Jane and Me: Caroline Knight, Jane Austen's Fifth Great Niece
Channel: ChawtonHouse
Date: 2020-05-17

Chawton House is many things to many people – to Caroline it will always be home. As a direct descendant of Jane’s brother, Edward Knight, Caroline grew up at Chawton House while it was still her family’s private home. Caroline’s early life was filled with the delights of living in a sixteenth-century English manor, the good cheer of family gatherings and centuries-old Christmas traditions in the Great Hall, the beauty of a country life, and the joys of helping her Granny bake cakes and serve Jane Austen devotees in the Chawton House tea room. When she was seventeen, Caroline and her family left the home her family had lived in for centuries, following the death of her grandfather, Edward Knight III. In this talk Caroline will share some of her most precious memories of her childhood at Chawton House and the writing of Jane & Me: My Austen Heritage over 25 years later.

Buy the Book: https://chawtonhouse.org/shop/books/jane-and-me-my-austen-heritage-caroline-knight/

Caroline’s talk will be followed by a Twitter Q&A.

Caroline Knight
Caroline Jane Knight is Jane Austen’s fifth great niece and among the last of the Austen family descendants to live at Chawton House. Caroline has had a career in marketing which took her to Australia in 2008. Caroline was a finalist in the Telstra Businesswoman of the Year Awards in 2012 and the same year was made an honorary life fellow of the Australian Institute of Management. Caroline is founder and chair of the Jane Austen Literacy Foundation and owner of The Greyfriar Group, a marketing and events business. In 2017 Caroline published her memoir Jane & Me: My Austen Heritage about her childhood at Chawton House, available at the Chawton House online shop: https://chawtonhouse.org/shop/books/jane-and-me-my-austen-heritage-caroline-knight/.

The Jane Austen Literacy Foundation: https://janeaustenlf.org/

Thank you for tuning in to Chawton House's Lockdown Literary Festival. This programme, happening on 15, 16 & 17 May is all online, and all for free. It is a celebration of women's writing, with events including talks, discussions, workshops and Q&As.If you have enjoyed any of our digital content and, if you are able, please consider donating to the Chawton House Emergency Appeal. Your donations will ensure we can keep producing content inspired by the Chawton House collections:https://chawtonhouse.org/covid-19-appeal/