Jane & Me: My Austen Heritage

By: Caroline Jane Knight

Narrated by: Alison Larkin

Caroline Jane Knight is the last of the Austen Knight family to grow up at Chawton House, the sixteenth-century English manor house on the ancestral estate where Jane Austen lived and wrote. Caroline ate at the same dining table, read in the same library, explored the same country lanes and shared the same dreams of independence as Jane Austen did.

But when she was seventeen, Caroline and her family were forced to leave the home her family had lived in for centuries. Heartbroken and determined to leave all things Austen behind her, this is the story of Caroline's journey from an idyllic childhood in which she baked cakes with her Granny for Jane Austen tourists, through personal crisis and success to her eventual embrace of her Austen heritage and the creation of the Jane Austen Literacy Foundation.

A contemporary and dramatic story, it is also a major contribution to the library of works about Jane Austen, including information thrillingly new to Jane Austen's readers and scholars.

Read by award-winning narrator Alison Larkin whose critically acclaimed recordings of the novels of Jane Austen include Pride and Prejudice and Songs from Regency England, Persuasion and Poems, Northanger Abbey and the History of England and Emma - the 200th anniversary audio edition.

Fifteen per cent of the profits from the sale of this book will be donated to the Jane Austen Literacy Foundation.

©2017 Caroline Jane Knight (P)2017 Alison Larkin Presents and Caroline Jane Knight

Go back to Chawton w/Jane Austen & Caroline Knight

If you could sum up Jane & Me: My Austen Heritage in three words, what would they be?

Heartfelt, emotive, and unique.

What other book might you compare Jane & Me: My Austen Heritage to and why?

Jane Austen at Home by Lucy Worsley because they both connect stories of Jane's time period to the places that she lived in.

Have you listened to any of Alison Larkin’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

This was my first audiobook experience listening to Alison Larkin and she was wonderful; upbeat and expressive in all the right places!

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Return to the Great House at Chawton and experience for yourself how this magnificent estate played such a significant role in shaping Jane Austen's legacy as an author and her descendants' lives, as told from the perspective of her fifth great niece, Caroline Jane Knight.

Any additional comments?

I think this book is such an important contribution to the legacy of Jane Austen and the Knight family, who played such an important role in her life. Readers will learn how history really does stand still in numerous ways when your family has lived in the same house for over four centuries.

A must buy for any card-carrying Jane Austen fan

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

"I have spent most of my adult life trying to forget Chawton and avoiding all reminders of my heritage..."
And that is the opening line of Caroline Jane Knight's memoir, "Jane & Me". I, an unabashed Janeite, was instantly hooked. What could have happened to make this blood relation of Jane Austen's (one of the greatest authors ever) want to reject her entire heritage? Over the next 250-some pages, Knight takes us on her personal journey from when her family forfeited their ancestral home to her present day successes...all the while weaving her Great Aunt Jane and Chawton House into stories from two-hundred years ago with her own yesterdays and tomorrows. I loved peeking in all the windows and nosing about the cupboards through such an intimate and masterfully written point of view.

Regardless if you have been fortunate enough to make the pilgrimage to Chawton to see Jane Austen's house (the cottage) and the Great House or if visiting where Jane Austen walked remains on your bucket list, this book is a must-buy for your collection.

Any additional comments?

The narrator's voice was engaging and clear. I look forward to hearing more from her.

A unique history

Thank you, Caroline Jane for allowing us to peek into the window of your childhood. Wonderfully told and read.