*Special pre-talk session, 6:15 pm: Special-tea Sampling and Tasting with Phil Holmans!
During the years when Jane Austen was writing the novels that would later make her famous, including Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice, her naval captain brother and his family spent time in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Their experiences were a source of inspiration for Jane when she wrote her naval novels, Mansfield Park and Persuasion.
This illustrated talk will offer a tour of sites Captain Austen and his wife Fanny visited when they were in Halifax, including Government House, where they danced at a ball in 1810, and St. Paul’s Church, where their daughter was baptized in 1809, along with other places that would have been familiar to them, such as St. George’s, the Town Clock, and the Naval Yard.
Sarah Emsley is the author of Jane Austen’s Philosophy of the Virtues and a history of St. Paul’s in the Grand Parade. She received her PhD from Dalhousie University, held a postdoctoral fellowship at the Rothermere American Institute, University of Oxford, taught classes on Austen in the Writing Program at Harvard University, and now lives in Halifax with her family. Her debut novel, The Austens, was published by Pottersfield Press in 2025.
6:15 pm: Special-tea Sampling and Tasting.
Meet Philip Holmans, owner of World Tea House, who specializes in hand blended, organic, small, farmed teas from around the world. Philip will be sharing period-based teas and talk about their significance during the time period of Austen’s novels.
