More than Writers

This month, Marion shares some thoughts on the ever-inspiring Jane Austen. The BBC’s decision to celebrate Jane Austen’s ‘250th  birthday’ has been wonderful. Programmes have revealed the background to her writing and they've serialised several of their archived films, including Sense and Sensibility, Pride and prejudice and Emma. It sounded good to me. Especially the thought of Colin Firth’s Mr Darcey… Life was very different when Jane was alive (December 1775 – July 1817). She was the seventh of eight children, having an older sister Cassandra and six brothers (James, George Charles, Francis, Henry and Edward). Her father, George, was an Anglican vicar and with her mother Cassandra they were a loyal, loving family who were part of the ‘landed gentry’.  Having six brothers, Jane would have known all about inheritance laws. Her novels reflect the utter unfairness of the male-line system which dictated that when a father of daughters died, if his daughters were not married to...