THIS GENERATION’S FAMILY VOICE FROM JANE AUSTEN’S CHAWTON

Childhood at Chawton House

My childhood was steeped in Jane's world — not through books or study, but through daily life in the house she loved.

I ran through the same halls Jane knew, played in the gardens she had explored, and sat at the same dining table, eating from the Wedgwood dinner service she had written about after visiting the London showroom with Edward and his daughter Fanny in 1813. The family crest — our Greyfriar — sat at the edge of every plate.

At Christmas, the Great Hall came alive in the way it must have done for centuries. The 16th century fireplace, the decorations, the family gathered playing Snap Dragon, the spectacular flaming game Jane and my ancestors knew so well — I never felt more connected to my ancestors than at Christmas.

Every summer, I worked in the tearoom my grandmother Elizabeth Knight ran from the Great Hall. This was before the 1995 Pride and Prejudice and the wave of Austen-inspired productions that followed — Jane's readers then were devoted, quiet pilgrims. They would arrive in Chawton with a well-read copy of their favourite Austen novel in hand — often Pride and Prejudice, but not always — and step into Granny's tearoom almost unable to believe they were sitting in our home, eating scones and cakes she had made herself. I knew from a very early age how important Jane was — not just from family stories, but from those people. From the way they reacted simply to being in Chawton. From the way they reacted to meeting us, Jane's family.

In 1988, my grandfather Edward Knight III died. The Chawton estate passed to his eldest son, Richard Knight, who faced the reality that centuries of family occupation could not continue as it had. Rather than sell, which seemed inevitable at the time, Uncle Richard found a way to keep Chawton House in Knight family ownership while opening it to everyone. Today, Chawton House is open to the public and loved by visitors from around the world, still owned by Jane Austen's family.

I was eighteen when we left. I was heartbroken, believing Chawton was lost forever, and didn't want to hear anything more about Chawton — or Jane Austen.

Inspired by Jane's own spirit of independence, I built my own path. Over twenty-five years as a marketing executive and CEO, I led organisations with over 2,000 employees, was recognised as a Telstra Businesswoman of the Year finalist and became an Honorary Life Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management.

But in 2013, the bicentennial of the publication of Pride and Prejudice started a chain of events that would bring me home to Chawton and Jane's legacy — and I have never looked back.