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Remaining Tickets - Jane Austen Festival 2025

Our events have been selling out faster than fine muslin this year, but fret not some tickets still remain. Here's a quick list of what's left - but hurry, when they're gone, they're gone!

Angela Clare_Anne Lister Talk_ JAF25_webcrop.jpg__PID:6c86c685-79d3-42ea-a070-5f518d796de3

'In want of a wife': Miss Lister of Shibden Hall and her five-million-words of Regency life and desire for a wife

Sunday 14th September - 14:30

Over 200 miles away, another trailblazer of the Regency era, Anne Lister of Shibden Hall, Halifax, was busy managing her estate, travelling, climbing mountains and having relationships with other women. Whilst Anne Lister never published, she wrote over five million words detailing her life in Georgian England and was a prolific reader.

Join historian and author Angela Clare as she shares the story of Anne Lister. Find out if Lister read Austen, what she made of Bath when she visited in 1813 and if she ever got her happy romantic ending, albeit a very different one from Austen's novels. In Anne Lister’s case, 'It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single [wo]man in need of a good fortune must be in want of a wife'.

Venue: Brunswick Room, Guildhall, High St, Bath BA1 5AW

Tickets £16

Limited tickets remaining
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The Watsons with Rose Servitova

Monday 15th September - 11:30

In her talk on The Watsons, Rose Servitova explores what inspired her to complete Jane Austen’s unfinished novel - from fandom and her fascination with Austen to the challenge of capturing Austen's distinctive voice. She will discuss her writing process, her love of authenticity and why humour is key. Finally, she explains why The Watsons is ripe for screen adaptation.

Venue: Elwin Room, BRLSI, 16-18 Queen Square, BA1 2HN

Tickets £13

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Amy Frost talk_website crop.jpg__PID:d743fe0e-d93b-41b2-8f95-86878db0d780

Austen Fantasy House Hunt: The architecture we don’t see in Jane Austen

Monday 15th September - 16:00

The streets and houses in Jane Austen’s novels are essential to defining the people who occupy them, but what about the buildings the characters never actually visit? Join Dr Amy Frost as she explores the buildings that are not described by Austen, and invites you to help construct these fictional homes. Audience participation welcome, no drawing skills required, just bring your imagination.

Venue: Elwin Room, BRLSI, 16-18 Queen Square, BA1 2HN

Tickets £13

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Sense & Musicality_JAF25_webcrop.jpg__PID:2a8f9946-09bc-4e79-912a-3a9687509fa8

Sense & Musicality

Monday 15th September - 19:00

Sense & Musicality explores the love story of Jane Austen and music. Through the authentic sound of historic square piano with soprano voice, Penelope Appleyard and Jonathan Delbridge delight audiences with music connected to Austen's life and works, including songs she sang herself, and bring to life moments from her letters and novels. This performance celebrates the release of brand-new song ‘Ode to Pity’ – a rare musical setting of Austen’s poetry.

Venue: Bath Abbey, Abbey Churchyard, BA1 1LY

Tickets £12

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Pride & Prejudice in Words & Music

Monday 15th September - 21:00

This spell-binding performance combines story and music in a unique way. Much like a “melodrama” (a major form of salon-entertainment of the Regency-period) it is essentially an hour-long one-woman play, with live music, fit for the intimate 18th Century drawing room.

The narrator performs Gill Hornby's dynamic, abridged telling of Jane Austen’s witty and moving Pride and Prejudice, and is accompanied throughout by a piano and violin duet. The superb music for this play is familiar and loved by many; composed by Carl Davis for the iconic 1995 BBC TV adaptation starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle.

Venue: Banqueting Room, Guildhall, High St, Bath BA1 5AW

Tickets £24

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Curl Hairpiece Workshop_JAF25_webcrop.jpg__PID:303a3660-fcb4-4bd9-b129-08f62b15b233

Curl Hairpiece Workshop

Tuesday 16th September - 9:30 & 12:30

Join us for a workshop on constructing your own clip-in curls to complete your Regency hairstyle. This hands-on, 2 hour session, will take you through the steps to create historically inspired curls using human hair. At the end of the workshop, you will have built your own easy to wear curls that will be ready to wear by the next day.

Your instructors, Juliana and Angela, are long time re-enactors and have both built multiple sets of hair pieces over the years. You will be provided with resources, a complete set of written instructions with reference pictures, and lots of advice during the workshop!

PLEASE NOTE: Most supplies will be provided at the time of the workshop. However, your participation in this workshop requires that you purchase ahead of time your own supply of human hair for the project which matches your own hair colour. Please do not buy synthetic hair for this workshop, it must be human hair. Once you purchase your ticket, information will be provided on the type of ‘human hair’ extension to purchase.

Venue: Duncan Room, BRLSI, 16-18 Queen Square, BA1 2HN

Tickets £42

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Melissa Little_headshot.JPG__PID:a6353572-d5b3-41fd-a9a9-da8ce62fa91b

Jane Austen's Portrait - with Melissa Dring

Tuesday 16th September - 12 noon

This talk charts the extensive research made by forensic artist portrait painter, Melissa Dring, when commissioned to produce a new likeness of Jane Austen in 2001. Chasing all possible clues, not only the Austen family look, but such intimate details as Jane’s underwear, were equally crucial to the final lifelike image. This, of course, also had to convey something of Jane’s character and reveal her sparkling wit and wisdom…Did Melissa succeed? Judge for yourselves!

Venue: Elwin Room, BRLSI, 16-18 Queen Square, BA1 2HN

Tickets £13

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Births, Marriages and Deaths

Tuesday 16th September - 14:00

This lively presentation will explore births, marriages and deaths in the Regency era, seen through the prism of Jane Austen’s life and works. This account of how Jane came into this world, and left it, poses the question: What would her legacy have been if either she or her sister Cassandra had married?

Venue: Elwin Room, BRLSI, 16-18 Queen Square, BA1 2HN

Tickets £13

Limited tickets remaining
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Dye and colour in Regency life

Wednesday 17th September - 10:00

Learn about colour in Regency times. Trace the creatively described colours of fashions in the journals of the time back to the ancient art and alchemy of natural colours. This lecture will explore the fascinating sources including, plants, spices, animals and elements used. The complex processes, which sit somewhere between science and magic, used to consistently create colours across the spectrum. Exploring how these colours were named and sold through fashion journals before finally looking at the practical issues of wearing and maintaining naturally coloured clothing.

Venue: Elwin Room, BRLSI, 16-18 Queen Square, BA1 2HN

Tickets £13

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Living with Jane Austen

Wednesday 17th September - 11:30

Janet Todd has been reading Jane Austen for many decades, observing how her work alters through the lens of evolving taste and cultural fashion: also through changes in herself as she passes through different periods of life.
Recently, Janet Todd has come to appreciate the bracing, humorous way Austen deals with bodies and their disorders--including her own. Engaging with the medical buzzword of the times—‘nerves’—through her characters, Austen investigates the subtle interaction of mind and body, the discomfort that seeps from one to the other. Finally, Janet Todd looks at Austen’s private letters where she exposes her own ‘nervous’ quality.

Venue: Elwin Room, BRLSI, 16-18 Queen Square, BA1 2HN

Tickets £13

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Lizzie Dunford Talk_250 years before JA_JAF25_webcrop.jpg__PID:6c503c5c-5f62-44da-ad0c-ebbbe4c83e4f

250 years before Jane Austen: a short and partial version of British history

Wednesday 17th September - 14:00

In this fully illustrated talk, Director of Jane Austen’s House takes us back in time to explore the seismic political, religious, and social changes that shaped the world that Jane Austen was born into in 1775. From the Mary Queen of Scots to the South Sea bubble and beyond, we will explore ten key events that shaped both the writer and her world.

Venue: Elwin Room, BRLSI, 16-18 Queen Square, BA1 2HN

Tickets £13

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The Worlds of Jane Austen - with Helena Kelly

Wednesday 17th September - 16:00

The Worlds of Jane Austen takes a fresh look at Jane Austen’s life, inspirations and legacy, drawing on the latest research in an accessible and lively way.
Despite the tranquil image of Austen that lingers in the popular imagination, her life coincided with a period of intense, immense change. The American Revolutionary War, the French Revolution, the uprising in Ireland… All through Austen’s early life, the old certainties were being subjected to challenge, new ideas were springing up – about democracy, freedom, slavery, poetry, the position of women.
Helena Kelly is the author of Jane Austen, the Secret Radical (2016).

Venue: Elwin Room, BRLSI, 16-18 Queen Square, BA1 2HN

Tickets £13

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Almost Austen JAC website.jpg__PID:0200f490-6849-4095-9a1a-2137dc8debac

Almost Austen - Musical Performance

Wednesday 17th September - 18:00

Catherine is a modern girl in love with Jane Austen's world. She can't believe her luck when she meets her very own 'Mr Tilney'. Through passages from Northanger Abbey and songs from Musicals and Opera, we follow Catherine's romantic ups and downs as real life and fantasy collide.

Venue: The Mission Theatre, 32 Corn St, Bath BA1 1UF

Tickets £22

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Reading with Delight: Jane Austen or Hannah More?

Wednesday 17th September - 19:00

Austen’s friends were ‘reading with delight Mrs. H. More’s recent publication’. Evangelical author Hannah More, far more popular than Jane Austen, helped reform her society’s moral values and promoted education for women and the poor and abolition of slavery. Why is Hannah More forgotten today, while Austen still delights readers around the world?

Brenda S. Cox will compare and contrast these authors, concluding with a book signing for Fashionable Goodness: Christianity in Jane Austen’s England. Regency costume very welcome but not mandatory.

Venue: Bath Abbey, Abbey Churchyard, BA1 1LY

Tickets £13

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Regency Rum Bluffers: “Desert Island Austen” - singing workshop

Thursday 18th September - 11:00

Imagine Jane on a desert island - what music would she choose? What luxury would she take? What book would she choose? Join this group session to sing the songs Jane might chose and speculate with us on what book and which luxury she would choose. As always, no previous singing experience is needed and the songs will be taught by ear, so there is no need to be able to read music.

Venue: The Mission Theatre, 32 Corn St, Bath BA1 1UF

Tickets £25

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Lucy Andrew _Murder Most Austen_JAF25_webcrop.jpg__PID:dc9a4407-a6dd-431c-925d-866861234e31

Murder Most Austen

Thursday 18th September - 12:30

The past decade has seen a significant rise in Jane Austen detective fiction retellings. But what is it about Austen’s work that lends itself to the detective genre? What makes the Austen heroine qualified to solve a murder?
Join crime writer and crime fiction scholar Dr Lucy Andrew for a talk exploring the influence of Austen’s work on the development of detective fiction and the motives behind the current Austen crime wave.

Venue: Elwin Room, BRLSI, 16-18 Queen Square, BA1 2HN

Tickets £13

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Dorehouse to Donkey Carts Carriages talk_Amy Bracey_JAF25_webcrop.jpg__PID:e1ba3410-a725-4d96-b33a-1e5b8932369f

Dormouse to Donkey Carts - The Carriages of Jane Austen's Era

Thursday 18th September - 14:00

Amy Bracey has been driving horse-drawn carriages since she was knee high to a grasshopper and her love for them became a career when working for the National Trust, cataloguing their carriage collection. She is Project Curator for The Carriage Foundation, an educational charity, and advises museums and individuals across the globe on the care, conservation, history and research of horse-drawn carriages.
This illustrated presentation will explore the modes of transport mentioned in Austen's novels and what they represented in the subtle language of her writings.

Venue: Elwin Room, BRLSI, 16-18 Queen Square, BA1 2HN

Tickets £13

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Dancing with the Stars_JAF25_webcrop_Hilary Burlock_Almacks, a Swell Evening (1822) NYPL MGZFD Alm 1.jpg__PID:54632e17-5a52-4b22-8e7a-0bbdf181547d

Dancing with the Stars (Georgian Style)

Friday 19th September - 11:30

Jane Austen. The Duchess of Devonshire. The Prince Regent. What do these lives have in common? They were ‘fond of dancing and excelled in it’. From learning from famous dancing masters, to performing at the assembly rooms and in the homes of the fashionable Bon Ton in London, join Dr Hillary Burlock as she explores the triumphs and trials of Georgian celebrities in the ballroom.

Venue: Elwin Room, BRLSI, 16-18 Queen Square, BA1 2HN

Tickets £14

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Complete works of JA_website crop.jpg__PID:906e422d-1934-4ed8-8218-2eb6dbda288d

The Complete Works of Jane Austen (Abridged)

Friday 19th September - 14:30

One newbie and two self-professed Janeites, through almost all means imaginable, tackle the entire canon of Jane Austen’s works – in just 80 minutes. Written by Jessica Bedford, Kathryn MacMillan, Charlotte Northeast & Meghan Winch.

Come along for a fun, funny, and fast-paced romp through the masterpieces of Jane Austen with The Complete Works of Jane Austen, Abridged. Three nimble actors take on all of Austen’s beloved heroines, friends, and love interests—and her incisive social satire—in just 80 minutes. It is a truth universally acknowledged that an audience in possession of high spirits must be in want of a ticket to this big-hearted comedy that will delight Janeites and newcomers alike.

Suitable for ages 14+ (contains swearing and sexual references).

Venue: The Mission Theatre, 32 Corn Street, BA1 1UF

Tickets £19

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