Merry Christmas to all our members, from the JASI team. Picture by Amanda - Copies of this card, 'The Church at Steventon'  are available on Etsy here

Jane Austen was born 240 years ago on December 16th 1775. One of her biographers, Claire Tomalin wrote:
"The winter of 1775 was a hard one. On Nov 11th the naturalist Gilbert White saw that the trees around his Hampshire village of Selborne had lost almost all their leaves. Fifteen miles away in Steventon, the rector's wife was expecting the birth of her seventh child from day to day as the last leaves fell.  She was thirty-six and had been married for eleven years. The November days went by and the rains set in, keeping Mrs. Austen's four boys indoors;by the end of the month it was dark in the house at three in the afternoon, and dinner had to be eaten very promptly if they were to do without candles. Still no baby appeared. December came, bringing an epidemic of colds and feverish complaints.

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 “At Christmas every body invites their friends and thinks little of even the worst weather.”

― Jane Austen, Emma
 

On the rainiest, darkest, Saturday afternoon imaginable, Janeites from all over Ireland, gathered in the fine Oak Room at Buswell's beautiful, Georgian Hotel, to toast Jane Austen on her 230th birthday, and to remember the novel, which, 200 years ago, was all the author could think about.  200 years ago, Jane Austen was on tenterhooks, wondering if readers would take to her latest publication, 'Emma'.  She fear how her heroine would be received; readers might not take to her, like her at all, but she needn't have feared. Emma Woodhouse, and the novel which bore her name, would stand the test of time and still be the subject of discussion some two centuries on. 

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I was delighted when I stumbled upon the Jane Austen society of Ireland, not only a community of like-minded individuals, but in my locality to boot!

My admiration of Jane Austen goes back a very long way, in truth ‘I cannot fix on the spot, or the hour, or the look or the words that laid the foundation’.  I love all of her work, but my absolute favourite novel is Pride and Prejudice.

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In this Bicentenary year of the Battle of Waterloo there has been many military events to mark the occasion, luckily a member of the Jane Austen Society of Ireland also had the good sense to commemorate the social events of 1815 too.  As a member of the Irish Historical Costumers (IHC), I attended in full costume and my friends and I gave a regency dance demonstration accompanied by Jean Carr on Piano.

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Amanda Jane Vickery is an English historian, writer, radio and television presenter, and professor of early modern history at Queen Mary, University of London.  You might know her best from her BBC Four documentaries, 'At Home With The Georgians', 'Pride And Prejudice: Having A Ball',  'The Many Lovers of Miss Jane Austen' and 'Suffragettes Forever!' (All wonderful and worth watching on YouTube).  The exciting news is that Amanda has agreed to come and talk to us early next March, so keep your calendar free.  We will let you know when further details are confirmed.  

Here are some wonderful Austen-related Christmas gift suggestions (or year round pick-me-ups) that you might enjoy browsing through. Enjoy yourselves this Christmas from everyone at The Jane Austen Society of Ireland!  See you in 2016!

Click HERE to search this special seasonal JASI Pinterest Page.