Joana Starnes

Joana Starnes lives in the south of England with her family. She swapped several hats over the years – physician, lecturer, clinical data analyst – but feels most comfortable in a bonnet. She has been living in Regency England for decades in her imagination, and plans to continue in that vein till she lays hands on a time machine. She loves to look for glimpses of Pemberley and Jane Austen’s world, and to write about Regency England and Mr Darcy falling in love with Elizabeth Bennet over and over and over again. She is the author of twelve Austen-inspired novels: From This Day Forward ~ The Darcys of Pemberley, The Subsequent Proposal, The Second Chance, The Falmouth Connection, The Unthinkable Triangle, Miss Darcy’s Companion, Mr Bennet’s Dutiful Daughter, The Darcy Legacy, The Journey Home To Pemberley, A Timely Elopement, Twists of Fate and Snowbound. Joana is also one of the contributing authors to the Quill Ink anthologies.

Most commented posts

  1. Coming Soon ~ The Journey Home To Pemberley — 189 comments
  2. New Year, New Book — 154 comments
  3. ‘Twists of Fate’ ~ Excerpt and Giveaway — 153 comments
  4. Coming soon, Macaroons! — 152 comments
  5. Cover Reveal, Excerpt & Ongoing Giveaway — 126 comments

Author's posts

Schoolrooms and Nurseries

Shall we walk in Jane Austen’s footsteps across Forbury Gardens, towards the site of the last school she attended, along with her sister? Paul Sandby’s painting of Reading Abbey Gateway gives us a glimpse of the brick building that housed the Abbey School, a boarding school for young ladies, established around 1755. In Jane Austen’s …

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The Carriage Awaits

  Would you like to have a closer look at the sort of carriages that our favourite characters might have used to travel around town or dash up and down the country? Then let’s stroll through the Carriage Museum at Arlington Court in North Devon. There are around 50 vehicles in the collection, the oldest …

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Summer Travels

Last month, when I went to stay at Hunsford, I was seriously tempted to drive up to Pemberley as well. When I mentioned that to my husband, he didn’t roll his eyes or anything. He’s always a gentleman, and his patience for everything to do with my obsession borders on the superhuman. He only pointed …

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The lane to Hunsford

  Flights of Fancy is this month’s theme, so how about flights of fancy in Hunsford? Six years ago almost to the day, my friend Mira and I finished our P&P tour with a very brief glimpse of Teigh Old Rectory (aka Hunsford 1995). I’ve been hoping to go back ever since and stay for …

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Any Excuse for a Pressie!

Any excuse will do, right? So I think I’ll blame Mr Darcy’s shirt 😛 Mihaela and I came across it last Sunday at Jane Austen’s House, and at first I was quite blasé, thinking it was just another copy. But no, this time it was the real deal. A very thoughtful gentleman offered to take …

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March is for merriment & spring flowers

  The snowdrops have come and gone, the daffodils are in bloom and the tulips I brought home from Pemberley are only 4″ tall and still keep me guessing which variety is which.     The Spanish bluebells are coming out in force, and as I was thinning them out yesterday (under careful supervision 🙂 …

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Betrothed ~ The Sweet HEA

So, ‘Love Is In The Air’ is this month’s theme, and Valentine’s Day is coming. Isn’t this a good time for sweet happily ever afters? I often wonder how readers feel about the final chapters of P&P variations. Too long? Not long enough? How much time do you enjoy spending with our favourite characters once …

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Joking with Jane

  Jane Austen’s novels and the tone of her letters have always given me the feeling that she was a lot like Elizabeth Bennet. I can’t help thinking that she modelled Elizabeth on herself, but it was unconsciously done. Otherwise she would have been too modest to jot down her famous description of Elizabeth in …

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Let It Snow

  Good morning! Have you had the first snow of the season? Mr Darcy did 🙂 There is snow at Pemberley in this excerpt from one of the few books where I wrote about the Christmas season. I hope you’ll enjoy it.       Excerpt from MISS DARCY’S COMPANION The morning before Christmas dawned …

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A (Fairly) Comfortable Coze

Hello again! As a small pressie before the holidays, here’s something I prepared earlier 🙂 * * * * * * * * * * * * * “Shall we have our brandy in the library, Mr Bennet?” Darcy asked and his father-in-law readily agreed, their voices ringing almost too loudly, once the boisterous contingent …

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