'What is beauty?  A destroyer.  What is happiness?  A deception.  What is love?  Death.'

'The agony is exquisite, is it not?  A broken heart.  You think you will die, but you just keep living.  Day after day after terrible day.'

Willoughby and Marianne

'The gentleman offered his services, and perceiving that her modesty declined what her situation rendered necessary, took her up in his arms without farther delay, and carried her down the hill'

Illustration for for bicentenary edition of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, published by Palazzo Editions, 2011.

I managed to scan some progress stages for this illustration, so I thought I might share those too.

Detail.

There is still time to book tickets if you can make it to the book launch on Wednesday!

Gone Fishing

Sense and Sensibility Book Launch

I will be at the Celebrating Jane Austen event as part of the Bath Festival of Children's Literature on Wednesday 28th September to launch the publication of the bicentenary edition of Sense and Sensibility, and will be signing copies of the book. The main event itself will be a discussion about Austen with a panel of enthusiasts, chaired by writer, teacher and passionate Austenite, Katharine Reeve. Tickets for the event are £5. For further details and to book, please visit the Bath Box Office. If anyone is interested and able to attend, do introduce yourself; it would be lovely to see you!

Adrift

Adrift by *Himmapaan on deviantART

I may as well begin as not.  I shall call this a trial first post as I begin treading Blogger's murky waters.  Or am set adrift upon them altogether, as the case may be...

This was the first drawing in my current Moleskine sketchbook and a personal favourite.  An appropriate beginning to this blog for many reasons, I think.