NEWS AND EVENTS

NEWS

News archive

2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011

Please click on the links to download the press releases in pdf format:

Tuesday 14 Dec 10 >>	Evening Lecture. Pleasure in a Good Novel”:Gender, Genre and the Regency Reader. Professor Barbara Benedict, Trinity College, Connecticut. Are there ‘male’ and ‘female’ novels? According to Jane Austen’s hero in Northanger Abbey, “The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.” n this talk, Professor Barbara M. Benedict will explore the fictions about fiction and gender during the late eighteenth-century and the Regency.	More >
Friday 10 Dec 10 >>	‘What Signifies a Theatre?’: Private Theatricals Performance and Symposium . While all but forgotten now, private theatricals were at the heart of country house display and seasonal festivity in Jane Austen’s time. On the evening of 10th December, students from the department of drama at Royal Holloway, University of London will recreate the magic of private theatricals in their adaptation of Frances Sheridan’s The History of Nourjahad. In the accompanying symposium, papers will be presented on a range of issues related to this forgotten art. The symposium will close with a reception and rehearsed reading of dialogues by Jane Austen. Speakers include: Michael Dobson, Stuart Andrews, Jane Milling, Helen Nicholson, Elaine McGirr, Helen Brooks and Abigail Anderson.
Saturday 4 Dec 10 >>	Book Fair Cancelled Due to the adverse weather conditions being experienced at the moment, it has been decided to cancel the book fair scheduled for this Saturday. It is hoped that we reschedule the book fair in the spring of 2011. Chawton House library would like to thank all the people and organisations who have donated books and to reassure them that the books will feature in the next book fair.
Thurs 25 Nov 10 >>	Lecture Stevie Smith: the literary orphan. Dr William May, University of Southampton. Few twentieth-century British writers are both as inviting and hostile to their audience as Stevie Smith (1902-1971). This lecture argues not only that a reassessment of her work is timely, but that Smith’s defensive attitude towards it can offer a point of entry, rather than a barrier, to its rich and humane insights. Drawing on the image of the orphan in Smith’s poetry, Dr May uncovers both the literary connections her work suggests and those it attempts to conceal.	More >
19 July- 30 Nov 2010 >>	Sculpture in the Wilderness by Jon Edgar. Carvings by Jon Edgar set in the designed landscape of Chawton House. Jon Edgar AFS MSc BSc is a sculptor of the former Frink School - an intimate academy that was focused on the human figure which remains the first source of inspiration now, as it has from earliest times. His work is in public collections in the UK and overseas. He was awarded The Discerning Eye Sculpture bursary from ING Barings charitable trust, graduating in 2003. His previous postgraduate studies considered ecology and the landscape which continue to provide influences to his sculpture; natural physical and organic forms supporting and reinforcing the human figure.	More >
30 Oct 10 >>	Adult Ghost Tour with Shadow Seekers Ghost Group. The evening will start with a light supper served in the Great Hall, followed by an introduction from the Shadow Seekers Ghost Group. A house tour will follow including personal experiences of staff and family stories from around the house. The evening will conclude with a chance to experience a paranormal investigation and use of some of the detecting equipment.
29 Oct 10 >>	Childrens Halloween Event There will be spooky story time in the Great Hall, followed by I-spy around the house and then decorating Halloween biscuits in the Old Kitchen.
26th Oct 10 >>	Mary Bacon, a farmer’s wife in eighteenth-century Hampshire. Ruth Facer will talk about her unexpected discovery in Hampshire Record Office of a farming ledger which had belonged to Mary Bacon, a farmer’s wife living in the eighteenth century in the north of the county. The 300 page document had not been used for farming accounts alone; its pages were also filled with religious musings, recipes, cures for both humans and animals, weather reports, and almanac material, among other subjects. Ruth Facer will talk about the way in which she has organised this material into a book, Mary Bacon. A farmer’s wife in eighteenth-century Hampshire.	More >
14 Oct 10 >>	Fellows Lecture Women, Writing, and Language in Early Modern Ireland. Dr Marie Louise Coolahan, National University of Ireland will argue for a complex understanding of the Irish woman writer in seventeenth-century Ireland.	More >
13 Oct 10 >>	Free Afternoon Seminar Please join us for a free afternoon seminar.	More >
7th-9th Oct 10 >>	Special Exhibition at Godmersham Park Jane Austen's Reading at Chawton & Godmersham Park. This exhibition represents a unique opportunity to see a selection of books that Jane Austen was reading or re-reading between 1809 and 1817, the most productive years of her literary career. A key attraction will be an entire case of books originally from the Godmersham Park Library belonging to Austen’s brother Edward Austen, later Edward Knight. These books are now housed at Chawton House Library in Hampshire. Along with the handwritten library catalogue for 1818, the books are returning to Godmersham for three days only	More >
27 Sep 10 >>	Alton Word Fest. Free talk and tour. Jacqui Grainger, Librarian at Chawton House Library talks about Jane Austen's reading at Chawton House and Godmersham Park. This is followed by a tour of the house.
11 Sep 10 >>	Heritage Open Day. Heritage Open Day celebrates England's fantastic architecture and culture by offering free access to properties that are usually closed to the public or nomally charge for admission.	More >
18 Aug 10 >>	Free Afternoon Seminar . Another of our Wednesday Afternoon seminars is being held at Chawton House Library.	More >
11 Aug 10 >>	A dress rehearsal of a play is to be held at Chawton House Library on Wednesday 11th August. The company, Artifice will be attending the Edinburgh Festival with the play, The Way to Keep Him. A fantastic 18th century humorous play with some wonderful costumes designed by Hilary Baxter, who heads the costume courses at Wimbledon College of Art.
7 July 10 >>	Inaugural Annual Library Lecture 2010. Professor Patrick Parrinder (University of Reading), the General Editor, will provide an overview of the project. He will be joined by the editors of Volumes 1 and 2, covering the period from the beginnings of print to 1820.	More >
26 June 10 >>	Open Day. Shire Horse demonstrations. Hampshire Regency Dancers. Children's activities as part of National Insect Week. This event forms part of the Jane Austen Regency Week.	More >
24 June 10 >>	Regency Week Talk. In this talk Sarah Parry, Archive and Education officer at Chawton House Library, suggests that using historic houses in Austen adaptations has helped to secure their future, as they serve the film and television industry as unsurpassed backdrops. This event forms part of the Jane Austen Regency Week.	More >
20 Jun 10 >>	Roses in Bloom. See the new rose gardens in bloom followed by a cream Tea in the secluded courtyard	More >
17 Jun 10 >>	Fellows Lecture . Byron and Burns in Love . In this lecture, Professor Hammond will make the argument that Byron has a legitimate claim to being considered a star of the Scottish, rather than the English, literary firmament.	More >
10 Jun 10 >>	Thrive plant swap and open day at Chawton House Library. Thrive is a small national charity, founded in 1978, that uses gardening to change the lives of disabled people.	More >
1-4 Jun 10 >>	Childrens Half Term Garden Trail Enjoy the gardens and wildlife at Chawton House. Bring a picnic and make a day of it	More >
26 May 10 >>	Free Afternoon Seminar Chawton House Library is hosting another free Wednesday Afternoon Seminar. For more details please follow the link	More >
19 May 10 >>	Fellows Lecture. Actresses of the Georgian Period. In this lecture, Helga Brandt, Heritage Manager of the Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds and Lynn Whitehead, actress and Head of Learning at the Theatre Royal will transport us back to the theatre of the eighteenth and early nineteenth century.	More >
15 May 10 >>	Bat and Moth Night. Investigate these amazing animals in the grounds of Chawton House	More >
14 May 10 >>	Conference, Adorn's with cuts. A one day conference Scholars from a range of disciplines are increasingly interested in the partnership between text and image, bringing a range of methodologies into play.	More >
28 Apr 10 >>	Afternoon Seminar. Chawton House Library is hosting another Wednesday Afternoon Seminar	More >
28 Apr 10 >>	Bluebell Estate Walk. See the bluebells and parts of the estate not normally open to visitors followed by tea and cake in the Old Kitchen.
27 Apr 10 >>	Murder and Mayhem at Mansfield Park. A hugely entertaining homage, Murder At Mansfield Park offers readers a very different view of Mansfield Park, but retains the distinct style, eloquence and subtlety of Austen’s best writing.	More >
22 Apr 10 >>	Fellows Lecture. Dr Giles Bergel outline's the use of the royal family history as a basic historical narrative through the example of The Wandering Jew's Chronicle, a traditional ballad published in England for almost two hundred years in numerous illustrated editions, but now largely unknown.	More >
16 Apr 10 >>	Workshop: Law and Lawlessness in the Indian Ocean	More >
15 Apr 10 >>	Workshop: Piracy in the Indian Ocean and Atlantic Worlds.	More >
8 Apr 10 >>	Easter Open Day. Regency Dancers, Shire Horses and Children Craft Activities.
26 Mar 10 >>	London Lecture, University of Notre Dame "'Anguish No Cessation Knows': Women and the British Elegy, 1660-1830" In this the inaugural Chawton House Library London lecture, Professor Anne K. Mellor, University of California, Los Angeles, explores the striking differences between elegies written by women between 1660 and 1830 and those by men. This lecture was held at the University of Notre Dame's London Centre, 1 Suffolk Street,London SW1Y 4HG (just off Trafalgar Square).	More >
24 Mar 10 >>	Chawton House Library held another Bridge Afternoon with Tea, in aid of the Library Acquisitions Fund.
25 Feb 10 >>	Fellow's Lecture For two centuries, Jane Austen and her older contemporary Mary Hays (1759-1843), religious controversialist and feminist, have been represented as enemies in the "Woman's War" between conservatives and radicals that produced furious debate about gender politics during and long after the French Revolution. In "Pride, Prejudice, Patriarchy: Jane Austen reads Mary Hays," Gina Luria Walker will discuss new information that may alter our assumptions about Austen and Hays.	More >
21 Feb 10 >>	Snowdrop Sunday at Chawton. Come and visit the vast array and variety of snowdrops that cover the grounds of Chawton House. The grounds will be open 12 noon to 4pm	More >
15-19 Feb 10 >>	Snowdrops at Chawton. Come and visit the vast array and variety of snowdrops that cover the grounds of Chawton House. The grounds will be open 10am to 4pm. Monday to Friday.	More >
17 Feb 10 >>	Afternoon Seminar Chawton House Library is hosting another series of Wednesday Afternoon Seminars. Entry is free, each seminar starts at 2pm.	More >
27 Jan 10 >>	Law and Lawlessness in the Indian Ocean. A one day workshop held at Chawton House Library	More >
26 Jan 10 >>	Abolitions in the Indian Ocean and Atlantic Worlds. A one day workshop held at Chawton House Library.	More >
21 Jan 10 >>	Fellow's Lecture In this lecture, Dr Katie Halsey University of Stirling will focus primarily on the ways in which Mitford deploys her reading of Austen and other writers to position herself within contemporary literary and feminist debates.	More >

^ Top

< Back |