It has been reported that a life-size statue of Jane Austen is to be installed in Bath, where the author lived with her parents at various addresses between 1801 and 1806. She also set two of her novels, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion in the city and mentioned it in various other completed works, including Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility and Emma. Her unfinished novel, Sanditon, is being adapted for TV and much of the filming took place in the city.
The Jane Austen Centre told reporters that the bronze statue would be based on a waxwork unveiled in 2014, which is believed to be a very close likeness. The centre’s managing director said it was “fitting that Jane Austen should be honoured in the city”.
The exact location of the statue is currently under discussion, though several possible sites in the north of the city, relevant to Ms Austen’s life and writing, have been identified. Jane Austen’s parents were married in the city, at St Swithin’s Church in Walcot, in 1764 and on George Austen’s retirement from his rectory in Hampshire, they moved permanently to Bath.