Jennie Batchelor
Jennie Batchelor is Professor of Eighteenth-Century Studies at the University of Kent and the author of several articles and books on eighteenth-century women’s writing and culture.
Biography
Jennie Batchelor is Professor of Eighteenth-Century Studies at the University of Kent and the author of several articles and books on eighteenth-century women’s writing and culture (especially dress and needlework). She is an expert in Eighteenth Century women's fashion.
Jennie’s research project on the Lady’s Magazine led to her acquisition of a number of rare surviving embroidery patterns, some of which first saw the light of day at The Great Lady’s Magazine Stitch Off – an initiative to recreate these original patterns for a modern audience, a project which attracted worldwide interest.
Several dozen of these were displayed at a 2016 exhibition on Jane Austen’s Emma at Chawton House Library. Since then Jennie has given various public talks about the Stitch Off, embroidery, Jane Austen and Regency fashion in venues across the UK including the Cheltenham Literary Festival and for Lucy Worsley’s BBC documentary Jane Austen: Behind Closed Doors.
Books
JANE AUSTEN EMBROIDERY, co-written with embroidery expert Alison Larkin, was published by Pavilion Books in 2020. She is working on Needlework and Women’s Novel-Making: The Writer’s Craft, to be published by CUP.
