Ep 5 - On location at Chawton

06/17/19 • 20 min

A very special episode recorded on location at the Jane Austen House Museum in Chawton. Listen to Julia Golding in conversation with the museum director, Mary Guyatt and find out how Jane's last home became a museum open to the public. What was daily life like in this home for Jane, her mother and her sister Cassandra? Who made the breakfast and dealt with the tea? What objects in the house feature in her novels? What do visitors learn by coming here that they can't get from books or adaptations? And just how big was her writing desk? Finally, what would Jane have thought if she came today to find that 40,000 international visitors walk around her house each year.

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Ep 4 - Super Heroes

Marvel or DC universe? Iron Man or Batman? Wonder Woman or Black Panther? Our cinema culture has for over a decade been dominated by our love of super heroes. Julia Golding explores how each era makes the heroes suited for its own day. She goes back to the novelists writing before Jane Austen to look at the big rivalry: Richardson Universe v Fielding Universe. Following their negotiation about the nature of the hero, Austen picks this up when she explores what it means to be a heroine in her early novel, Northanger Abbey. So are there any super heroes to be found in Jane Austen? There is indeed - and you'll be surprised by a guest appearance from General Zod (Man of Steel) if you stick around for the big battle at the end.

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Ep 6 - Caricature and Political Satire with Dr David Taylor

What surprising room might Mr Darcy and guests retire to after dinner? What exactly was Admiral Croft looking at in the shop window in Bath? Where did Jane and Cassandra get their ideas from for their youthful collaboration on The History of England? You can find out the answers to these questions and much more when you listen to Dr David Taylor, St Hugh's College, Oxford, and expert on the political cartoon culture in Jane Austen's era. He can also tell you about how Austen's work has provided modern cartoonists with material for their satirical pictures.