CELEBRATE THE 200th ANNIVERSARY OF JANE AUSTEN'S EMMA THIS DECEMBER IN WINCHESTER

December marks 200 years since the publication of one of the world’s most famous novels, Emma, written by Jane Austen. The author spent much of her life in Hampshire, died in Winchester’s historic College Street and is buried in Winchester Cathedral.

December is the ideal month to visit Winchester, fans of the novel, whose heroine was a great lover of Christmas, can expect a backdrop of ‘England as it used to be’ that is bustling with shoppers and revellers enjoying the compact medieval cityscape.

  

Winchester provides a tasteful and authentic Christmas experience - the festive season is celebrated with old and new traditions.  Winchester Cathedral Christmas Market is integral to the celebrations and recognised as being one of the best in Europe. This year is the tenth time the Christmas market has occupied the inner close. To celebrate, the Tourist Information Centre team have created a magical children’s grotto for Saturdays and the iconic Coca Cola lorry is coming to town on 17 December.  With lantern parades, Christmas shows and traditional pantomimes, Christmas 2015 will be a busy one for the ancient capital.

LOVELY JANEITES - MEET JULIET VONTURI: EMMA CALLS MR KNIGHTLEY

A very heartfelt thanks to Maria Grazia for her gracious welcome to join her and you all at My Jane Austen Book Club.

In 1997 the Miramax Production of ‘Emma’showed me with such clarity a higher quality lifestyle. She enchanted me and I fell head over heels in love with him, nothing could be further from my own life than this beautiful movie. Mesmerized I grew my hair long and started making choices in my thoughts and atmosphere which reflected the values I refined upon.

Poetic license lit up my mind since I’m in the midst of publishing my own book of poetry ‘Sunstar’. 

LONGBOURN'S SONGBIRD BLOG TOUR - READ BEAU NORTH'S GUESTPOST & WIN A PAPERBACK COPY!

Thank you to My Jane Austen Book Club for being the very first stop in my very first blog tour!

I thought that it would be fun to show you all how I came by some of my inspiration for Longbourn’s Songbird. Several people have already asked me what gave me the idea to write this story. Funnily enough, it was this photo of my grandmother, who was so beautiful in her youth that I thought “She’s as lovely as Jane Bennet.” And thus an idea was born.  

My grandmother, Ola Elizabeth Davis.

While it might be a bit of a cliché, I stuck to the old adage of “write what you know.” Yes, I was born and grew up in the South, but haven’t actually lived there for ten years now. I found that I was having to pull some pretty deep memories to get across the description of things there, like the way the crickets sing at night, the red clay dirt, the humid summer air. Some of the details I woefully forgot, like the sight of trees dripping with Spanish moss, or the way the leaves from the live oaks carpet the woods in the autumn.