Another tour through cyberspace generated some great tidbits this week…..let me hear from you on any of YOUR Austen finds out there!.

• Found a wonderful blog called Factual Imaginings, which “consolidates information, both new and old, concerning film adaptations of English History and Literature”…. lots of information on Austen related films, Thomas Hardy’s Tess, and even the upcoming 2009 celebration of the 500-year anniversary of Henry VIII’s coronation.  Click here for the link to the blog’s review of Lost in Austen and another on the history of  the Royal Crescent in Bath.  This is a site I shall be visiting often!
• The BBC’s Radio 4 broadcasts of “Book at Bedtime” are available online for seven days after airing.  Listen this week of Sept 8 – 14 to Someone at a Distance, a story by Dorothy Whipple; book is available from Persephone Books:  get on their mailing list immediately if you are not already [I LOVE their books!…if any of you are looking for a book list to work on, start here!]

Persephone Books reprints forgotten classics by twentieth-century (mostly women) writers. Each one in our collection of seventy-eight books is intelligent, thought-provoking and beautifully written, and most are ideal presents or a good choice for reading groups.

•  I may be perhaps the only Janeite out there who has not been watching Lost in Austen (we in the US can see it on YouTube), but there is enough chat about it to keep you busy for a while…Professor Kathryn Sutherland reviewed the show in this Guardian article; see also these posts at Austenblog; Austenprose; and Jane Austen Today (there are a few posts here), for just starters! I will put in my 2 cents after I have had a chance to see it… and any reviews from any of you would be appreciated!
•  The Art of Manliness (!) site has a wonderful post on the Gentleman’s Guide to the Calling Card.  See also a few posts by Ms. Place at Jane Austen’s World on this topic…. Calling Cards in S&S and Persuasion; the Etiquette of using calling cards; and her most recent, The Etiquette of using calling cards 100 years after Austen.
• Jane Austen is now the biggest industry in Britain…see this article at NewsBiscuit.  You need to read through the whole article, as it is quite outrageous (oh! what would Jane think!)
• And speaking of Britain, If you happen to be hanging around Bury St. Edmunds, visit their Georgian Gem festival that runs through Sept. 21.  There is also the annual Jane Austen Festival in Bath from Sept.19 through the 28th. Oh, why am I not in England!  (our meeting this Sunday on “Austen’s England” will just have to do for now…)
• Jane Odiwe has added a few of her lovely drawings to her blog Jane Austen Sequels:  a portrait of Jane, and a winter scene of Jane and Cassandra walking in Chawton.
• And another book giveaway of Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict:  go to the Bookworm Blog and comment on the Q&A with author Laurie Viera Rigler…winner will be announced Sept. 15.
• And Laurel Ann at Austenprose, still recovering from her excellent Mansfield Park Madness escapade, is reading some of the Juvenilia…so visit her for an update, and if you haven’t read any of Austen’s early works, start now…they are delightful!  (and hoping that Laurel Ann will continue her posts on this.) 

A review of the book Lace in Fashion , by Pat Earnshaw on the Textile Dreams Blog:  the book traces the history of lace from the 16th to 20th century.  Originally published in 1986 by Batsford, a 2nd edition by Gorse (1991) is still in print.