Paperback. Yellow cover with black title.

We provide an in-depth photographic presentation of this item to stimulate your feeling and touch. More traditional book descriptions are immediately available

•      Note: This book carries a £5.00 discount to those that subscribe to the F.B.A. mailing list

In the small town of Steventon, Hampshire, one of the world’s most important authors was born. Jane Austen is a luminary of the global literary canon and is adored for her wit, social observation and insight into the lives of women. But behind the books is a life largely unknown, with an idyllic childhood, a busy social life and an affectionate family circle.

Elizabeth Jenkins’ account of Austen’s story not only brings to life the country gentry of Regency England, but also illuminates the character and mind of one of the most unusually perceptive and gifted writers the world has ever known.

Richly drawn and in picturesque detail, Jenkins pulls together fact and fiction to show how Jane Austen’s life, lived with quiet passion, inspired some of the most beloved novels to date.

• ‘A classic’ The Sunday Times

• ‘Ensconces us deep in the loyalties and tendernesses that held the whole Austen family together’ The Observer

• ‘Illuminating’ The Times

Review: This biography charts Jane Austen’s life in regards to the chronological order as each book was written, rewritten and published linking events in her life to parts of the books and their characters. It was a very detailed and interesting read. I read all of her novels as a young adult and am very familiar with the various adaptations that have been shown on tv, but reading this has inspired me to go back and read her books as a mature adult.

Elizabeth Jenkins (1905-2010) wrote her first novel in 1928, from her home in Bloomsbury. Over the next 75 years she wrote a dozen novels, including The Tortoise and the Hare, and a dozen biographies, including those of Elizabeth I and Jane Austen. She was involved in the establishment of the Jane Austen Society in 1940 and even bought Austen’s home in Chawton where she wrote Emma and other novels, and which would later become the site of Jane Austen’s House Museum.

NOTE: This is an original  book from the library gathered by the famous Cambridge Don, computer scientist, food and wine connoisseur, Jack Arnold LANG. Note: Jack founded the Michelin Guide ‘Midsummer House’- Cambridge’s paramount restaurant. This dining experience is hidden amongst the grassy pastures and grazing cattle of Midsummer Common and perched on the banks of the River Cam.

In 2008, Jack was one of the co-founders of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, alongside other members of the Department, and acted as the Foundation’s Chair. The project’s original goals were modest: to build and distribute low-cost computers for prospective applicants to our Computer Science degree. Initially the project was a “success disaster”, as Jack would say, as demand far outstripped the low-scale manufacturing plans. Ultimately the Raspberry Pi became the UK’s most successful computer with more than 60 million sold to date. Jack was drawn to the educational possibilities of the Raspberry Pi, its potential uses in emerging economies and the way it could support self-directed learning.