By community correspondant Amani Patel

Pride and Prejudice, Northanger Abbey, Emma...where did all of these truly inspirational novels start? Where did one of the most beloved writers create the magic that inspired us all? Now I’m sure that most of you have probably guessed who I am talking about, yes, Jane Austen, one of the most widely read writers in English literature, lived in a small village called Chawton. The house in Hampshire is where she spent the last eight years of her life and it was in these years when she did the majority of writing her famous novels. Now us year 10’s being very enthusiastic Austenites ventured out to the far away village on a wintry January morning. We rode our horse and carriages (the minibus) along dangerous and treacherous roads (the M25) to reach our destination.

On our arrival we reluctantly got off the heated bus to find ourselves in what seemed like a remote village in the chilly and damp weather and strolled along to the house. However we were soon surprised at how kindly welcomed we were by Louise and Olivia who worked at the house. They quickly lead us into the warm learning room and we took our seats as Olivia prepared for her talk on ‘Jane Austen’s Life’. Now to many school children our age, the topic of ‘Jane Austen’s life’ would seem like an utterly boring topic. But in fact it proved to be much more than that...it was actually very interesting. She gave us a very detailed and informative talk about Jane’s life and how she used her life experiences in her novels such as ‘Northanger Abbey’, the novel which we are currently studying. It was fascinating to see how an ordinary, middle class girl became such a well known and distinguished author. Olivia even managed to throw in some humour along the way which definitely appealed to us.

We were then taken into her cottage where the Austen family lived and were amazed at how so many things from the cottage had been preserved so well such as her writing table and bed. We were given the chance to wander around the cottage and everyone took an especially great interest in the Regency style costumes worn by James McAvoy and Anne Hathaway 2007 film ‘Becoming Jane’...and of course the rest of Jane’s belongings too!

After having lunch and visiting the shop (where the ‘I love Mr Darcy’ postcards seemed to interest several students and teachers), we journeyed through the village up to Chawton House Library, the home of Jane’s brother Edward who inherited the house from his wealthy, adopted parents. The weather had finally improved and we were all stunned to see the beautiful greenery surrounding the house and the long and grand pathway that lead up to it. We were taken around a small section of the immense house and were shown some familiar gothic novels in the Library. Despite the fact that the books were too fragile to handle, you could see the temptation on people’s faces to touch the frail pages. It was astonishing to see how well these books had been preserved, some of which dated back to several hundred years ago.

But the day wasn’t over yet! To finish our surprisingly interesting day, we were treated to learning a standard routine of a Regency dance that would often take place at the balls during the 18th/19th century when Austen lived. But no, it wasn’t enough just learning the routine in our school uniform. We were given the chance to put on some Regency style costumes. Some dressed as men, in long tail-coats and high rising white socks, whereas the rest dressed as women in their elaborate and extremely long dresses (the dresses seemed a dozen sizes too big!). This was definitely the highlight of our trip! Even the teachers decided to join in too! The activity really helped us visualise how people would have lived back then.

Finally the day sadly came to an end. To our astonishment we all had an excellent time not only dancing, but learning about how Jane Austen lived (this will definitely help us in our upcoming coursework!) We would like to thank Olivia and Louise for their kind hospitality and the English teachers for organising and taking us on the enjoyable trip.