English Academics at the Lincoln Book Festival, 5 Oct

For the closing event of this year’s Lincoln Book Festival (2-5 October 2025), three academics from English at Lincoln University joined forces with a colleague from Lincoln Bishop University to deliver a series of short talks on ‘Beginning with Austen’, to commemorate 250 years since the author’s birth. Prof Claudia Capancioni (BGU), Dr Alice Crossley (UoL), Dr Amy Culley (UoL) and Dr Rebecca Styler (UoL) connected aspects of Jane Austen’s writings to a range of cultural contexts including women’s piano-playing, parlour games, attitudes to women’s ageing, and Austen’s legacies in later fiction and popular culture. The event was held in the appropriately Regency-style ‘Blue Room’ at The Lawns, and was attended by over 60 people. Talks were followed by questions and discussion. We look forward to further collaborations with the Lincoln Book Festival in future years.