Jane Odiwe Jane Austen Sequels

Lydia Bennet's Online Diary. At this time of the year I always read Pride and Prejudice and I thought it would be fun to see what Lydia is thinking about all the goings on at Longbourn. Lydia's online diary starts just before Mr Bingley arrives and finishes where my novel, Lydia Bennet's Story, begins. Saturday, January 23rd, 1802 Kitty and I took great pleasure in snubbing George Wickham today, as we walked through the High Street in Meryton. He was walking along with Mary King at his side, swaggering along on the opposite path with an air of self congratulation. On seeing us, he raised his hat and waved. Perfectly affronted, we immediately looked away and took refuge in Brown’s, where we spent a pleasant half hour trying on all the new bonnets. During our sojourn, we made the observation that Mr Wickham and Mary King could be seen through the elegant bow window of Holland’s Coffee House, partaking of hot beverages and cake, whilst enjoying the company of Mr Denny, Mr Cham...

Calling all men! (As Lydia would say!) Look here - I know there's still a couple of weeks left until Valentine's day, but I wanted to draw your attention to the lovely work of Jean Judy and her blog about Jane Austen which features her lovely jewellery. I first discovered her work on Ms Place and Laurel Ann's lovely blog and couldn't get an e-mail out quickly enough to ask her to make me one after I'd dropped some large hints to my husband about February 14th! Here's a sneak preview of my beautiful bracelet (underneath) which features Sense and Sensibility on one side of the medallions and a selection of my own paintings on the other. I asked for spring colours - I love blues and greens and I think it's beautiful. I'm not sure I will be able to wait until Valentine's day to wear it. Here's my lovely husband with a couple of gorgeous girls - my sister and my daughter.

My dear friend Jenny bought me some gorgeous books for Christmas - she finds the most wonderful books. I have so enjoyed them, particularly reading about the early life of the illustrator Ernest H Shepard. He is best known for his illustrations of Winnie the Pooh and Wind in the Willows - my favourite illustrations as a child were the ones he drew for A A Milne's children's poetry books, When we were very young and Now we are six. The books I've just enjoyed were written by Shepard himself and have illustrations on almost every page - Drawn from Memory and Drawn from Life. He was born in 1879 living through the last years of the Victorian age and well into the 20th century and was still illustrating books as late as 1971. His voice is so clear in the books prompting many visuals in the imagination and the illustrations are like a window into his mind to a past that is gone forever. These biographies tell the tale of his childhood, schooldays, his artistic training and of ...