Jane Austen's Town & Country Style

This has the advantage of being a great browsing book for the pictures but is also an excellent reference. This is more than just another biography of Austen (although it has a bit more background on the Austen and Leigh families than you would necessarily expect in a book of this length. It is well done. The family and their relatives are put into context well for their time and social millieu. What separates this book from many others is that it is very much about what Austen would have used for her eating, drinking, writing etc, and where she would have brought them from. Susan Watkins has managed to dig up some excellent pictures, many of which I haven't seen before, and are well referenced through the text. Watkins has a very easy and readable style of writing. This is really very much for the Jane Austen and Regency fan - those who enjoy reading Georgette Heyer will really get a lot out of this book as well.