SALLY SHALAM
PRIDE OF PLACE: The Jane Austen House Museum in Chawton
Gently elbowing my way through a horde of excited, chattering schoolchildren, I found a small, unassuming writing table in a corner of the dining room. No larger than an occasional table for a pot plant, perhaps, yet here was the very place where Jane Austen sat with her quill pen and wove irresistible tales of the English landed gentry. At this table she completed Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Mansfield Park, Emma and more.