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Friday 28 June 2013

A Visitor's Guide to Jane Austen's England

Hello to all Jane Austen fans!  This blog will be dedicated to daily life in late Georgian and Regency England, and news about Jane Austen, her works, life and times.

My new book, A Visitor's Guide to Jane Austen's England, will be published by Pen & Sword's new History imprint in October 2014.

Nearer publication date, I'll be posting news about the book, but in the meantime, here's a taster of the proposed blurb:

'Immerse yourself in the vanished world inhabited by Austen’s contemporaries. Packed with detail, and anecdotes, this is an intimate exploration of how the middle and upper classes lived from 1775, the year of Austen’s birth, to Jane’s death in 1817. Sue Wilkes skilfully conjures up all aspects of daily life within the period, drawing on contemporary diaries, illustrations, letters, novels, travel literature and archives'. 




Were all unmarried affluent men really 'in want of a wife'?

Where would a young lady seek adventures?

Would ‘taking the waters’ at Bath and other spas kill or cure you?

Was Lizzy Bennet bitten by bed-bugs while travelling?

What would you wear to a country ball, or a dance at Almack’s?

Would Mr Darcy have worn a corset?

What hidden horrors lurked in elegant Regency houses?

Put on your dancing gloves and embrace a lost era of corsets and courtship! 

     Note for Readers: The book isn’t a modern-day tourist guide to places associated with Jane Austen in England – instead you will be ‘visiting’ Austen’s world as she knew it. 

    If you'd like to find out more about my other work, do visit my blog on social history and family history at Sue Wilkes.