leighs & saw at first-hand how the eighteenth-century craze for improvements totally changed the village landscape. On one dramatic occasion she accompanied her cousin the Reverend Thomas Leigh to Stoneleigh Abbey which he had inherited
- a legacy endlessly disputed & longed for by other family members
- including Jane herself. Jane Austen & Adlestrop opens up a fresh window on the author's life & experience. It examines the probabilities that Adlestrop Park the Parsonage House & Stoneleigh Abbey inspired not only fictional places such as Thornton Lacey & Sotherton in Mansfield Park but also how the Leighs' colourful lives & inheritance problems influenced many of the plot lines in Jane Austen's books. Jane Austen & Adlestrop is also a portrayal of an archetypal English village's journey from the eighteenth century looking at how it experienced radical changes during Jane Austen's lifetime & how it is now over two hundred years later.

...

Jane Austen's classic romantic novels are now available in a boxed set for all to enjoy! One of the greatest novelists of the eighteenth & nineteenth centuries Austen's works have been turned into motion pictures & translated into multiple languages. Today her works transcend cultural boundaries & have become a model for a new generation of romantic stories. This six-title boxed set

Includes:: Pride & Prejudice Emma Sense & Sensibility Mansfield Park Persuasion " & " Northanger Abbey.""

...

Jane Austen wrote her novels in the midst of a large & sociable family. Brothers & sisters nieces & nephews friends & acquaintances were always coming & going & eating & drinking. Fortunately one of Janes dearest friends Martha Lloyd lived with the family for many years & recorded in her Household Book" over 100 recipes enjoyed by the Austens. This family fare tested & modernized for todays cooks is reproduced here together with some of the more sophisticated dishes which Jane & her characters would have enjoyed at balls picnics & supper parties. The introduction discusses Janes own interest in food as shown both in the novels & in her letters & the importance of mealtimes & entertaining in the social life of her period (1775-1817) with the complete contents of Martha Lloyds " Household Book" & the history of the manuscript now in Jane Austens House at Chawton Hampshire. Delightful line drawings prints & watercolours from contemporary sources illustrate the book." ...

Jane wants to meet a hero worthy of her extraordinary imagination: a gentleman who is dashing & daring & handsome & brave; who can dance like a viscount & duel like a king. Jane & Jenny are whiling away the season in Bath & there are plenty of dances rumours & scandals to entertain them. But a good reputation once lost is gone forever; & Jane is in danger of becoming the talk of the town for all the wrong reasons ...