The BRLSI World of Jane Austen series, held in May 2025, was designed to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth. The talks explored the realities that Jane would have observed–her life within the context of the social conventions of the day. Her world began in Hampshire but during her lifetime she moved around visiting numerous homes and towns including, of course, Bath. Her travels enriched her writing and the more we learn of her world, the more we can discover in her books.

Lately, I have appreciated the joy of re-reading. Each rereading reveals something different. As I enter different stages of life, and bring different knowledge to bear, her novels provide enriched meaning. Each speaker in the series illuminated aspects of the Regency era, which hopefully benefits the reading of Jane Austen’s novels.

The speakers ranged from Dr. Cathryn Spence, Curator and Archivist at Bath Abbey who spoke about the lives of some of the people who lived in Bath during the same time as the Austens, some of whom are linked with memorials located in the Abbey to Dr. Nicky Lloyd, Senior Lecturer in English Literature, at Bath Spa University who discussed aspect of publishing during Jane Austen’s time as well as what people were reading.  During the Symposium, there was also a talk on fashion of the Regency period and illustrations showing how Austen had inspired art and writing.

Anna McNay had contacted a number of artists and during this process, Darya Shnykina was so taken with the idea of the Symposium that she painted the picture shown here which the audience felt should be shared.

The series concluded with the 9th speaker, Dr. Robert Morrison, who highlighted the role of the written postal letter in Jane Austen’s time with links between Austen’s own letters and her novels.

Some of the talks in the series will be available on our YouTube channel, Virtual BRLSI , featuring more of our online talks.

Betty Suchar