It’s Jane Austen’s 250th Birthday!
This December sees the 250th birthday of one of the greatest English novelists of all time – Jane Austen.
Join Ally Sherrick as she charts Jane’s life from Hampshire clergyman’s daughter to the celebrated author of six classic novels, including Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility and Emma.
As Ally explains, Jane grew up in a family who encouraged her writing and enjoyed listening to her early stories. She was also a great letter writer, exchanging many letters with her beloved sister, Cassandra whenever they were apart. Access to the books in her father’s library gave Jane a love of reading and proved the inspiration for her own fiction.
After a move to Bath and the loss of her father, Jane, Cassandra and their mother finally settled in Chawton, Hampshire. Here, Jane revised her earlier writings, came up with new ideas and saw her first four books published.
By the time she died at the age of 41, she had many fans including Prince George, the Prince Regent. As Ally explains, since Jane’s death and burial in Winchester Cathedral, her books have sold millions of copies, been translated into many languages and adapted for countless television and film productions.
Free teaching resource
About the author
Ally is the award-winning author of stories full of history, mystery and adventure.
Black Powder, her debut novel about a boy caught up in the Gunpowder Plot, won the 2017 Historical Association’s Young Quills Award. This was followed by The Buried Crown, a wartime tale with a whiff of Anglo-Saxon myth and magic (2018), a Tudor-set adventure, The Queen’s Fool (2021) and her Roman London-set mystery thriller, Vita and the Gladiator (2023) – runner-up in the Young Quills Awards 2024. She has also done a retelling for young readers of her favourite book of all time – Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre.
Her new book, Rebel Heart, a rip-roaring adventure story set during the English Civil Wars.
In her spare time, Ally loves exploring ruined castles and decaying mansions and imagining what it must have been like to live in them without electricity and hot and cold running water – although she’s quite glad she doesn’t have to herself! She is married and lives with her husband and assorted garden wildlife in deepest, darkest Surrey.
Website: www.allysherrick.com
Instagram: @ally_sherrick
Facebook: @ally.sherrick1
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