Where
In the village of Chawton in Hampshire. Austen lived the last eight years of her life in the house where she revised Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice and Northanger Abbey and wrote Mansfield Park, Emma and Persuasion. In 1947, the house was bought by philanthropist T Edward Carpenter, who established the Jane Austen Memorial Trust to run it in the author’s memory.
What
Many manuscripts and a lot of Austen correspondence as well as the table at which she wrote her books. It had been given to a servant on the author’s death but was later donated to the museum.
Plenty to celebrate
Last year was the 200th anniversary of the publication of Sense and Sensibility and the bicentennials of the subsequent novels will be marked in the years to come. Alongside special exhibitions, the museum is producing its own bicentenary collectors’ versions of first editions and tie-in events.
What brings punters in?
“We’re more than happy if it’s the film or television adaptations that attract people here,” says curator Louise West. “They soon realise just how good the original books are. Even though 2012 is Dickens’s ‘big year’, costume drama in general helps us because people are moved to go out in search of the golden days of literature. The Keira Knightley film appeared to have a huge impact on younger people.”
Help at hand
One full-time member of staff with eight part-timers and about 40 volunteers.
Budget
The annual turnover is £350,000 with income from general admission and the museum shop. The museum obtained £500,000 of lottery money three years ago for redevelopment work.
What’s in the shop?
The novels, memorabilia and associated academic titles. “We have to be quite careful,” says West. “There’s an Austen industry with something approaching a sequel a week; we couldn’t possibly stock them all.”
Visitors
38,000 in 2011. Tourists come from more than 100 countries. The biggest contingent comes from North America who – as well as being avid fans – are, says West, “very generous”.
Any famous gentlemen callers?
“Colin Firth came when he was researching the Mr Darcy role for the BBC,” says West. “Apparently, the ladies here on the day asked him to give them ‘the look’, so he stood in the doorway and brooded for them.”
Future plans
Following a creative arts partnership with a local college and a writer-in-residence programme, the museum plans to run additional education projects and writing workshops.
In the village of Chawton in Hampshire. Austen lived the last eight years of her life in the house where she revised Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice and Northanger Abbey and wrote Mansfield Park, Emma and Persuasion. In 1947, the house was bought by philanthropist T Edward Carpenter, who established the Jane Austen Memorial Trust to run it in the author’s memory.
What
Many manuscripts and a lot of Austen correspondence as well as the table at which she wrote her books. It had been given to a servant on the author’s death but was later donated to the museum.
Plenty to celebrate
Last year was the 200th anniversary of the publication of Sense and Sensibility and the bicentennials of the subsequent novels will be marked in the years to come. Alongside special exhibitions, the museum is producing its own bicentenary collectors’ versions of first editions and tie-in events.
What brings punters in?
“We’re more than happy if it’s the film or television adaptations that attract people here,” says curator Louise West. “They soon realise just how good the original books are. Even though 2012 is Dickens’s ‘big year’, costume drama in general helps us because people are moved to go out in search of the golden days of literature. The Keira Knightley film appeared to have a huge impact on younger people.”
Help at hand
One full-time member of staff with eight part-timers and about 40 volunteers.
Budget
The annual turnover is £350,000 with income from general admission and the museum shop. The museum obtained £500,000 of lottery money three years ago for redevelopment work.
What’s in the shop?
The novels, memorabilia and associated academic titles. “We have to be quite careful,” says West. “There’s an Austen industry with something approaching a sequel a week; we couldn’t possibly stock them all.”
Visitors
38,000 in 2011. Tourists come from more than 100 countries. The biggest contingent comes from North America who – as well as being avid fans – are, says West, “very generous”.
Any famous gentlemen callers?
“Colin Firth came when he was researching the Mr Darcy role for the BBC,” says West. “Apparently, the ladies here on the day asked him to give them ‘the look’, so he stood in the doorway and brooded for them.”
Future plans
Following a creative arts partnership with a local college and a writer-in-residence programme, the museum plans to run additional education projects and writing workshops.