Penelope Hughes-Hallett was born in 1927 and spent her childhood at Steventon, Hampshire, where Jane Austen was brought up. Her books include 'My Dear Cassandra'- Illustrated Letters of Jane Austen and Home at Grasmere- The Wordsworths and the Lakes. She was a tutor and lecturer with the Open University, subsequently becoming one of its governors, a patron of the Wordsworth Trust and trustee of the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation. She died in 2010.
A colourful portrait of a pivotal moment in England's cultural and social history * Observer * An absorbing account... a fascinating re-creation of an evening and a world * BBC History Magazine * A book of great charm... [lets] the reader feel that he is present at the memorable occassion * Independent on Sunday * Popular history at its most delicious * Economist * The biographical equivalent of the world in a grain of sand... an interesting and erudite account of a wonderful evening -- Peter Ackroyd * The Times *