Jane Austen News - Issue 157
What's the Jane Austen News this week?
When Jane Austen was announced as the new face of the £10 note we were thrilled, and now thanks to an article written for International Women's Day, we've been introduced to other remarkable women who've been honoured on currencies around the world. These are just a few of them:
Syria
Syria's 500-pound note features Queen Zenobia, a 3rd-Century ruler of the Palmyrene Empire who is most famous for leading a revolt against the mighty colonizers, the Roman Empire.
Sweden
Opera singer Jenny Lind is currently on the 50 krona note, and Selma Lagerlöf – the first female writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature – is on the 20 Krona note.
Australia
Australia has one woman on either the front or back of every banknote currently in circulation. These include: social reformer and writer Dame Mary Gilmore (back of the $10); 19th-century businesswoman Mary Reibey (front of the $20); social worker and the first female member of an Australian parliament Edith Cowan (back of the $50), and famous soprano Dame Nellie Melba (front of the $100 note).
Turkey
The 50-lira note currently in circulation features turn-of-the-century novelist and women’s rights activist who died in 1936, Fatma Aliye Topuz on its reverse side.
Norway
The first of the two women featured on Norwegian notes is Kirsten Flagstad, who can be found on the 100 krone note while the second, Sigrid Undset, is featured on the 500 krone note. Flagstad is known as the greatest Wagnerian soprano of the mid-20th century and Undset was a novelist who received a Nobel prize in literature.
Switzerland
Sophie Taeuber-Arp is on the 50 franc note. She was one of the foremost figures of the rebellious Dada art movement and her multimedia works bridged the gap between fine and applied arts.
What a fantastic collection of women!
We've mentioned this production in the Jane Austen News before, and always thought it looked like a lot of fun. Sadly it was being performed in Scotland, so not so easy for us to go and see! Happily, Pride and Prejudice (*sort of) is now coming to the rest of the UK, and will be touring from this September onwards.
Tron Theatre Company and Blood of the Young's Pride and Prejudice adaptation is an all-female adaptation. It sees Jane Austen's novel told by just six female actors who play multiple roles - recreating the iconic story with added karaoke and twists. It first ran in Glasgow's Tron Theatre in summer 2018.
After opening at Bristol Old Vic on 12 September 2019, the show will tour to venues including Edinburgh's Lyceum Theatre, Birmingham Rep, Nuffield Southampton Theatres and Oxford Playhouse throughout autumn 2019 and spring 2020.
This adaptation sees a cast of servants multi-role-ing to tell the story of Pride and Prejudice and - in the spirit of Austen - has much to say, but never at the expense of spinning a great yarn with gags a-plenty and, of course, karaoke. But to hell with that - audiences don't need to have even heard of Jane Austen or her novels. This show is simply for anyone who enjoys a great night out full of colour, music and laughter.Isobel McArthur, playwright of Pride and Prejudice (*sort of)
JACK radio isn't the most well-known radio station, but it is a pioneering one, this UK radio station plays only female artists, and so it's hardly surprising that the station wanted to do something special to mark International Women's Day last week (Friday March 8th). JACK Radio chose Friday to premiere their new segment Inspirational Women – a series of segments that showcases stories about women.
Inspirational Women saw twelve stories of women who changed the world through their actions broadcast throughout the day. The women who were championed included women in the fields of conservation, literature, nursing, computing, science, human rights/education, aviation, sport, culinary arts, music and civil rights/activism.
They were Jane Goodall, Florence Nightingale, Ada Lovelace, Rosalind Franklin, Malala Yousafzai, Amelia Earhart, Billie-Jean King, Julie Child, Michelle Obama, Nina Simone, Rosa Parks, and, of course, our dearest Jane Austen. At the Jane Austen News we were delighted to hear that she was included in such a prodigious list and that, hopefully, the segment on her would inspire more people to explore her writing.
JACK added that following on from International Women’s Day, the Inspirational Women segment would become a regular feature, with listeners able to hear more inspiring stories from iconic women daily.
We wanted to create something that would not only celebrate International Women’s Day on JACK Radio, but which also has a lasting message and continues to provide a platform to some of the world’s greatest women. Our series Inspirational Women will launch on International Women’s Day, but we will be continuing the legacy by making it an ongoing feature on our station, which already provides an unrivalled platform for women in music through its exclusive music policy.Should you like to tune in, JACK radio is available across a large percentage of the country via the Sound Digital DAB multiplex in DAB+.Belinda Doyle, Programme Director at JACK Radio
This Week's Recommended Read Women’s bookshops were considered to be a vital part of the British feminist movement in the Seventies and Eighties.
We mention this because last week as part of International Women's Day, the online magazine Stylist published an article exploring the history (and return) of the feminist bookshop, and we thought it was such a good read that we simply had to share some of the fascinating highlights with you.
The suffragettes were famously savvy marketers, and would set up early versions of pop-up bookshops to spread the word about their campaign.
As well as a bookshop, Silver Moon also served as an important resource centre for vulnerable women: the staff would hand out information on domestic violence shelters and recommend texts for victims of childhood sexual abuse. Tellingly, the shop was refused an alcohol license for its café because it didn’t have men’s toilets.
Jane Austen News is our weekly compilation of stories about or related to Austen. Here we will feature a variety of items, including craft tutorials, reviews, news stories, articles and photos from around the world. If you’d like to include your story, please contact us with a press release or summary, along with a link. You can also submit unique articles for publication in our Online Magazine.
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3 comments
[…] Jane Austen News – Issue 157– Jane Austen Centre […]
Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters links for March 24, 2019
This link should take you straight to it: https://www.janeausten.co.uk/jane-austen-quiz/
Jenni
Cannot find the quiz.
Anonymous
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