Jane Odiwe Jane Austen Sequels

Reading Pride and Prejudice at the Jane Austen Festival I'm at the Jane Austen Festival in Bath this week, and was very honoured to be part of the Pride and Prejudice reading that took place on Sunday. The opening chapters were read by the wonderful actors, Adrian Lukis , who played Mr Wickham in the 1995 production of Pride and Prejudice, and Caroline Langrishe , the well-known actress of film, stage and television. I love reading aloud - it's always been a pleasure of mine ever since I was a little girl, but I hadn't really thought about what a huge challenge this was going to be until I actually sat down on the same row of chairs as these wonderful actors! I'm sure appearing on the same bill as Adrian Lukis, Caroline Langrishe and Maggie Ollerenshaw would be the dream of most would-be actors, and all of a sudden the enormity of the whole event struck hard! Anyone who really knows me will appreciate how nervous I felt - I really have to make myself volunteer fo...

Jane Austen to the Life? At last I can tell you all about the very latest evidence on the Rice Portrait! Recently published in the Times Literary Supplement is an excellent article by Professor Claudia L. Johnson on the Rice Portrait of Jane Austen .  As she states ... it would now seem that there is decisive evidence that the “Rice Portrait” of Jane Austen (seen here in a photograph from 1910) is indeed an authentic likeness of the novelist, made in her lifetime. This evidence consists of the three lines of script in the upper right-hand corner, in the area outlined in yellow. First, the artist’s signature: Ozia[s] Humphry, R.A. Second, the date of the portrait: 178* (that last digit is probably a nine). And third, the name of the sitter: Jane Austen. The image produced by the Emery Walker negative from 1910 Professor Johnson highlights some of the debates that have ensued over the years, but continues: We would still be at an impasse were it not for a singular st...

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...