Last Saturday, 28 January, was the 210th anniversary of the publication of Pride and Prejudice [1813], and I’ve just published the third novel in my Jane Austen Investigates series: The Convicts’ Canal. It’s set in Oxford, where Jane visits her brother in 1790, when the canal, dug by convicts, was finished. I know it very well — I used to walk along it every day with my dog. My story is about the young Jane’s having thoughts about somebody, and then what you learn about them.
We know a huge amount about Jane’s childhood, despite some significant gaps in the correspondence that provide most of the details. Many biographies cover her childhood, and we have her juvenilia and letters starting from her teenage years. I’ve taken advantage of her quiet years growing up in Steventon as the setting for my novels.
I write them for all those who love a good detective story, and those who love the Georgian setting. And because Jane Austen is a lively character in my mind and spending time with her is such fun. The series is a great introduction to children who haven’t yet read her books. Such a clever and witty girl would’ve made an excellent detective; so I decided to imagine her as one.
My child-readers will probably not yet be familiar with Jane, but adults will have pleasure seeing hints of her future plots, and finding out more about her world. I use facts, such as her school in Reading and her brother’s college in Oxford for locations and plots, and then fill in the gaps.
I also write for young adults and adults using other pen names: Joss Stirling and Eve Edwards. The Diamond of Drury Lane, my debut novel, came out of my research for my literature doctorate in the Romantic period at Oxford. I was inspired by Drury Lane Theatre, the centre of culture but also on the fringes of some of the most dangerous parts of London.
The Curious Crime, a murder-mystery novel for children set in a fantasy Victorian [society], was inspired by the history of science. It’s a companion to The Curious Science Quest I did with physics Professor Andrew Briggs, and artist and poet Roger Wagner, telling the history of science in a faith-friendly way, with no tedious old — and wrong — chestnut that science and faith are at loggerheads here. The story’s told by Darwin’s tortoise and Schrodinger’s cat travelling through time.
In 2006, The Diamond of Drury Lane won the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, and the Nestlé Children’s Book Prize. These early awards meant the most to me because they enabled me to make writing my career.
Jane’s popularity returned with the 1995 BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, didn’t it? That’s 27 years ago. Now, there’s hunger for good-quality content for streaming services; so she’s once again sought after, perhaps because she has a keen and unsentimental view of people but a good heart.
What Would Jane Do? is a podcast conversation between me and Katy Macfarlane. Katy belongs to a historic re-enactment society, and is hugely knowledgeable about details of Regency life. She comes suitably dressed in the YouTube version. We talk about current issues, then put a Jane Austen slant on it for Janeites as well as history and literature fans, taking examples from her life, times, and works.
A recent podcast was about leadership with an eye to Conservative leaders: what did she mock? What did she think was good leadership? She’d have great fun with Boris Johnson in a novel. Another was about social media and its pressures on young people. When Lydia runs off, which will ruin the whole Bennett family, part of Darcy’s rescue is to hush it all up, like someone taking down the posts, getting rid of revenge porn; so that youthful indiscretion when you’re 16 doesn’t haunt you for the rest of your life.
Recent adaptations are all interesting in their own way, and Jane’s work adapts very well. I enjoy it when makers don’t make them too pretty, such as Keira Knightley’s muddy home in the film Pride and Prejudice, or make an effort to get the costumes spot-on. Becoming Jane, in 2007, had 1790s fashions, not Regency. The 1995 Persuasion is pitch-perfect, but there are recent adaptations that struggle to find a line between modern taste and the source — like the 2022 Persuasion. Sanditon was promising at first, but stopped owing much to Austen once Andrew Davies introduced sensational storylines, such as the incestuous brother and sister.
The films often suffer by having to cut material, simplifying some of the characters or losing them completely. The recent Persuasion (Film review, 29 July 2022) came closest to traducing the novel at the moment when its Anne is wildly tactless at the dinner with Wentworth, blurting out how her sister’s husband first courted her. Jane’s Anne would never do that — it runs against the core of her character; so you’re watching a film about someone else.
I don’t take the canon too seriously. It’s fun to see other people have a go at Jane’s well-drawn characters and pay their respects to someone’s creativity. I think she’d be astonished. From the mid-20th century, our appreciation has grown and grown, driven by the golden age of television drama we’re living through
Jane wouldn’t think in terms of Christian themes because she was a Christian, a vicar’s daughter, in a Christian society. Christianity permeates everything, such as the moral codes and the social life of her characters. Perhaps certain aspects rise to the fore. Honesty is a big one — emotional honesty, as well — shared by her good characters, whereas pretence and hypocrisy belong to the bad.
Love and sacrifice are other important themes; that’s where she ends in her final novel. The evolution in her work is in the growing maturity of her heroines. Compare Anne Elliot to Catherine Morland, and you’ll see what I mean. Anne has sacrificed herself to others without expectation of reward, though the novelist does reward her with recognition for her sterling qualities, and she gets a second chance at love.
Modern readers may not give her values a faith tag, but they grasp the fundamentals of what makes for good or bad character.
I was born in Essex, had a state school education, and went from there to Cambridge — which was a bit of a leap. After careers in the Foreign Office and Oxfam, I became a writer full time. I now spend half my time running the Oxford Centre for Fantasy, which honours the life and works of the Inklings, including Tolkien and C. S. Lewis. Our online and in-person writing courses are perfect for those writing their first novel in a fantasy or sci-fi genre.
I’ve always had the sense that God existed. When I was a child. I’d go to church with my mum. When I was 16 or 17, Evangelical friends took me to their churches. and made me think about identifying myself as a Christian. It was more of a case of turning up the dimmer switch. I’m optimistic, I want things to make sense, and the people I admire have very often been amazing Christians. There’s something about what they understand and their faith that produces that life. Depth and value. The shine doesn’t wear off like some other fad. My faith changes and deepens as my life experience does.
Climate change makes me angry.
I’m happiest being with my family. I like audiobooks. I use these at night to stop the mind whirling if I wake up.
Of course I have hope for the future: we’re in God’s hands. We’re also better off than we have ever been, if you take the long view. We might be in a little dip at the moment, but the trajectory for such things as life-expectancy and health is a positive trend. We mustn’t ignore the manifold cost-free blessings around us, like the beauty of the world, love, and friendship.
In the liturgy, I probably pray most for the forgiveness of sins. At home, I most often pray for people going through a hard time. I also pray for us all to take positive action on our current problems.
Do you really have to ask who’d like to be locked in a church with? Her initials are J. and A.
Julia Golding was talking to Terence Handley MacMath. The Jane Austen Investigates series is published by SPCK (Lion Fiction)
oxfordcentreforfantasy.org