Jane Austen Chronicles

Julia Fry's Austen Chronicles

The Austen Chronicles celebrate the life and work of Jane Austen, with two illustrated hardback books by Julia, (a third to follow) and an Instagram site for fellow Janeites.

Jane Austen is the most beloved of all female authors. The themes of her novels are as relevant today as when they were first written and her characters are just as easy to recognise in those around us. Jane Austen's own panegyric in Northanger Abbey in praise of the novel could well describe her own works; - 'in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed, in which the most thorough knowledge of human nature, the happiest delineation of its varieties, the liveliest effusions of wit and humour, are conveyed to the world in the best chosen language.'

Jane Austen herself presents something of an enigma. Much of her private correspondence was destroyed after her death by her adored and adoring older sister, Cassandra. Jane Austen's possible motivations and persuasions still continue to fascinate those who love and admire her; nearly two hundred and fifty years after her birth. 

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The Austen Chronicles endeavour to get to the heart of a literary genius who preferred to remain anonymous; a woman who balanced her compulsion to write with the obligations of a large family; a writer who was well acquainted with the wider world but chose to concentrate on the doings of three or four families in a country village.  Jane Austen was a devoted and much-loved daughter, sister, aunt and friend who created her six completed novels against an unostentatious domestic background befitting a gentleman's daughter of little fortune.

Julia Fry uses fictional re-imaginings and factual explorations to bring Jane Austen to life at different times and in different places. Julia has used Jane Austen's surviving letters and her novels to recreate the writer's life between the ages of seven and forty-one at locations in Hampshire, Bath, Southampton, Kent and London.

The Austen Chronicles cover contrasting aspects of Jane Austen's life and work. The Lonely Shore - Jane Austen and the Sea, explores how her experiences at the coast, including an ill-fated romance at the age of twenty-five, might have influenced her personal life and her writing.

Jane in Winter follows her through successive winters from the age of seven until her final Christmas at the age of forty-one, focusing on her childhood experiences, her first romance, the loss of her home when the family moved to Bath, an unfortunate proposal of marriage, a period of writer's block and eventual domestic and creative fulfilment.

Both books are written and illustrated by Julia Fry, who has loved Jane Austen's works for many years and who finds endless inspiration in the worlds she created for her readers.