Jane Odiwe Jane Austen Sequels

I've just come back from visiting family in Pembrokeshire, Wales. I always love a trip to Tenby where there is a gem of a bookshop at the bottom of a medieval passage. The Tudor Merchant's house is well worth a visit too - you have to pass it down the steps to get to the bookshop, and there's also a very good pub that does lovely food. The bookshop is filled from floor to ceiling with tottering piles of books, some on shelves, others piled up on the floor so there's just about room to stand and circumnavigate. It's like an Aladdin's cave because you never know what treasure you might find. The books are all rather precariously placed - I don't think I've ever been without knocking half a dozen or more off their wobbly pile, but this is what makes it such fun. This time I found a wonderful book on Thomas Wentworth - (yes, of course there is a Jane Austen connection with the Leigh family), a Georgette Heyer hardback, and some Daphne du Maurier short storie...

This is very tenuously linked from my last post, but one of the exhibitions they had on at Chatsworth featured the costumes from 'The Duchess' which starred Keira Knightley and Dominic Cooper who we also know as Mr Willoughby, of course. I think this era and the Regency period have to be my favourite for costume - I'm not sure I would have enjoyed being trussed up in all that stuff on a daily basis, though when I was much younger, I did dress up in similar costumes for Fancy Dress parties. I've always loved dressing up! The paintings I'm posting today came about after a trip to the Lakes. We visited Beatrix Potter's house at Hill Top and of course, I felt so inspired when I visited her husband's office where so many of her exquisite paintings are kept. Whilst I could never hope to aspire to Mrs Heelis's excellence with a brush, I hope you enjoy them. They are just a few of the paintings I did with a children's book in mind - never finished, but as wi...

I've been going through some old photos and came across these taken in the Lake District. I have always been a huge admirer of Beatrix Potter's books ever since my first was given to me at a birthday party. It was the Tale of Tom Kitten and I, like thousands of people before me, soon fell in love with all of Beatrix Potter's stories and wonderful painting. If you ever get a chance to visit her house at Hill Top,near Sawrey, Cumbria, you will not be disappointed. It is possible to see some of the rooms and places that inspired her paintings; in Hawkshead village you can actually see the beautiful, finely detailed watercolours, that were used in her little books. They are housed in what was her husband's solicitor's office, alongside information about Beatrix and information about the National Trust. As I stated in yesterday's post, Beatrix Potter loved Jane Austen's books, her particular favourite being Persuasion. The photo at the top is Jeremy Fisher's...

Helen Beatrix Potter (28 July 1866 – 22 December 1943) was an English author and illustrator, botanist, and conservationist, best known for her children's books, which featured animal characters such as Peter Rabbit. Born into a privileged household, Beatrix Potter was educated by governesses, and grew up isolated from other children. She had numerous pets and through holidays in Scotland and the Lake District developed a love of landscape, flora and fauna, all which she closely observed and painted. As a young woman her parents discouraged intellectual development, but her study and paintings of fungi led her to be widely respected in the field of mycology. In her thirties Potter published the highly successful children's book The Tale of Peter Rabbit. Beatrix Potter eventually published 23 children's books, and having become financially independent of her parents, was able to buy a farm in the Lake District, which she extended with other purchases over time. She became a ...