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Thank you to everyone who entered last week's giveaways! Here are the winners - Congratulations!!!! Gabriella - A signed copy of Effusions of Fancy Lauren Gulde - Illustrated Letters of Jane Austen Nancy Kelley - Illustrated copy of Persuasion Amy B - A copy of Mrs Hurst Dancing Issy - A signed copy of Searching for Captain Wentworth I'm taking a little blogging break for the holidays - I'll be back in the New Year. Happy Christmas everyone!

Austen Soirée at My Jane Austen Book Club

Happy Birthday Jane Austen! Read below for one of my favourite JA excerpts, and for a chance to win some free books and a free download. Then hop over to the next blog on the list for more treats - see below for further details. Thank you very much to  Maria Grazia of  My Jane Austen Book Club  for hosting this splendid event!!! It's wonderful to be a part of the Austen Soirée at My Jane Austen Book Club . This was an impossible task - to find a passage from all of Jane Austen's writing that could be described as my favourite. There are so many excerpts that I could pick - there truly isn't one that I love above all others, but the following is particularly dear to my heart. It's from Persuasion - chapter 19. I love the way Jane Austen lets us into Anne's head and we experience what Anne sees, hears and feels when she sees Captain Wentworth again.    Mr. Elliot was attending his two cousins and Mrs. Clay. They were in Milsom Street. It began to ra

All I want for Christmas Giveaway - Day 5

I have two gifts today to giveaway! Here's the first for those lucky enough to own a Kindle: SEARCHING FOR CAPTAIN WENTWORTH Free on Kindle - December 16th - Jane Austen's Birthday! This offer is only open for one day so to claim your free copy make sure you download it on the 16th My second gift is a choice of any one of my books! i.e Choose one copy of either Searching for Captain Wentworth, Mr Darcy's Secret, Willoughby's Return, Lydia Bennet's Story or Effusions of Fancy! Let me know your preference in the comment box with a contact email . As before, the winners will be announced on Monday 17th December. Thank you for joining me this week with all your lovely comments!

All I want for Christmas Giveaway - Day 4

Today's Christmas gift is another book!  My Dear Cassandra: The Illustrated Letters of Jane Austen -  Jane Austen, Penelope Hughes-Hallett, Elizabeth Drury This is also a second-hand book and one of my favourites! If you'd like to win this copy, please leave your name and a contact email below. Open internationally - winner announced Monday, 17th December!   Please come back tomorrow for another gift!  

All I want for Christmas Giveaway - Day 3!

Today's present is an illustrated copy of Persuasion! This is another old book, published in 1950 it is illustrated throughout by Charles E Brock and is the very same book that features in Searching for Captain Wentworth. If you've read my book, you will know how excited Sophie is when she receives this as a gift. Sadly, this copy has lost its cover but, nevertheless, it is a lovely book with some stunning illustrations! Happy Christmas! If you'd like to win this copy, please leave your name and a contact email below. Open internationally - winner announced Monday, 17th December!   Please come back tomorrow for another gift!  

All I want for Christmas - Day 2 Giveaway!

Today's gift is a lovely book - Mrs Hurst Dancing and other scenes from Regency Life 1812-1823 This is an old book published in 1981 but it is beautiful with some stunning illustrations! There are seventy of them and they were painted by Diana Sperling between 1812 and 1823. Di, as she was known in the family was born in 1791 and until she married lived with her parents, brothers and sister at Dynes Hall near Halstead in Essex.  She loved to depict the daily events of the family - many are humorous and all are charming! If you'd like to win this copy, please leave your name and a contact email below. Open internationally - winner announced Monday, 17th December! Please come back tomorrow for another gift!  

All I want for Christmas - Giveaways!

Presenting: All I want for Christmas Giveaways! I may not be able to supply any of the men above, but I am giving away Christmas goodies this week ! Today's present is a copy of Searching for Captain Wentworth - please leave your name and a contact email below to be in with a chance to win! Open Internationally - winner announced Monday 17th December ! Please come back tomorrow for another gift. Happy Christmas!

Happy Christmas Advent!

Advent is here and the countdown to Christmas has begun! I have begun my shopping which is very easy to do when you're surrounded by all the lovely shops in Bath. Christmas is coming! Bath is looking very festive with some new Christmas lights and one of my favourite sights is of this carriage and horses trotting through the streets. I've been sitting writing and all of a sudden the clip-clop of horses hooves can be heard outside my window - it's wonderfully atmospheric and transports you back in time immediately! Carriage rides around Bath One of my favourite items at this time of year is an advent calendar and I'm not talking chocolate ones. My favourite kind is the old-fashioned, traditional sort with an alpine scene or nativity and lots of glitter. I love opening the doors and discovering a new picture inside every day. Here's a link to one of the best  and here's another  - I've always loved them since I was a child! If you're fond o

Pictures from Bath and a lovely review!

Here are some photos of Bath - I've added a few snippets from Jane Austen's books and letters! Pump Room, Bath She was intreated to give them as much of her time as possible, invited for every day and all day long, or rather claimed as a part of the family; and, in return, she naturally fell into all her wonted ways of attention and assistance, and on Charles's leaving them together, was listening to Mrs. Musgrove's history of Louisa, and to Henrietta's of herself, giving opinions on business, and recommendations to shops; with intervals of every help which Mary required, from altering her ribbon to settling her accounts, from finding her keys, and assorting her trinkets, to trying to convince her that she was not ill-used by anybody; which Mary, well amused as she generally was, in her station at a window overlooking the entrance to the Pump Room, could not but have her moments of imagining. Jane Austen, Persuasion Upstairs at the Roman Baths Kitchen

On location in Bath with Persuasion!

When I'm in Bath I love spotting the locations of my favourite scenes in adaptations like Northanger Abbey and Persuasion. Here is a photo of Abbey Green which, as you might expect, is close to Bath Abbey. It's a lovely area with tempting shops and teashops. Abbey Green, Bath This area was used for a pivotal scene in the BBC 1995 adaptation of Persuasion when Anne Elliot learns from Admiral Croft that Frederick Wentworth is no longer interested in Louisa Musgrove. Bijoux Beads, Bath   This is a lovely example of a Regency shop in Bath - it's one of my favourites. They sell beads and accessories to make jewellery, but there are lovely examples to buy if you don't want to make your own. At this time of the year the shop is also full of gifts and decorations for Christmas - it's wonderful to have a browse around! In the 1995 film, this shop was transformed into a print shop. In Georgian times, prints of political cartoons were pasted up in the window

An Invitation to Mr Darcy's Wedding at Austen Authors!!!

Please join me tomorrow on Austen Authors for the start of the celebrations for the double wedding of Mr Darcy and his bride, Miss Elizabeth Bennet, Mr Bingley and Miss Jane Bennet. I've written a couple of vignettes which I've loved writing. For tomorrow -  A Conversation Between Jane & Lizzy on the Eve of their Wedding,  and one for the following day -  Mrs. Bennet’s Wedding Reflections.   Here's the full menu which promises to be a sumptuous wedding breakfast! The BIG day is fast approaching! Everyone is invited! In order to prepare for the plethora of vignettes written by the Austen Authors to cover the exciting events, we will be spacing them out for your gradual reading enjoyment. Using a vaguely “real time” order for the wedding day – and remembering that we use EST for our official time stamp – here are the vignettes coming up: November 15 ~ Day Before the Wedding Preparing the Wedding Breakfast  by Nina Benneton Darcy and Elizabeth Walk, Race
It's my birthday this week and I love to celebrate so Amazon  Kindle are now selling Searching for Captain Wentworth at bargain prices for one week from today!!! The paperback is also reduced - I hope you all have a lovely weekend!!!

A Review, A new Chapter and a Visit to the V&A!

I've had a gorgeous review for Searching for Captain Wentworth by Joceline Bury for Jane Austen's Regency World Magazine . I love a time travel romance, especially one involving Jane Austen characters, and Jane Odiwe has pulled a great story out of the hat in her latest novel. The writer Sophie Elliot (whose favourite novel is, unsurprisingly, Persuasion ) is invited to use her great-aunt's Bath town house as a writing retreat and is delighted to find that she is living next door to where the Austen family spent some of their time during their stay in the spa city. She's initially less than delighted by what appears to be a haunting presence in the house - although that could just be the mice in the wainscot. But past and present are set to collide when she finds that an antique glove belonging to her present-day neighbour has the power to transport her back in time to the days of the Regency. Sophie is a beguiling heroine, and her time-slipping adventures involve