Janet Todd: Living with Jane Austen

Renowned academic and novelist Janet Todd will take us on an illuminating tour of Austen’s letters, manuscripts and novels, exploring the resounding influence of one of England’s best known authors, and why her writing will always be relevant.

From Emma to Northanger Abbey, Austen is one of our most influential writers: shaping popular culture over hundreds of years. Endlessly adapted and reshaped for modern audiences (Bridget Jones, Clueless, Death Comes to Pemberley), Austen’s work offers an enduring insight into how we should live our lives.

Nobody knows this more than Janet Todd, whose latest book Living with Jane Austen blends memoir and academic interrogation to explore what the writer means to her, and what it means to others: from humour to the home, feminism to flings, patience to presumption.  

This intimate event invites everyone to reflect on their relationship with Austen’s writing, whilst learning from an expert. Janeites and Austen novices alike are welcome!

Age Guidance: 12+

Tickets: £8

Janet Todd

Janet Todd is an internationally renowned novelist and academic, best known for her non-fiction feminist works on women writers including Jane Austen, Aphra Behn and Mary Wollstonecraft. Her acclaimed novels include Lady Susan Plays the Game (2013), A Man of Genius (2016) and Don’t You Know There’s a War On? (2020).

Janet has published and edited more than 40 books including the complete works of Mary Wollstonecraft (with Marilyn Butler), of Aphra Behn, and, as General Editor, The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Jane Austen.

Janet was a professor of English Literature at UEA, Glasgow and Aberdeen Universities, before becoming president of Lucy Cavendish College, University of Cambridge (2008-2015), where she established the Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize. She is now an Honorary Fellow of Newnham and Lucy Cavendish Colleges. In 2013, she was given an OBE for her services to higher education and literary scholarship.