Monday 20th September 2021
Venue: Online
Join Janet Todd for an illustrated online talk on her new book Jane Austen and Shelley in the Garden, followed by a live Zoom Q&A.
7.00pm – 8.30pm BST
About the book
Jane Austen is such a presence in Fran’s life that she seems to share her Norfolk cottage and garden, filling her days with wry observations –and sometimes irritating asides. After years teaching and living (fairly contentedly) alone, Fran is ready for a change. This comes through an old Cambridge friend and a new American one. The three women bond through a love of books and a quest for the Romantic poet Shelley in Wales and Venice. Shelley’s yearning for a utopian way of life, so at odds with Jane Austen’s pragmatic realism, makes each woman question her own choices. My novel meditates (lightly) on ageing, friendship, friction between generations, hope and the solace of nature.
The Austen critic, Devoney Looser, writes of the book: ‘This is a wonderful, moving novel of playful experimentation, gorgeous image, and brilliantly irreverent juxtaposition.’
About the speaker
Janet Todd is a novelist and internationally renowned scholar, known especially for her biographies of women writers such as Mary Wollstonecraft, Jane Austen, and Aphra Behn. After working as an academic around the world, Janet now lives in Cambridge.
Tickets £5
Additional information
This is an online event. Ticket holders will be emailed links on the day of the event. The interview, pre-recorded to ensure quality, will premier on YouTube at 7pm but will be available to watch for those with the link afterwards.
If you do not receive joining details by midday (UK time) on the day of the event, please email info@chawtonhouse.org with your order number.
Access requirements:
Access to working internet is required. Please note the Zoom Q&A is live and not pre-recorded. All times are UK BST