An Interview with Syrie James, author of The Missing Manuscript of Jane Austen

Syrie James is the bestselling author of eight critically acclaimed novels, including The Missing Manuscript of Jane Austen, The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen, The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Brontë, Dracula My Love, Nocturne, Forbidden, and The Harrison Duet: Songbird and Propositions. Her books have been translated into eighteen foreign languages. In addition to her work as a novelist, she is a screenwriter, a member of the Writers Guild of America, and a life member of the Jane Austen Society of North America. She lives with her family in Los Angeles, California. Connect with her on her website, Facebook, and Twitter.


An interview has been conducted with Syrie James, author of The Missing Manuscript of Jane Austen, and we have the exclusive answers to some of the questions.

Are there any fun facts readers wouldn’t know about you from reading your bio?

I was a gymnast in high school and college. I love watching the Olympics gymnastics, ice skating, and ice dancing competitions. My favorite foods are lamb chops, every kind of fruit, any kind of salad, and strawberry shortcake. I adore roses, lilacs, and orchids, and all flowers in general. Strolling through beautiful gardens and the woods is heaven to me—and as a city girl, I don’t get that pleasure as often as I’d like. I love spending time with children and senior citizens, who possess wise, unique, and valuable perspectives of the world. I once thought I’d be an elementary school teacher. I like dogs. I designed and maintain my own website. Scrabble and Rummy Royal are two of my favorite games. I am grateful every single minute of every day for the gift of being alive on this wondrous planet.

What Hollywood actors would you choose to play the characters who appear in The Missing Manuscript of Jane Austen?

I wrote the character Anthony Whitaker especially for Rupert Penry-Jones, who I adore. I can envision Emily Blunt, Amy Adams, or Anne Hathaway playing Samantha; Mia Waskiowska, Carrie Mulligan, or Jennifer Lawrence as Rebecca Stanhope; Tom Wilkinson as Mr. Stanhope; Dan Stevens as Mr. Clifton; Robert Pattinson as Dr. Watkins; and Hayden Panattiere as Amelia Davenport. And of course I'd have to write the screenplay!

If you found a missing manuscript by Jane Austen what would you do with it?

I would read it with wonder and excitement. I'd publish it for all the world to read and enjoy, and make sure the manuscript found a home with a university or library where it would be preserved but also available to view and study.

If you would like to post a comment about the original content above or any of Syrie's novels then a copy of The Missing Manuscript of Jane Austen is up for grabs and can be sent to you. The winner will be chosen randomly from those who comment, unfortunately we can only post a copy to people within the US. Sorry!

Pics: provided by Penguin Group USA

The Jane Austen Centre Features.....

I wanted to acknowledge some of the great features in this months The Jane Austen Centre Monthly Newsletter.


Firstly an article entitled Art competition set to revive interest in Stoneleigh Abbey written in the The Courier, based in Warwick, UK.

Excerpts from the article:
"In 1806, the house passed to the Rev Thomas Leigh, a relative of Jane Austen, who is believed to have based descriptions in Northanger Abbey and Mansfield Park on the house and its grounds."

"Four Leaf Clover, which runs events at the historic house, is launching a competition to draw or paint either the west wing or its 14th century gatehouse."

"Pictures can be any size up to A1, in charcoal, pencil, watercolour, acrylic, oil or pastel. Entry is free. The closing date will be September 29 and winners will be announced on October 10."

I appreciate that the majority of our readers are not local to Warwick in the UK but I wanted to make you all aware of this excellent attempt to awaken interest in people about something so wonderful.

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The Jane Austen Centre also points us to an article written by an English Literature teacher in the USA. It can be read here. The title of this article is "Why We Need Jane Austen or How to be a Gentleman with Examples Good and Bad."
He explains his experience of reading Pride and Prejudice with a group of young students and the joy it has brought him. Excerpts taken from the article:

"In short, Austen reminds us of the largely forgotten categories of the lady and the gentlemen. It is her genius to make us aspire to these roles even in a world where such notions are strange and often ridiculed."

"Austen’s gentlemen (I’m thinking especially of Darcy here) understand the call of duty; they are committed to family, reputation, propriety, and self-control. To be sure, Darcy takes himself quite seriously, but aren’t these pursuits serious by nature? To neglect one’s duty, to be careless of one’s family and reputation, to ignore the bounds of propriety and to indulge the appetites without restraint are not the actions of a gentleman. They represent, conversely, the behavior of a boor. Or, perhaps equally fitting, they are the actions of a male who has no sense of what it means to be a man."

Thanks to The Jane Austen Centre for making us aware. I would be really interested to here your comments ...

Pic 1: Article in The Courier
Pic 2: Period drama website

Jane Austen Festival, Bath

For all you UK Janeites out there (and for anyone else who is interested!), I just wanted to make you all aware that it is in fact the Jane Austen festival in Bath in a few weeks.

The festival runs from Friday 18th September to Sunday 27th September and there are many events running every day, e.g. walking tours, talks, dancing (regency costume most welcome).

It is worth checking out the homepage for more information.

I have been to the Jane Austen centre in Bath and that is well worth a visit, even at non-festival times.

I am desperately hoping to be able to get to the festival at some point over the 10 days.

I want to meet my very own Tom Lefroy!

Pic 1: Jane Austen centre, Bath

Pic 2: Becoming Jane Tom Lefroy and Jane Austen

WINNERS: The Jane Austen Regency World Awards

The results for the Jane Austen Regency World Awards have been announced!!


You can see the results on The Giftshop Page kindly spotted by Linda but I am pleased to announce that Becoming Jane won:

Best New Film Award

Best Actor for James McAvoy

Best Acress for Anne Hathaway

It is clear from the site that other winners include:

Mr and Mrs Darcy by Alexandra Potter for Best New Fiction- click here for our review

Andrew Davies for The Outstanding Contribution Award

Pics: http://www.annie-hathaway.com/

Miss Austen Regrets Press Release + Photos

If nothing else, Jane Austen wrote from personal experience. Courtship she knew well; only the last act eluded her. This film biography dramatizes Austen’s lost loves: Harris Bigg, whose proposal she accepted and then rejected; Edward Brydges, whom she also refused; the tongue-tied vicar she teased mercilessly; and the young surgeon who arrived on the scene too late to steal her heart. Olivia Williams (The Sixth Sense), Greta Schacchi (The Player) and Hugh Bonneville (Notting Hill) star.

PRESS RELEASE

“The only way to get a man like Mr. Darcy is to make him up.”

THE COMPLETE JANE AUSTEN MISS AUSTEN REGRETS ON MASTERPIECE

Sunday, February 3, 2008 at 9pm ET on PBS

Of all the love stories filling the rich imagination of Jane Austen, one in particular did not end with wedding bells. Her own. Why did the author who embodied the brilliant wit and high spirits of her heroines not take the plunge into matrimony herself?

Therein lies a very poignant tale, as presented by MASTERPIECE in its bittersweet period drama, Miss Austen Regrets, airing Sunday, February 3, 2008 at 9pm ET on PBS (check local listings), as part of MASTERPIECE’s The Complete Jane Austen.

Olivia Williams (Sixth Sense, Rushmore) stars as Jane, approaching her fortieth birthday and long since at peace with being an unmarried woman—indeed enjoying its freedom and solitude to write. She has even developed a devoted readership that reaches as high as the Prince Regent, the future King George IV.

But like the title character of her latest book, Emma, Jane soon finds that it is emotionally perilous to get involved in someone else’s love life—not least because it kindles a certain romantic longing of one’s own.

Imogen Poots plays Fanny Austen-Knight, Jane’s marriageable young niece who looks up to Aunt Jane as smart, edgy, and a fount of wisdom on the merits of potential husbands. But Fanny’s importunate queries—and fate—bring Jane’s memories of lost loves flooding back.

Greta Scacchi (Daniel Deronda) plays Cassandra, Jane’s older sister and the confidante of her innermost thoughts.

Years earlier, it was Cassandra who persuaded Jane to rescind her acceptance of the marriage proposal by Harris Bigg (Samuel Roukin). The heir to a fortune, Bigg would have guaranteed the Austen family’s financial security, if not necessarily Jane’s happiness.

Hugh Bonneville (Iris) plays another former suitor, the Reverend Brook Bridges. Smitten with Jane as a young man, he could not pluck up the courage to ask her to marry him. Much later, when he finally did propose, Jane had given up on marrying anybody.

Prospect number three is dashing physician Charles Haden ( Jack Huston). As the drama unfolds, Jane summons him to treat her desperately ill brother Henry (Adrian Edmonson) and ends up in a flirting relationship with the much younger medical man.

Miss Austen Regrets was written by Gwyneth Hughes, who based her script on Austen’s surviving correspondence with Cassandra and Fanny. The characters and incidents in the film are drawn from these
letters, with Hughes reading carefully between the lines to fill in crucial gaps.

Cassandra notoriously burned many of her sister’s letters after Jane’s death—an act that was probably intended to spare the feelings of still-living relatives and acquaintances, who were the target of Jane’s famous barbs.

As for Jane’s barbs against her own headstrong resistance to a conventional life, these survived to leave a remarkable record of a mind of sense and sensibility, pride and prejudice, ceaselessly active in the real world of imperfect suitors and in the make-believe realm of true love fulfilled.

All images of Miss Austen Regrets from: PBS Pressroom