President
Gill Hornby
Vice Presidents
Richard Jenkyns
Richard Knight
Trustees
Heather Thomas (Chair)
Heather Thomas
Heather was a lawyer in the City for over 40 years, working principally in the insurance market. She is a former arbitrator and an experienced non-executive director. Heather has been a member of the Society since 2015 and a trustee since 2019. She is the author of Fathers in Jane Austen under the pseudonym I P Duckfield.Fiona Ainsworth (Vice Chair)
Fiona Ainsworth (Vice Chair)
A relative latecomer to Jane Austen, whom she first encountered in her 20s, Fiona has been a member of the Society since 1993 and has served on the committee for more than 20 years, initially as Branches and Groups Coordinator but more recently as Minutes Secretary, a role she finds compatible with the demands of her day job as Head of Library & Archives at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.Kay Dawson (Honorary Secretary)
Kay Dawson (Honorary Secretary)
Kay is a solicitor and partner in the firms of Bennetts, in Wrington near Bristol. She will be responsible for the legal and regulatory aspects of the Society’s affairs. Kay first came across Jane Austen as part of her A-level English Literature course. Emma was the novel and she had only read the first page when she knew she ‘had found my book’. From that moment she loved the style of writing, the moral message and the characters.Joe Bray
Joe Bray is Professor of Language and Literature at the University of Sheffield. His research centres on the intersection of literary style, material culture and art history. He is the author of many books, articles and chapters on Jane Austen and the eighteenth and nineteenth-century novel, including The Language of Jane Austen (2018), and The Edinburgh Companion to Jane Austen and the Arts (2024).Martin Caddick
Martin Caddick holds a law degree from Exeter University and became a Master of Business Administration at Cranfield Business School. Retiring from a varied career in marketing and business resilience, Martin was able to pursue his lifelong interest in Jane Austen. He has been a volunteer guide at Chawton House and Jane Austen House and has researched Chawton House and the Knight Family.Andrea Clarke
Andrea has been been a Finance Director for over 20 years with experience in the commercial and charity sectors, including in education, and also has extensive HR and IT transformation experience. Other voluntary roles, included being Chair of the Finance Committee for a local School and Treasurer for the local Scouts group. Andrea had been looking for a new voluntary role in 2023, and when the opportunity arose to become a Trustee for Jane Austen Society, Andrea was pleased to become involved being a life long fan of anything Jane Austen related and looks forward to supporting the charity in any way she can.Fiona Riley
Fiona has had a lifelong interest in both the life and of course, the work of Jane Austen. Having been involved with working with different charities during the course of a career in the financial sector, latterly in corporate sustainability, when the opportunity arose to become a trustee of the Jane Austen society, she was pleased to become further involved. Fiona is a member of the finance subgroup on the board.Fiona is also a trustee of two other charities and is involved in her local community, which is close to Stoneleigh Abbey.Maureen Stiller
Maureen has been a Jane Austen adherent from her schooldays. After early retirement from the Civil Service in 1991, she worked as administrator or project manager for a few charities. She joined the Society in 1991 and became, successively, Membership Secretary and Secretary of the London Branch for several years. On full retirement in 2005, she became Hon Secretary of the Society and, more recently, presents Society talks to community groups.
