Blog Masonry

Where flowers are our inspiration

Sewing was a necessity in Jane Austen’s time and our favourite author was as skilled with a needle as she was with a pen. In this month’s ‘Musings’, expert embroiderer and co-author of Jane Austen Embroidery (along with another of our guest bloggers, Professor Jennie Batchelor) gives us a fascinating insight into how stitching was taught in Georgian England.

In this month's blog, Jennie Batchelor,  Professor of Eighteenth-Century Studies at the University of Kent, looks at how Jane Austen's love of walking found its way into her novels and offers a glimpse inside the wardrobe of a fashionable Regency walker.

Second only to her sister Cassandra, Martha Lloyd (1765-1843) seems to have been Jane Austen's dearest friend. This month our guest blogger, Zoe Wheddon, author of Jane Austen's Best Friend; The Life and Influence of Martha Lloyd, muses on their long and precious friendship

The launch of AI systems for content and art creation is a hot topic, but where do fans of the early-nineteenth century novel stand? This month's Musings sees our guest blogger and author of 'There’s Something About Darcy,' Dr. Gabrielle Malcolm consider whether AI can write a novel like Jane Austen