Jane Odiwe Jane Austen Sequels

When I was writing Mr. Darcy's Secret I was lucky enough to take a trip to Derbyshire for inspiration and research. In my book Elizabeth Bennet's aunt, Mrs. Gardiner, has a friend, Mrs. Butler, who lives in Lambton. We know, of course, that Mrs. Gardiner lived in Lambton herself once upon a time so I assumed she would have made friends there. I stayed in the village of Beeley on the Chatsworth estate and it was here that I was very taken with the house below which I thought would be a good starting point for Mrs. Butler's house. Although not quite exactly as the house I'd imagined in my head, it certainly ran on similar lines. I'd imagined a stone house with mullioned windows - perhaps a little more set back from the road, a little larger in size, and with a grander front door, but I was very pleased with this one nevertheless. The interior of Mrs. Butler's house was inspired by a house that I knew as a child. The room belonged to a friend of my mother's an

My lovely guest today is Victoria Connelly , the author of A Weekend with Mr Darcy, and The Perfect Hero, two books inspired by Jane Austen. She has a new book out, Mr Darcy Forever , which I thoroughly enjoyed, and if you've read any of Victoria's other books, I'm sure you'll enjoy this too! I have lovely memories of showing Victoria around Bath during the Jane Austen Festival, taking tea in the Pump Rooms and looking at all the wonderful costumes in the Fashion Museum. I seem to remember we spied a particularly dashing Mr Darcy figure on the promenade walk... I asked Victoria to tell us a little more about her books and the characters she writes about. What made you want to write novels inspired by Jane Austen? I’d been visiting lots of the Jane Austen locations: Chawton in Hampshire, Lyme Regis and Bath and I was really inspired by how beautiful they were and I thought they’d make great settings for novels.  I quickly came up with an idea for a trilogy: thr

My husband took these magical images on bonfire night-I think they're all fantastic but the romantic in me is very taken with the heart - ah, young love! What fun you can have with a packet of sparklers!!!

I was contacted recently by Brad Wirz, the founder of a remarkable new company set up to benefit people in parts of the world where reading is a luxurious privilege not open to everyone. It's very hard to imagine not having access to libraries, teachers and books in our societies so when Brad wrote and said that 100%of the profits that are made from the gifts they sell go towards making reading and literacy a real possibility in the developing world, I was very happy to help spread the word! I think you'll be particularly interested in the range of  Jane Austen Gifts  which will not only make fabulous presents, but will be helping others less fortunate than ourselves.  I also love the fact that Brad has risen to the challenge of attempting to read  Jane Austen  himself, and you can read his thoughts on our favourite author. Here's a little more about  Gone Reading  and its founder, Brad Wirz. Gone Reading International – maker of the GoneReading brand of gifts for readers