Christmas with Jane Austen and Charles Lamb

Please note, guests will have an opportunity to visit Keats House before the talk, which will then take place in the Nightingale Room in 10 Keats Grove.

Jane Austen relished Christmas festivities with her family, but, as a novelist, knew its potential for unfestive conflicts and unwise liaisons. Perhaps she was the first novelist to use Christmas to stage social disasters. Come and explore the significance of Christmas in all Austen's novels, especially 'Emma', with John Mullan.

Charles Lamb, Austen's contemporary and metropolitan counterpart, was fascinated by festivity - sociability, seasonality, holy days and holidays, and he was a personal expert on hangovers. Come and hear Lamb's meditations on religion, worship, eating, drinking and being merry with Gregory Dart.

Doors open at 6.30pm, where there will be an opportunity to visit Keats House.

The talk will start at 7pm in the Nightingale Room in 10 Keats Grove (the building next door to Keats House and contained in the same garden) and finish at approximately 8.30pm.

Recommended for over 16s.

ALT text: The round logo of 'Keats House 100: yours to explore, 1925 – 2025’ along with a silhouette of Keats House, in white on a brown background.