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AGM and Branch Meeting

11 April 2026

Venue: St Columba's Church, London, United Kingdom

London Branch event

1030am Complimentary tea and coffee served

1040am Branch AGM

11am Joy Pibworth

“All his choicest nursery of plants” – suggestions for the Sotherton gardener. This lecture deals with the story of new flowers arriving in Europe from, mostly, Latin America, in the 18th century, considering what would be available to the gardening public, including Mrs Austen and Cassandra.

12 noon Dr Lizzie Rogers

“Women and the Country House in Jane Austen’s England”

Jane Austen famously wrote in Pride and Prejudice that “to be mistress of Pemberley might be something”: because, for women in eighteenth and nineteenth century Britain at this level of society, relationships to the home could be incredibly precarious. This talk will explore the ways elite women carved out homes for themselves within a select group of England’s country houses during this period. Women utilised family relationships and marriages to gain independence, reshaped the appearance of the country house, preserved histories and left marks behind that call into question every history suggesting country houses were solely the domain of “great men”.

Lunch by own arrangement

230pm Dr Christine Kenyon Jones FKC

“Jane Austen and the Church”

Followed by complimentary tea, coffee and cakes.

Each talk £10 for members and £12 for non members.

All welcome