Jane’s world: fans and admirers pick their favourite Austen characters

Helen Fielding, David Baddiel, Nicola Sturgeon and other cultural figures celebrate the great writer’s 250th birthday

Some will mark the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth quietly, by reading the novels. For them, it will be more than enough simply to turn the pages of Emma or Persuasion; to read and absorb that unequalled prose for the umpteenth time. But if you’re the kind of person who enjoys more public-facing (let us not say more cheesy) commemorations, then the coming months are nothing if not action-packed. So much is in store, in fact, that the New York Times recently put “Jane Austen’s England” – a realm that embraces the counties of Hampshire, Wiltshire, Somerset and Surrey – ahead of the Galápagos Islands as the No 1 place to visit in the world in 2025.

Let us begin in Bath, for as Catherine Morland puts it in Northanger Abbey: “Oh! Who can ever be tired of Bath?” (Her creator, of course, was less of a fan, and liked to satirise it.) In September, the city will host an anniversary edition of its Jane Austen festival, to include a costumed promenade through its streets and a ball with a seaside theme inspired by the uncompleted Sanditon. Naturally, the chance to wear a sprigged muslin dress or pair of tight breeches will be thrilling for some, but if role-play is not your thing, there’s always tea and a Bath bun to be had in the elegant confines of the Pump Room (Austen once wrote in a letter of “disordering my stomach with Bath bunns”).

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