Beyond the podcast: Jane Austen

Beneath the genteel surface of decorous society, unrest simmered in the world – and works – of Jane Austen

In the first mini-lecture of our HistoryExtra Academy Regency short course, Dr Lizzie Rogers explores the backdrop of Georgian Britain, and introduces one of its biggest characters: the Prince Regent

Two hundred years after the death of the iconic English author, Lucy Worsley talks to Matt Elton about her new book on Jane Austen, examining the influence that domesticity, gender and family relationships had on her life and work...

For all their charm, period dramas can gloss over some of the Regency’s more peculiar realities. Lauren Good unveils the surprising truths behind romance in the period, from honeymooning with your mother-in-law to taxing ‘old maids’

She is one of the world's most beloved novelists, famous for her romantic works set among the Georgian gentry. A guide to writing like Jane Austen reveals the novelist's methods, tips and tricks – from techniques of plotting and characterisation through to dialogue and suspense. Penned by author and Austen's five-times-great niece, Rebecca Smith, The Jane Austen Writers' Club features exercises, illustrations and quotations from Jane's novels and letters, shedding new light on how she wrote her most famous masterpieces. Writing for History Extra, Smith explores Jane's time at the cottage in Chawton (now Jane Austen's House Museum), where she did the most important work of her life…

Hilary Davidson takes a tour through Jane Austen’s wardrobe – from the clothes she wore behind closed doors to her most treasured jewellery

Dr Lizzie Rogers answers questions about the author and the social conventions of the world in which she lived and wrote

At first glance, Jane Austen’s life seems to have been uneventful – but those initial appearances are somewhat deceptive

For many, Jane Austen's novels help to define the Regency period. Here, Peter James Bowman explores the real routines and rituals of the wealthy Georgian families portrayed by Austen, and considers the remarkable parallels between one real-life figure and Anne Elliot, the heroine of Austen's Persuasion

Jane Austen's novels, which are set predominantly in rural England in the late Georgian period, provide a fascinating picture of life at that time – but how much is fact and how much fiction? Here, historian and author Helen Amy considers Austen's depictions of rural life, social etiquette and more...

Descriptions of health, says author Bryan Kozlowski, run throughout the work of famed novelist Jane Austen – from the character of Mr Woodhouse in Emma to the health resort setting of her unfinished Sanditon. Writing for History Extra, Kozlowski shares four tips that can be found in the Regency-era writer’s classic novels, and what they tell us about contemporary attitudes towards healthy figures, women’s exercise and more…

Anyone who has read Jane Austen will have an idea of how much effort a high society woman in Regency Britain gave to finding a husband. Felicity Day lays out what they needed to know, how they could meet that special someone, and why getting married had its dangers...

From sisterly love to confidantes during time of romantic woe, Lizzie Rogers illuminates the power of female friendship in the Regency era…

Danny Bird charts the life and literary career of Jane Austen against the backdrop of a period marked by conflict, revolution and groundbreaking discoveries

Never was the chasm between rich and poor more stark than in the Regency era. Ian Mortimer chronicles a period in which the wealthiest gorged themselves on the fruits of Britain’s industrial might, while the working classes endured lives that were often nasty, brutish and short

In February 1811, Prince George became the Regent in place of his father, George III. Stella Tillyard looks beyond the romanticised Regency world of Jane Austen novels and finds a time of unrest and uncertainty