I've uncovered more information about the life and family of obscure writer Eliza Kirkham Mathews (referred to in this blog as EKM). Her aunt Sarah Strong lost her husband Richard in 1786, when her children were still young. But he seems to have left her financially secure, as compared to EKM's mother Mary, whose husband George was also an apothecary. Although raised in genteel circumstances, EKM was poverty=stricken and alone in the world, receiving very little help from her better-off relatives. EKM left her native Devon and ended up in Wales, working as a teacher. There she met the youthful comic actor Charles Mathews who was struggling to make a name for himself on the theatre circuit. They married in September, 1797. That same month, Eliza got heart-wrenching news from her aunt Sarah; her teenage cousins, Sarah Amelia and Maria, had both died within a few days of each other, in an inexplicable fashion.
   EKM’s writing contains many autobiographical elements, and this tragic tale found expression in one her elegies (quoted below) and was narrated in one of her children's books.
    Ellinor, or, the Young Governess was published in 1802—the year EKM died--by the York publisher, Thomas Wilson & Son, who also published  more children’s books posthumously. This suggests that EKM approached this local publisher in the final years of her life with some of her novel manuscripts,  and was encouraged to write some children’s books instead. Her earnings, if any, would have been meagre, but it was better than nothing.

    I recently spent a weekend with the Jane Austen Society of North America--Victoria Chapter to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Austen's birth. Celebrations and special events are planned for all over the world, but Victoria is an especially beautiful place for Janeites to gather together. The weather was fabulous, sunny but not too hot, and many participants were decked in their best Regency finery. 
 The weekend featured knowledgeable speakers talking about crafts, quilts, and fashions in Austen's time. I met some fellow authoresses of JAFF (Jane Austen fan fiction). We are all research junkies, I think. We love learning more about Regency life and putting these events in context for our readers.
     The theme for the conference was "The Wit and Wisdom of Jane Austen," so I turned to some research I've posted here on my blog, concerning the social and even religious strictures against female wittiness in Austen's time. Since Austen knew she was a superb comic genius, what was it like for her to live in a world where moralists and authors of conduct books basically condemned female wittiness?
    I really enjoyed sharing my research with a knowledgeable audience of Janeites. Who else would get my Fordyce's Sermons joke?

   I just had the pleasure of losing myself in the new release of Allie Cresswell's Talbot family series. Allie Creswell has created another story that pulls you into a different world with her skilful evocation of time and place—in this case, a small village on the Yorkshire moors during the Industrial Revolution, when the labouring classes of England were moving from their isolated farms to crowded tenements and the "dark satanic mills." What I love about Allie's heroine, Beth Harlish, is that she is not as a raving beauty. She's nice-looking, but her qualities of intelligence and character are what make two men fall in love with her. This romantic triangle was so exquisitely balanced that I had no idea who would prevail until the very end.
​   Allie keeps her storylines and all her varied characters in motion and you just want to keep turning the page. It's no easy feat to create so many vivid and distinct characters. It's almost Dickensian.
​   Another thing I really love about Allie’s historical fiction is her descriptions of every day life. With her skillful touch for the telling detail, you are right there, moving between a desolate group of Irish refugees from the Great Famine, to the dangerous depths of a Yorkshire coal mine, to the cloistered lives of genteel spinsters, to the brash, crude, rising class of the newly-prosperous mercantile class and the impoverished nobility clinging to their rank and privileges. Beth Harlish navigates a society dominated by class barriers and open bigotry. She follows her own convictions of right and wrong, but the most important person in her life—her brother Frank—turns her world upside down.
   The Standing Stone on the Moor can be read as a stand-alone novel, but I suspect that after finishing it, you will want to turn to the other books in the Talbot family trilogy.
   If you haven't read any Allie Cresswell and you are a Janeite, you will enjoy her Emma prequel, the Highbury Trilogy. I also loved The House on Winter Moss, in which--as with this book--the weather is a character in the novel. 

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   When you are a country clergyman of modest means with a large family, prudence requires that you stay on good terms with your wife's wealthy relations. So it was with the Rev. George Austen, his wife Cassandra, and his wife's relatives, the Leigh Perrots. The Austens lived in expectation and hope of receiving an inheritance from the childless Leigh Perrots (see Brenda Cox's blog post for an explanation of the family tree and the monies involved). When Mrs. Leigh Perrot was arrested in 1799 for shoplifting Mrs. Austen offered to send Cassandra and Jane to keep her company while she was held awaiting trial but the offer was declined. (She was acquitted). When the Rev. Austen retired, he and his family moved to Bath--where the Leigh Perrots lived. And, I wouldn't be at all surprised if Mrs. Austen dissuaded Jane from looking for a publisher for her novels for fear that the Leigh Perrots wouldn't like it, but that is speculation.
   The Austens were to be disappointed. When James Leigh Perrot died in 1817, he left everything to his wife. This happened near the end of Jane Austen's life and in fact, she believed the bad news set her health back. Mrs. Leigh Perrot lived on until 1836.
    The Austens were not the only family to be disappointed by the last will and testament of a wealthy relative. The same blow fell--even more severely--upon authoress Eliza Kirkham Mathews, then Eliza Kirkham Strong. I will continue referring to her as "EKM" even though for this part of her story, she is "EKS." Faithful readers of this blog know I have written about EKM's life and her poetry and novels before. This is not because she has earned a significant place in the history of the novel. The only slight scholarly notice she has received is owing to her heroine in What Has Been, who tries to earn money by writing a novel. (EKM returns to this theme in a sub plot in Griffith Abbey). My affectionate interest in EKM first arose because I thought her poetry was maudlin, then I realized I had been too harsh on her because her life story truly was tragic. Now I'm hooked on delving up as much information as I can about her via the internet. I love a research rabbit hole. At any rate, here comes another sad chapter from EKM's life. It's easy to see how Eliza’s tragic experiences informed her writing...