Jane Austen, Her Writing and Her Craft with Professor Jennie Batchelor, University of York

We all know that Jane Austen was an accomplished and uniquely talented and innovative author. She was also a highly skilled embroiderer, patchworker and stitcher.

In this wide-ranging, illustrated talk, Jennie Batchelor discusses the relationship between the craft of writing and other forms of making in Austen’s life and novels. At a time when the value of women’s work and accomplishments were being hotly contested, Batchelor explains, Jane Austen lived and styled herself as a consummate craftswoman.

About Jennie Batchelor

Jennie Batchelor is Head and Professor of English at the University of York. A writer, academic and speaker, she is the author or co-editor of nine books on women’s writing and women’s eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Her most recent book, The Lady’s Magazine and the Making of Literary History (2022), won the 2023 Colby Book Prize. A keen stitcher, Jennie is also the author (with Alison Larkin) of the popular history-craft book, Jane Austen Embroidery (2020). She is one of the co-curators of Austen and Turner: A Country House Encounter at Harewood House.