Category: Diana Birchall

Throwback Thursday with Diana Birchall

This is a true timeslip tale, because I am going to take you back to the days before terms such as Jane Austen Fan Fiction, Jane Austen sequels, the Austenesque, and Austen Variations were known – because they did not yet exist. It is almost as much of a time and mind stretch as remembering …

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Persuasion, Behind the Scenes – A Release Day Celebration

It’s finally here! I know many of you have been waiting for a long time for us to publish this anthology and we’re so thrilled to have it available for you to buy. Persuasion is one of Jane Austen’s most beloved works. I’m sure all of us have scenes we wish she’d written and those …

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The Darcys and Lord Byron in Venice, Part 8

“I am beyond apologizing for my family,” Elizabeth sighed, as she and her husband entered their salon at the Palazzo Mocenigo and settled themselves on a richly tapestried sofa. The servants had been ordered to bring them a light meal, before they sought their beds, quite exhausted, for it was past midnight when they returned …

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Jane in January – Reflections and Inspirations

One activity for our Jane in January month on Austen Variations, will be to reflect upon what inspires us in our writing.  “Nothing so easy, if we have but the inclination,” as Lizzy told Miss Bingley.  For it’s easy to see that it is Jane Austen herself who principally inspires us. She does this in …

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Advent Calendar – Day 20 – The Darcys and Lord Byron in Venice, Part 7

The two signore di notte were busily occupied placing shackles on Wickham’s ankles and wrists. He did not struggle, but arrogantly remonstrated with them. “Surely you see this is unnecessary. Take your hands off me, you need not bind me like some common thief, I am a gentleman…Darcy, you will not permit this treatment, surely?” …

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Advent Calendar Day 13: The Darcys and Lord Byron in Venice, Part Six

Last Christmas I began writing my series “The Darcys and Lord Byron in Venice,” in which Darcy and Elizabeth visit La Serenissima, and find that Lord Byron is their neighbor in the palazzo next door.  After five episodes, I was interrupted by my husband’s illness (now thankfully recovered from!), and so now I am happy  …

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Jane Austen at School by Diana Birchall

As this month’s theme has to do with Jane Austen and School, let us begin with a visit, in fact and in story, to the school Jane Austen herself attended. Other treatments of the theme might deal with her characters at school – or university – or threatened with working as governesses – or anything …

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What Mr. Darcy Read

Books are everywhere in Pride and Prejudice, once you start looking for them, and it is interesting to consider how Jane Austen uses her characters’ book choices and reading habits to shed light on themselves. She does this as intentionally and skillfully as she does everything, and reveals much about her characters, often to hilarious …

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The Darcys and Lord Byron in Venice – Part 5

A nearly full moon shone, spreading a path of white light on the Venetian canals, as the black gondola glided along the Grand Canal. Each palazzo was like a grand darkened cavern, with only candlelit chandeliers glittering out from the interior, and the two cloaked and masked couples in the gondola were silent with enchantment. …

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The Darcys and Lord Byron in Venice – Part 4

The Darcys’ eldest boy, Charles, was old enough, at five, for some alphabet lessons, and Elizabeth had used her scissors to cut out letters of paper, which were now spread over the table. Charles and Jane, a year younger, were playing with them, not learning very seriously, while the baby, Fitzwilliam gurgled in a basket …

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