Professor Jennie Batchelor
Jennie Batchelor is an academic, author and speaker. She has written and edited several books on women's writing, eighteenth-century dress and early women's magazines, and gives public lectures and writes articles and guest blogs on these and other subjects. She can regularly be heard on podcasts, the radio and sometimes on TV. She is Head of Department and Professor of Eighteenth-Century and Romantic Studies at the University of York.
Jennie’s longstanding interest in the history of fashion and needlework led to her curation of ‘The Great Lady’s Magazine Stitch Off’, a project for which people around the world recreated rare, surviving embroidery patterns from the Lady’s Magazine for an exhibition to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the publication of Jane Austen’s Emma at Chawton House Library. She is Patron of the Kent branch of the Jane Austen Society.
The Lady's Magazine (1770-1832) and the Making of Literary History
My new book was published in August 2022. Putting the book has been a labour of love and the product of over 10 years' research into the first modern women's magazine, its contents, publishers, readers, contributors and the novelists (like Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte) it influenced.
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I am delighted to announce that this book has been published on Open Access. The ebook can be downloaded from the Edinburgh University Press website, here.
Over the past few months I have been busily expanding a new website of patterns from the Lady's Magazine from 1770 to 1819. There are currently around 70 needlework designs on the site and many more to come. The majority are not in Jane Austen Embroidery and I offer them to you (free to access) via a non-commercial licence. I get such a thrill seeing them come to life in the projects website users are making right now. If you are tempted, do let me know!
5 March 2020 (UK) and 17 May (US)
So happy to announce the publication of Jane Austen Embroidery, my latest publication with Alison Larkin. This unique book showcases rare and beautiful embroidery patterns from Jane Austen's era, repurposed into 15 modern sewing projects. Derived from Lady's Magazine (1770–1832), a popular monthly periodical of fashion, fiction, and gossip that Jane Austen read, the projects consist of embroidered clothes, accessories, and housewares. Fascinating historical features, quotes from Austen's letters and novels, enchanting drawings, clear instructions, and inspirational project photography trace the patterns' origins and illustrate their imaginative restoration for modern use.
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"a fascinating overview of embroidery in Austen's Britain" Embroidery Magazine
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"if you're a bone fide Austen fan, this novel book has plenty of embroidery ideas you can stitch with pride (no prejudice in sight!)" * Simply Sewing *
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"Perfect for any fan of Jane Austen's work" * Stitch *
We should be continually endeavouring to render ourselves both agreeable and useful:—agreeable by the accomplishments of our minds; useful by the virtues of our hearts … Needlework, drawing, reading, and music, if properly attended, will very happily serve to fill up a lady’s time, without bringing any discredit to her understanding.
‘The Matron’ agony aunt column from Lady’s Magazine, June 1775
Contact
Agent: Jane Graham Maw and Graham Maw Christie
Email: jane@grahammawchristie.com
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Or you can email me via the contact form below.
