Latest books

I have been a little remiss recently, as I haven't shared my latest reading with you in quite some time.  I have been reading lots, just haven't mentioned it!  I am going through a Jane Austen stage at the moment, watching films, series and reading the novels again too.  As you can see, there is a bit of a theme with three of the books, but it is the 200th anniversary of Pride and Prejudice, so why not?  I recently re-read Sense and Sensibility again as I wanted to know whether Colonel Brandon had a first name (the answer is no), but I discovered there are other characters who aren't given a first name either - this and many other interesting points are raised in What matters in Jane Austen? which is a lovely book to dip in and out of (although the author does use  quotations which include some rather unexpected language, so be warned if you wanted to give this book to an impressionable young person!)  The Real Jane Austen has been a Radio 4 book of the week and is a biography based around items in the Austen household, so should be fascinating.  The other Jane Austen inspired book is all about the worlds that the writer created and I borrowed this from the library first, before deciding I needed a copy.
The last book, Three Houses, by Angela Thirkell, was also a Radio 4 book of the week over Christmas and is the childhood memoirs of the grandchild of Edward Burne-Jones.  It really is from another age and reminded me very strongly of my granny's memoirs which appeared on my blog a year or so ago.  I am a huge fan of the Pre-Raphaelites and their followers and we have a print of The Golden Stairs by Burne-Jones which belonged to granny and which I love.  The original is in Tate Britain.

The Golden Stairs by Sir Edward Burne-Jones (1880)

 

(picture from Tate Britain http://www.tate.org.uk/visit/tate-britain)