Return to England

In 2017 I visited England for the bicentennial of Jane Austen’s death and to take part in the Jane Austen Society of North America International Visitor’s Program.

For almost six weeks my husband and I enjoyed all that the bicentennial had to offer. We went to many exhibits in London, Oxford, Winchester, Brighton, Basingstoke, and other locales. We rented a tiny car, and Adam drove on the left side of the road. We stayed in a room in someone’s house in Alton, a flat in Winchester, and finally in a room in a house on the grounds of the Chawton estate (once referred to as The Stables). I had planned to return to England in 2020 with a group of students for the first of what I hoped would be many studies abroad.

My plans changed in 2018 when I was diagnosed with breast cancer and had to undergo surgery and many months of treatment. I gave up on planning a travel course, though I did not give up on reading, studying, writing about, and teaching Austen’s life and works. In fact, I credit Austen with helping me get through the toughest time of my life.

Now I am back in England and writing about Austen. I am working on my book about monsters, and I am staying in Oxford because my spouse is assisting in a summer course at the university. I am spending every day in one of the Bodleian libraries writing, and I’m overjoyed to be able to do this.

Over the course of many posts, I am going to be blogging about my experiences traveling to and within England. In the next post I’ll talk about how I got from Maine to England and what happened on the first day. After that, well, you’ll just have to wait and see!

Thanks for reading.