Saturday 24th June at 10:30am in St Mary’s Church, Kintbury
Authors Paula Byrne and Helena Kelly will be talking about their books as part of ‘Jane Austen – the Kintbury Connection’: a weekend of events celebrating the writer’s association with the village.
We just don’t read her properly – we haven’t been reading her properly for 200 years. ‘Jane Austen, The Secret Radical’ puts that right.
In her first, brilliantly original book, Austen expert Helena Kelly introduces the reader to a passionate woman living in an age of revolution; to a writer who used what was regarded as the lightest of literary genres, the novel, to grapple with the weightiest of subjects – feminism, slavery, abuse, the treatment of the poor, the power of the Church, even evolution – at a time, and in a place, when to write about such things directly was seen as akin to treason.
Uncovering a radical, spirited and political engaged Austen, Jane Austen, The Secret Radical will encourage you to read Jane, all over again.
Paula Byrne, author of ‘The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things’ & ‘Kick: The Story of JFK’s Forgotten Sister and the Heir to Chatsworth’ will be talking about her new book ‘The Genius of Jane Austen’, a book that explores why her books have been adapted so successfully into films.
Jane learned much of her art from a long tradition of English comic drama and took joyous participation in amateur theatricals. Her juvenilia, then Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice,Mansfield Park and Emma were shaped by the arts of theatrical comedy.
This book presents an Austen not of prim manners and genteel calm, but filled with wild comedy and outrageous behaviour.
Tickets are £8.50 from us. For the full line-up of events including an adaptation of ‘Pride & Prejudice’ by Gill Hornby please visit their website janeaustenatkintbury.co.uk
artsforhungerford.com 