Jane Odiwe Jane Austen Sequels

I'm sorry I've been so quiet lately but I’ve been very busy writing a new book. I’ve hesitated to talk about it very much because I wasn’t sure whether I would be able to publish it this year, but things are looking hopeful!  It’s another time-slip book,  Project Darcy , which is inspired by   Pride and Prejudice, and is to be published in the autumn . Part of its inspiration comes from the Steventon archaeological dig that took place  some time ago, only the dig that takes place in my book is completely from my imagination, of course. It is high summer when my heroine Ellie joins the volunteers on the dig with some friends from university. She’s always had a bit of a talent for ‘seeing’ into the past and is not easily phased by the ‘shade’ she encounters at the house where the friends are staying. As Ellie travels into the past and sees life through the eyes of Jane Austen, she discovers exactly what happened when Jane danced at the Harwood’s Ball in the sno...

I've just been to Lyme Regis - the weather was wonderful last week - no stormy seas as in the picture shown. I love this print which shows the old assembly rooms at Lyme Regis . Sadly, they were knocked down some years ago to make way for a car park, but we do have a description of them that was written by Constance Hill in her book, Jane Austen, Her Homes and Her Friends. Her writing inspired my own for a chapter in Searching for Captain Wentworth . My heroine Sophie has travelled back in time to be with her ancestors, the Elliot family who live next door to Jane Austen in Bath. Sophie and her family are in Bath when the unexpected arrival of Jane's brother, Lieutenant Charles Austen, leaves Sophie feeling both excited and nervous. She knows she is falling in love with him and yet knows that it must be a hopeless case ...  I dressed with great care, choosing a fine, Indian muslin, embroidered with flowers and French knots along the hem and down ...

I've been very lucky to receive two lovely books in the post this week - they are being published by Shire Books in July, and I'm sure will be of great interest for those of you who collect all things Jane! From prize-winning historical novelist Louise Allen , this book presents eight walks through both the London Jane Austen knew and the London of her novels! Follow in Jane's footsteps to her publisher's doorstep and the Prince Regent's vanished palace, see where she stayed when she was correcting proofs of Sense and Sensibility and accompany her on a shopping expedition - and afterwards to the theatre. In modern London the walker can still visit the church where Lydia Bennett married Wickham, stroll with Elinor Dashwood in Kensington Palace Gardens or imagine they follow Jane's naval officer brothers as they stride down Whitehall to the Admiralty. From well-known landmarks to hidden corners, these walks reveal a lost London that can still come alive i...