Few things are better than spending the day with friends – and one of them is spending a day with like-minded friends in a special place we all love.

A few days ago I had the great pleasure of finally meeting Christina Boyd face-to-face and visiting Jane’s house together, along with Mira Magdo from ‘Obsessed with Mr Darcy’.

It was a delight to work with Christina on ‘The Darcy Monologues’ and to chat with her online, but just as I imagined, meeting her face-to-face was even better.



​What a fun day of chats and giggles as we made lavender bags, explored the cottage and the exquisite Great House and made jaw-dropping discoveries in intriguing places!

​It’s always wonderful to walk down the paths Jane had walked and take in the magic of the place she used to call home.

Jane’s house was as charming as ever. Perhaps even more so, because now two of the rooms in the house have been restored to their Regency glory.

Thanks to some very fortunate finds it was possible to recreate a look that Jane Austen would have recognised. Fragments of the original wallpaper were discovered behind wood-panels and on the former site of a built-in bookcase. They were analysed and found to match patterns available in 1809. Then they were painstakingly and lovingly reproduced as faithfully as possible, using the original method of block-printing – so that now we have the joy of seeing those two rooms just as they were when Jane lived there.

There is a lovely story about the wallpaper in the upstairs room, and you can read more here about missing rosebuds and wallpaper hung upside down. I was particularly surprised by the soft colours. I once read that, for dresses and home décor alike, the colours were much stronger and vibrant (some would even say garish) to compensate for the low lighting levels. What would look garish in a modern spotlight was soft and pleasing to the eye by candlelight.
 
The newly refurbished rooms in Jane’s house pose no such conundrums, and to say that they are pleasing to the eye is an understatement. I haven’t had the privilege of seeing them by candlelight, but it’s an incredible feeling to think that as she sat to play the piano or write a letter, this is the pattern her eyes had drifted to.

​Equally amazing it is to think that some of the many scraps of cloth incorporated in the famous quilt might have come from dresses she had worn – or at least from dresses that were fashionable at the time when her busy and very clever pen gave us Elizabeth and Mr Darcy.

If there’s a more beautiful and engaging love-story, I haven’t found it yet – and chances are I never will, because I’m far too engrossed by this one. Time for another pilgrimage, I think. Yes, definitely! And I’ll keep you posted. Thanks for visiting Chawton with me – Christina and Mira for real, and everyone who came to read this and join us on the virtual trip!

Bath is one of the places closest to my heart, one I could go back to over and over. Not only because it's exquisite in itself and has a very strong connection to Jane Austen, but because this is how I imagine Regency London might have looked like, were it not for 200 years of inevitable changes.

Today I had the great joy of visiting it again, in wonderful company: Beau North and her friend and travelling companion, Crystal - two amazing ladies who made the trip an absolute delight. I wish I could have stayed all day, but this time I couldn't stretch it too far beyond the end of school hours. Still, the few hours that we had there together couldn't have been better! Bath greeted us with brilliant sunshine that made the beautiful buildings glow - and none more than those in the Royal Crescent.

We walked up the usual route, past the famous bow window in Milsom Street, up the hill towards the Assembly Rooms, stopped to admire the Circus and made a beeline for No. 1 Royal Crescent.

What an amazing place!! You can absorb Georgian lifestyle in every room, but the dining room is out of this world - literally. To say that it's exquisite is simply not enough. I love it! And even more so because every detail of the beautifully ornate table and sideboard brings to mind an elegant, yet quite intimate dinner that our dear Mr and Mrs Darcy might have hosted. You can almost see them sitting to partake of the confectionery that can't fail to please the eye (the palate - not so much; the display is made of silicone and other materials. There are fascinating details in the house about the project undertaken several years ago, when real moulds from the kitchen were used to make working moulds, and the latter used to create the beautifully intricate confectionery).

Across the entrance hall there is the morning parlour, with the table set up for an even more intimate breakfast, and beyond it there is a room where Mr Bennet might have sat to read the paper in peace and quiet whenever he came to visit his favourite daughter - usually unannounced ;) . And alongside there is a writing desk Mr Darcy might have vacated, for Mr Bennet to write home. Not that Mr Bennet would trouble himself to. But he must have used it, because this is where he left his spectacles.

If you climb the very elegant staircase you'll discover the drawing room, and you might be treated to some musical entertainment (this time we weren't; the photo on the left is an older one, from last year's Jane Austen Festival).

The tour then takes you down a far less glamourous staircase towards the kitchen and the servants' quarters. The kitchen is a delight, full of all manner of implements, from moulds to sugar clippers, coffee roaster and spinach mashers. And nearby is the housekeeper's parlour, where we can picture Mrs Reynolds sitting to do the household accounts or have a well-deserved rest and a cup of tea when the day's work is done.

It was a lovely tour, and great fun to share it with Beau and Crystal! I wish I could have joined them for lunch at Sally Lunn's, but we enjoyed the No 1 Royal Crescent tour SO much, we simply couldn't just zoom through it, and soon after that I had to catch a train back.

Lovely ladies, I hope your lunch was delicious, that you enjoyed your time in Bath as much as I did, and that you come back soon. Nudge, wink, I hear Bath is fabulous at Christmas, and real and very yummy goodies are baked in the kitchens of No 1 Royal Crescent!

This year, when we are celebrating Jane Austen’s life and her wonderful novels, I fully expected to go to as many Austen-related events as possible, to balls and festivals and lectures – but early spring brought something beyond my wildest dreams.
 
If you follow Sophie Andrews from Laughing with Lizzie you must have already heard about the gentleman who came to call. Not in a Regency coat and top hat, but with top news: that the BBC would like to do a programme about the ways in which Jane Austen still touches our lives 200 years on – a programme about people who read and re-read her novels again and again; people who go to balls, dress up for Regency picnics and have a jolly good time with impromptu dances and games of cup-and-ball, battledore and graces; and people who devour JAFF and write it.

 

It's my great pleasure to welcome Catherine Curzon today with a very intriguing post, on the blog tour for her recently released 'Kings of Georgian Britain'.

​I hope you'll be as fascinated as I was with this remarkable book, and as intrigued by what she has to tell us about: 

In her lifetime, Augusta of Saxe-Gotha was many things to many people.

She was the shy, teenage Princess of Wales, a loving wife, the mother of a king, the ‘Wanton Widow’ of caricature and a woman so loathed that her funeral cortege was jeered and spat at by the British public who had come to despise her very name. Yet what happened to the woman who was once a darling of the people, and what part did John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, play in the downfall of the widowed Princess of Wales?


​
Princess Augusta set foot on English shores as a shy, reserved princess in to begin a new life as the bride of Frederick, Prince of Wales, son of George II and Queen Caroline. They were married on 27th 1736 and among their children was the future King George III. Although Frederick was estranged from his father, George II, when Fred died in 1751 and left Augusta with eight children to raise and one still in the womb, she turned to the king for help.

George II came good and proved to be a far better father-in-law than he ever had been a father. With the family reunited, the people of Britain applauded Augusta for her devotion to her children and the dignity with which she seemed to be dealing with her grief. Yet it was that same devotion to her children that would cause Augusta to take a step from which her reputation would never recover. Without a father to guide him, Augusta sought a male influence for her young son, George, and took the fateful decision to find a friend and tutor who might steer him safely along the road to the throne.

The candidate she selected was John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, who Augusta had met years earlier when she and her party took shelter from the rain in a picnic tent at Egham races. As the time passed, the group decided to play whist and for that, they needed one more player. The chosen gentleman was none other than Bute and from this first meeting, he came one of Fred’s closest friends, so when when Augusta was looking for a tutor for her son, the respectable earl was the ideal choice.




​Perhaps unexpectedly, the quiet young prince and the stern nobleman proved to be the perfect match. To the people of Britain, however, Bute was anything but the man for the job. They thought that the widowed Augusta and Bute were far too close for comfort and his influence over the boy was absolute. Rumours that Bute and Augusta were lovers were unfounded but this didn’t stop pamphleteers and caricaturists from depicting the pair as wanton and wicked.

The reputation stuck and when George III made Bute prime minister in 1762, his critics crowed that he had secured the office thanks to his affair with Augusta. Whilst there can be no doubt that George held his former tutor in high regard, to suggest that this was to repay sexual favours offered to his mother is spurious.

Despite all the mockery and rumours, Bute and Augusta remained friends to the last. When the dowager princess died at the age of just 52, Bute mourned her, yet he was one of few who did. At her funeral her coffin was heckled and spat upon in one final insult from the public that had once adored her above all others.

You can connect with Catherine Curzon at:
www.madamegilflurt.com
www.facebook.com/pages/Madame-Gilflurt/583720364984695?ref=br_rs
twitter.com/madamegilflurt
plus.google.com/+MadameGilflurt
uk.pinterest.com/madamegilflurt/
www.instagram.com/catherinecurzon/

Back from beautiful Wales and
wishing you a very happy 2017!

I hope you had a fabulous time over
the holidays and a great start of
​the New Year!

There are a number of wonderful people I can't thank enough for making the end of 2016 and the start of 2017 so happy for me.

Claudine Pepe, Meredith Esparza, Rita Deodato, Mira Magdo, Anna Horner, Margie Longoria and Ceri Tanti, I'm over the moon that 'Mr Bennet's Dutiful Daughter' was chosen as a Top 2016 Favourite on your blogs!

Wishing you and your readers all the very best and may all your wishes come true!

November 17/ My Jane Austen Book Club/Launch Post & Giveaway

November 18/Pemberley to Milton/Book Review & Giveaway

November 19/Obsessed with Mr. Darcy/ Book Review & Giveaway

November 20/ A Covent Garden Madame Gilflurt’s Guide to Life/Guest Post

November 21/ Margie’s Must Reads/ Book Review & Giveaway

November 22/ Babblings of a Bookworm/ Book Review & Giveaway

November 23/Diary of an Eccentric/Book Review & Giveaway

November 24/ Happy Thanksgiving

November 25/ So Little Time… So Much to Read/ Excerpt & Giveaway

November 26/ Just Jane 1813/Interview with Joana Starnes

November 27 / My Kids Led Me Back to Pride and Prejudice/ Guest Post & Giveaway

November 28/ More Agreeably Engaged/ Vignette & Giveaway

December 2/ Austenesque Reviews/ Excerpt & Giveaway

Thanks again for the amazing response and your wonderful comments!!!! I was giggling inanely as I read them. Don't know about you, but I had lots of fun with the guessing games!

Just like on DAY 1, it was so great to find some many great guesses!

Congrats to the winners once again!

So, the DAY 2 answers:

I'll start with the third question, where the consensus of opinion was A: 'lace caps'. Oh, yes, we love our universally acknowledged JAFF truths, and one of them is that Elizabeth's hair is too beautiful and glints too prettily to be covered with caps, so Mr Darcy would much rather she never wore them. Rather than expanding on the conversation between Elizabeth, Mr Darcy and Mrs Gardiner, I thought you might like to see an earlier fragment that leads up to it: 

'His words came in a rush, disjointed and barely comprehensible between burning kisses, but he continued to intersperse them nonetheless – not that Elizabeth could have wished him to do otherwise. “Why do you imagine… that I took myself away… for hours on end… and two nights in a row?”
She drew back then.
“Why?” she asked, searching his eyes.
“Because I could not bear to be near you and not come to you, and I could not come to you when you were so clearly against me. Because in the midst of the harshest reproaches flying between us I could not tell if what I wanted most was to throttle you or kiss you.”
Her warm laughter rang between them.
“Oh, I would say kiss me. Definitely kiss me, if those were the only options.”
“Not the only options. Not by a fair margin,” he playfully growled back, and did kiss her again, not needing further prompting.
Their breaths came in ragged gasps when they stopped for air, still clinging to each other.
“Should you not go? You will be late,” she offered eventually, when she discovered she could speak.
“Go? I am not going anywhere!”
“Foolish man,” she tenderly admonished. “You must. Your uncle is expecting you.”
“What I must do,” he said showering her face and head with a much tamer smattering of little kisses, “is have a word with that girl of yours, Sarah, and bribe her into throwing all these godawful caps away. Whoever has devised them? The devil’s own invention, I call it. I love your hair. Why must you cover it?”'


The second question: Napkin? Fork? Spoon? I LOVED your comments about how Lizzy might or might not want to inflict the most damage :D

I guess this would make:
The fork - the weapon of choice
The napkin - the sensible alternative
The spoon - the middle ground

In the end it was C: a spoon, but only because they were having soup at the time. The context was that, halfway through their disagreement:

'Her husband dabbed his lips.
“If you must.”
What she must do is set the spoon down before it left a dent into her palm, Elizabeth thought grimly, and did so. Quietly. Lydia would have let it fall into the bowl with a loud clatter. Then she was far worse than Lydia, for she had the strongest urge to throw it across the table or, better still, at him. She resisted it. Just as she resisted giving her husband the upbraiding he richly deserved in the presence of the two blank-faced footmen who served their dinner. She wondered in passing if they were so well trained as to remain blank-faced, were they to hear what she had to say.'


Which leaves the question 'What did Colonel Fitzwilliam find?' 

Gentle and ever so decorous ladies, I hope you won't be too shocked to hear it was C - a frilly chemise: 

'He sought to rearrange the pillows, only to discover a frilly chemise tucked between the top mattress and the headboard. He tugged at the frothy garment till it was displayed to its full length and glory, to his cousin’s acute mortification.
“Well, then,” Fitzwilliam grinned as he tucked it back where he had found it, “a pity this is not Miss Elizabeth’s bedchamber, otherwise I would have gladly offered you the token.”
A pillow flung forcefully at his head was Darcy’s prompt response to the remark, and a low growl followed:
“Hold your tongue, will you, and just go to bed!”'


Would you still like to play? 

For the third and last day of the GUESSING GAME, I'll keep it short (but not exactly sweet ;) ):

DAY 3 - WHODUNIT?

Rita Deodato ('From Pemberley to Milton') said the funniest thing when she was reading the ARC for 'Mr Bennet's Dutiful Daughter':

"This can’t get any worse, can it? Who am I kidding, this is Joana Starnes, of course it can get worse!"

So, what do you think?

Who throws the biggest spanner in the works? Is it:
a. Mr Wickham?
b. Lady Catherine?
c. Mrs Bennet?

and 

At what point in the book does it happen?
a. 50%?
b. 70%?
c. 90%?


Hope you had fun with the GUESSING GAMEs! The Day 3 good guesses will be entered into the Rafflecopter, just like the others, but I think this time I should keep the answers under wraps, so that I don't give the game away much too soon. I hope you'll enjoy reading the whole story. See you tomorrow for the Cover Reveal at:

Babblings of a Bookworm
Diary of an Eccentric
From Pemberley to Milton
Just Jane 1813
More Agreeably Engaged
My Jane Austen Book Club
My Kids Led Me Back to P&P
Obsessed with Mr Darcy
and
So Little Time

Huge thanks again, Ceri, Anna, Rita, Janet, Maria Grazia, Tamara, Mira and Candy for kindly co-hosting the cover reveal, and especially to you, Claudine, for everything!