In A Rambling Fancy" Caroline Sanderson seeks out Jane Austens England
- the churches great houses coaching inns rectories & seaside lodgings
- to see what still remains today. Following in Jane Austens footsteps Sanderson tramps the muddy fields around Austens childhood home in rural Hampshire walks the elegant streets of Bath & strolls along the breezy promenades of south coast resort. Drawing upon Jane Austens letters as well as her many novels Caroline Sanderson charts her own experiences of the very places from which Jane Austen sought inspiration reaching some original & fascinating conclusions. Sanderson a lifelong Austen devotee also sheds light on just why this very English novelist is still so universally cherished & why Austens influence remains so great. Are we riding a wave of nostalgia for a way of life now completely lost to us? Or have we finally cast off the chintz & embraced Austen as a novelist for our own times
- one whose understanding of how we behave towards one another & of the importance of money sex & social status is just as pertinent as it ever was?"