Oh, I do like to be beside the seaside – Lydia Bennet in Brighton

The lovely weather we’ve been having here in England always makes me think of Lydia Bennet’s adventures in Brighton! Here’s a little taster of the fun and scrapes she experiences with her friend Harriet Forster. Lydia and Harriet were dressed and downstairs by seven o’clock next morning to go bathing. They left the Colonel snoring [...]

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Pictures and prints for inspiration: Lydia Bennet in Brighton!

I love using pictures and prints for inspiration. When I was writing Lydia Bennet’s Story, I drew on many that I was able to find in museums and books. These prints of contemporary scenes in Brighton by the seaside helped me to write a scene where Lydia and her friend, Harriet Forster, are interrupted by [...]

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A Young Lady dressed as a Redcoat! That’s What!

Phoebe Hessel was born in Stepney in 1713. A colourful character in and around Brighton in her later life, she enthralled passers by with her tales of being a soldier in her youth. Phoebe disguised herself as a man and enlisted in the British army to be with her lover Samuel Golding according to the [...]

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A Young Lady dressed as a Redcoat! That’s What!

Phoebe Hessel was born in Stepney in 1713. A colourful character in and around Brighton in her later life, she enthralled passers by with her tales of being a soldier in her youth. Phoebe disguised herself as a man and enlisted in the British army to be with her lover Samuel Golding according to the [...]

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Lydia Bennet from Pride and Prejudice

In Lydia’s imagination, a visit to Brighton comprised every possibility of earthly happiness. She saw, with the creative eye of fancy, the streets of that gay bathing place covered with officers. She saw herself the object of attention to tens and to scores of them at present unknown. She saw all the glories of the [...]

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Lydia Bennet from Pride and Prejudice

In Lydia’s imagination, a visit to Brighton comprised every possibility of earthly happiness. She saw, with the creative eye of fancy, the streets of that gay bathing place covered with officers. She saw herself the object of attention to tens and to scores of them at present unknown. She saw all the glories of the [...]

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Walking on the Steyne at Brighton in Jane Austen’s day

I found this extract from a satirical poem which paints such wonderful pictures in the mind of Brighton in the late 1790′s. It’s taken from ‘A Moral Epistle from the Pavilion at Brighton to Carlton House’ by Anthony Pasquin. ‘Tis the rage but to walk on the Steyne in the eve,When the dew falls as [...]

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Walking on the Steyne at Brighton in Jane Austen’s day

I found this extract from a satirical poem which paints such wonderful pictures in the mind of Brighton in the late 1790′s. It’s taken from ‘A Moral Epistle from the Pavilion at Brighton to Carlton House’ by Anthony Pasquin. ‘Tis the rage but to walk on the Steyne in the eve,When the dew falls as [...]

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A New Cover for Lydia Bennet’s Story

This is the new cover for Lydia Bennet’s Story which is being published in October by Sourcebooks. I am absolutely thrilled with it; I think the designers have done a wonderful job. The illustration is by Brock and shows Lydia and Kitty being introduced to Mr Wickham. The following extract is from Lydia’s journal when [...]

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A New Cover for Lydia Bennet’s Story

This is the new cover for Lydia Bennet’s Story which is being published in October by Sourcebooks. I am absolutely thrilled with it; I think the designers have done a wonderful job. The illustration is by Brock and shows Lydia and Kitty being introduced to Mr Wickham. The following extract is from Lydia’s journal when [...]

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