Sophie Andrews was 16 when she discovered Jane Austen’s novels. Handed Pride and Prejudice as a GCSE text, she was drawn into what has, today, become her all-consuming passion, involving regular Austen-themed holidays, trips to National Trust properties in Regency dress, and as many balls as possible.
“I was the only one in the class who enjoyed it and I felt I was I was the only person in the world who loved Jane Austen as much as I did,” says Andrews, who is now 22 and owns more than 100 editions of Pride and Prejudice alone. Less than a year later, she discovered the true extent of Austen fandom online. She started her own blog, and visited the Jane Austen festival in Bath, where she met a group of like-minded people and formed the Jane Austen Pineapple Appreciation Society. “We organised a picnic towards the end of the festival, and two of us said, a bit offhand, wouldn’t it be fun if we all had a house party together?”
That house party has now become an annual event, as part of the society’s year-round calendar of Austen-themed social engagements – the Bath Austen festival, an Austen Regency meetup each June, and balls, which are held on a regular basis throughout England. (“You could probably find a ball every two to three weeks, it’s huge,” says Andrews.)
The couple dozen in the society are mostly women, and a handful of men. Their day jobs range from doctor to opera singer, biochemist to publisher, but they unite to wear Regency outfits whenever they’re together. Entertainment for their holidays – carefully planned in advance – will range from dances (“We have someone in our group who can call. We roll back the carpet and have great fun!”), to musical evenings and trips to local National Trust properties (in costume, of course).
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