Austenland – is there such a place? If so, it’s to be found in drawing rooms and parlours, not in sweeping vistas. So it’s appropriate that the Hampshire village of Chawton, Jane Austen’s home for the

THE PICK OF THIS WEEK’S RADIO

In celebration of the author’s 250th year, Bethany Stone delves into the small but significant role of horses in Jane Austen’s fiction

They’d have loved the drama of it – bowing out almost exactly ten years apart. Born in the same year and with the same initials, both queens of the bonkbuster. One was a Hollywood lioness, the other a

An old man lives at the bottom of my garden. His name is Robert Barkus, or Bakehouse, or Bagust. Nobody is quite sure. But I often sense him around when I’m gardening, and I’ve found out a fair bit ab

Best books… Elizabeth Gilbert The author of the ...