Although I was now working furiously on completing my second novel and already sketching out my third, I always managed to make the time to meet the girls at the book club. Due to the gossip about a successful author regularly attending, the numbers were increasing and we often had about a dozen attending leading to lively discussions. But it was all still done in a friendly manner even though there were different tastes to cater for. It was very rarely that everyone enjoyed the book being discussed, but one that did bring most people along with it was one of the lesser-known works by Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey. which was to be the subject of this month’s review.

Northanger Abbey follows the fortunes of Catherine Morland a young woman of a middle-class background who finds herself in the social whirl of the upper-class social season in Regency Bath in the early 1800s, leading to a seemingly doomed romance with someone well above her station in life, and the trials and tribulations that ensued. Like my novels it combined social attitudes of the times, romance, and a light playful humour and I found it totally compelling and readable, although it was obviously written from a female perspective, for women, by a woman.

“Right everyone, now we are all here let’s plough on.” led Liz who was hosting that month, “Who’s going to start? What about you Cathy, since you share the name with the Heroine?”

“Well.” I started, licking my lips in preparation, “I thoroughly enjoyed it, a young woman dreaming of a completely different life, with her head stuffed with wild notions from romantic novels that she read avidly. I know that a lot of the situations she found herself involved in are almost unbelievable in the morality of this day and age, Although most young women nowadays would justifiably find the restrictions and expectations imposed on their sex oppressive and objectionable. I felt that I could still relate to them. Set against the opulence and lavish styles of the upper classes in the period, the elegant clothes. and the precise formal manner of the way people discussed things, it it makes me wonder what it would have been like to live in those days, especially as a young woman. I was gripped by Austen’s knack of bringing the characters to life, chronicling Catherine’s thoughts and aspirations, at times I felt so close to her, understanding her emotions. It was a good choice for review this month.”

“That’s a good start, you can tell that you are an author, you have a way with words. Anyone else care to follow that?” Liz scanned the group for someone volunteering to take over over from me.

“I totally agree with Cathy, I could never hold my tongue if some of the comments made to Catherine were said to me. Thank god that those days are well and truly over, we are all lucky that we now have a lot more choice in how to live our lives and make our own way in the world.” Anne replied. “Who’s next.”

At the end of a long and lively discussion which focussed as much on the modern woman’s place in the world than it did on the story of Catherine Morland, we were winding up,when Emma broke into the conversations.

“While you have all been talking I have been thinking about what Cathy said at the beginning about wondering what it would have been like to live in those days. There was an article in the Sunday magazine recently about The Austen Festival in Bath in two months time, and I wondered if anyone would like to make up a group with me to go for the final weekend. I’ve spent the last few minutes looking it up online, getting a lot of information which I can forward on to anyone interested. It’s an immersive event, many people wear period costume, promenade and parade around the city, attend balls and soirees, enjoy special meals of the time and generally live the Regency and Georgian life in a fantasy weekend. I hadn’t noticed it before but Elizabeth, Elinor, Anne, Catherine, and myself all have the same names as Austen heroines, it’s an omen. Who’s game for it then?”

Unfortunately Jan, Moira, and Di couldn’t manage it because of their young children, but Marianne Jane and Lydia, again all named similarly to Austen characters, and new members of the club, decided to join the five of us to make up the party.

We decided that for the Austen Festival that we would become the characters matching our names: I would become Catherine Morland the romantic dreamer from ‘Northanger Abbey’; Emma as the precocious Emma Woodhouse from ‘Emma’; Elizabeth as the feisty Elizabeth Bennett from ‘Pride and Prejudice’; Anne as the independent and melancholic Anne Eliot from ‘Persuasion’; Marianne as the sensitive and idealistic Marianne Dashwood from ‘Sense and Sensibility’; Elinor as Marianne’s rational unemotional and sensible sister; Jane as the compassionate elder sister and confidante of Elizabeth Bennet; and Lydia as the impulsive and reckless youngest of the Bennet sisters.

For the next few weeks we all closely read the novels associated with our characters to learn as much as we could about their attitudes, manner and social graces of the times to try to immerse ourselves in their personalities. If the weekend was to be immersive as Emma had described it, we all wanted to become our alter egos as much as possible. This was a steep learning curve for all of us, bearing in mind the vast change in the role of women in society since then. It was especially difficult for me, after almost 30 years living as a man, adopting the emotional characteristics and sensibilities of a young Regency woman, with all the social restrictions and expectations that entailed, was a real challenge.

The other big challenge for me was the style of dress of the period which tended to have low necklines and a modest display of cleavage, which I obviously lacked. The silicone enhancers I had been using were perfectly acceptable and functional for my day-to-day appearance as a 21st century woman, but would not be good enough for Catherine Morland. After A long search of the web, I took the plunge and ordered a quality set of artificial breast forms, taking the opportunity to go up a cup size for even more effect.

When I received them a few days later, I carefully read the fitting instructions, waxed what few hairs I still had on my chest, applied the adhesive and fitted them in place, as they were going to have to stay at least until after The Austen Festival. I put on a new bra in the increased cup size and a scoop-necked top pulled down tightly over them and was amazed at how realistic the shape was and how my the breast forms pushed my own flesh into a natural-looking cleavage. It was a strange feeling at first, the extra weight on my chest, the tension in my skin, a slight change in my balance and more than anything the constant bounce and sway of the breasts, it was a totally different feeling to the firmly held in place enhancers I was now used to. By the time for our trip to Bath, I had become totally accustomed to my new breasts and did not consciously think of them at all. They had become just another part of me that I had learned to live with and I had got used to wearing more revealing tops without constantly checking how much I was displaying.

We had one more meeting of the book club before the trip to discuss our individual characters and how we were going to play the parts. Adjusting to our characters changed the tone of our meeting, we were all much more giggly and girlish, whispering confidences in archaic melodramatic chatter and much more formal with each other in our speech. If this was an indication of how it would be for the weekend, when we would all be in costume too, we were in for a whole new experience.

Fortunately, because we would be in our hired costumes all the time except when travelling to our hotel and later back home, our luggage was minimal, mainly just underwear, one change of clothes, and obviously all our beauty products and equipment. otherwise getting suitcases into the cars for a long weekend for eight of us would have been nigh on impossible. Our period dresses and accessories would be waiting for us at the hotel.

We were a bit annoyed when we arrived late Friday afternoon and found that instead of the twin rooms that we had booked, because the hotel was full for the festival we had been re-allocated double rooms. This was not a problem for the girls, but I was a bit unsure, even considering how much I felt like one of the girls at times, to be sharing a bed with one of them.

Emma quickly realised my predicament and jumped in. “Unless anyone has other preferences, I will share with Catherine, Jane with Lydia, Anne with Elizabeth, and Marianne with Elinor.” which got general agreement following which we went to our rooms to get freshened up and changed into our costumes.

“Cathy, if you don’t mind me saying, Regency women did not wear bras, so you cannot really use falsies. However have noticed with some of the clothes that you have been wearing lately that you appear to have somehow acquired breasts, do you think that you will be okay?”

“Thanks for keeping quiet about it, They are artificial but I think that they are very realistic and as you just said, I will not need to wear a bra. Do you think that the others have noticed too?”

“I’d be very surprised if they haven’t already noticed but have not mentioned it to save you embarrassment, However I know you better than them and we are sharing a room so there is no need to be coy. With the dresses you will be wearing, there will be no doubt, cleavages were very much the fashion of the time. we all look on you as one of the girls now anyway. Sharing the room you need to get into that mentality totally because we will be changing in front of each other for the duration. Get stripped and we will start getting into character. At the time most women did not wear panties or anything similar, but I am keeping mine on and insist that you do too, otherwise it’s a complete start from the skin out.”

I felt embarrassed being virtually naked in front of Emma, but she stripped off too without any hesitation, leaving me with little choice in the matter.

“You’re right, those breasts are pretty authentic, let’s get you dressed and see what they look like when we are finished. Let’s get half decent first, and put on the chemises and then I will introduce you to the delights of the corset. Hold still while I wrap you in the corset and tighten up the cords. This will do two things, tighten up your waist, as Regency women were a lot smaller there, but it will also push up and support your breasts.”

“Does it have to be so tight, I can hardly breath?”

“Don’t be a wimp, you can get your own back in a minute when you lace me in, just take short shallow breaths. That’s it, supported like and with your breathlessness, you even have the heaving of your breasts, it’s quite effective. Now do me please, don’t worry about over tightening keep going until I tell you to stop.”

“I can now understand why women were always swooning and fainting and strolling slowly, the corset makes breathing a lot more difficult, dressed in this corset you need to keep calm and do everything at a much slower pace.”

“You have chosen the delights of womanhood, although life is not nearly so difficult now as it was, then, we women still have to suffer for our vanity. All of the other girls will be wearing corsets too, waists were much narrower and more defined in Regency times.”

Next the two layers of petticoats to fill out your skirt, which will help make up for your lack of womanly hips and bottom, and then we shall see how your dress fits.”

I was soon dressed in a full-length, half sleeve dress with blue trimming gathered tightly under the bust-line and falling loosely to the floor, with a matching cap, and Emma in a very elaborate more formal multi-layered gown and bonnet, also in blue and white.

“Are your ready to face the world now? From now on you are Catherine Morland, Cathy and especially Cathal O’Neill no longer exist, let’s go and see how the other girls are getting on.”

Now dressed in character, we walked through the hotel getting admiring glances from both women and men on the way to the gardens. The looks from the women were taking in how we were dressed, but those from the men seemed to me to mainly focussed on my heaving bosom and were embarrassing me, however Emma seemed to be revelling in the attention. We were soon joined by the Bennett sisters, Anne, Marianne and Elinor, and made an elegant group as we promenaded in our costumes. Our only sops to modern life were our mobile phones and their cameras hidden in secret pockets in the dresses, which left us with an extensive photo collection of us in groups, as individuals, and as the Bennet and Dashwood family girls.

There were many others dressed in costume too, men in their top hats and tight breeches and tailcoats over linen dress shirts with lace cuffs and collars, riding boots and jackets, the woman in costumes very much like our own, all in all it made everything seem real. In fact rather than us looking unusual, it was the few people in modern costume that looked out of place.

As we were strolling through the city centre we were soon approached by two very striking men who tipped their hats at us and smiled.

“Good afternoon ladies, a lovely afternoon for taking the fresh air with a stroll in these magnificent surroundings is it not?” One of them remarked in the stilted formal speech pattern of the times, to which I replied in a similar manner.”

“Good afternoon gentlemen, it is indeed delightful. We have not been formally introduced, I am Catherine Morland, and my friends, Emma Woodhouse, Anne Eliot, Marianne and Elinor Dashwood, and the Bennet sisters, Elizabeth Jane and Lydia.” each of us giving a short formal bob as we were named, we were definitely getting into the spirit of our characters.

“I do beg your pardon ladies, we should have introduced ourselves first, most remiss of us. I humbly apologise” he quickly replied, both of them giving a formal short bow to us. “This is my friend Fitzwilliam Darcy, and I am delighted to say, particularly to you Miss Morland, if I may be so bold, that I am Henry Tilney, delighted to make your acquaintance. I trust you ladies will be attending the ball tomorrow evening, and look forward to meeting you again there. Good-day to you.”

As they left we all giggled at the formality of the conversation, and I turned around to see Henry looking over his shoulder back at me.

“You have an admirer there Catherine, Henry paid particular attention to you.” Anne was the first to comment in keeping with the personality of her character.

I blushed deeply before snapping back, “Don’t be silly, in the book Henry and I get married, he was just acting out the role. Anyway why pick on me, I noticed the brooding Mr Darcy casting his eyes over Elizabeth?” trying to play down any possibility of matchmaking.

“If you say so Catherine, we’ll find out tomorrow evening at the ball, will we not? I will be surprised if your dance card is not full.” Lydia giggled.

“You seem to forget Miss Morland that Mr Darcy and myself do not have a lot of time or respect for each other, despite my dear Mamma trying to push me in his direction with her eyes on his £10000 a year (*1) , unlike you instantly falling at the feet of MrTilney.” playfully added Elizabeth in the feisty manner of her namesake.

We returned to the hotel to freshen up before going down to have dinner and getting ready for an evening stroll around town, the formal period dinner was to be on Saturday so the other guests in the restaurant were a mixture of those in costume and those in modern dress, but we were getting a lot of attention and admiring glances. Unfortunately, due to the restrictions of the dress and in particular the tight-fitting corset, I only picked at the meal and did not appreciate it as much as it deserved.

In keeping with our characters, as we strolled around the city after dinner, we avoided the pubs and wine bars in town, genteel young ladies would not have been seen in such establishments and so we frequented the riverside coffee bars which were much more appropriate. There were many other people entering into the spirit of the event and there was a great deal of camaraderie and kinship with the people we met. The city centre was a buzz of Austen activity, readings, acted scenes from her stories, shops and stalls selling memorabilia. As promised it was a total immersion into Jane’s background and work, really offering an experience of the sense of living in Austen times.

At the end of an exciting and very enjoyable evening we all had an early night and retired to our rooms to get ready for bed.

“I’ll be glad to get out of this corset, it is so restricting that I only ate half my meal in the restaurant, please untie the cords Emma.” I almost pleaded with her.

“The girls and i have been talking and we have decided to keep the corsets on tonight, it will be a long day tomorrow and we think it will be more comfortable and less strain on our bodies if we do not let them reset to their usual shape overnight are you with us or not?”

“I can see that but can you at least slacken the cords a little, I don’t think that I will get a comfortable sleep like this.”

“Ok, but just a little, you need it more than the rest of us, particularly in your waist.”

Now a little more relaxed I managed to havea full nights sleep and woke up ready for a full day of the parade and promenade though the city and the ball in the evening. Before getting into my petticoats and dress again, Emma tightened up the laces once more.

“That seems to have worked and reshaped you a bit, the corset has been pulled tighter than yesterday and you haven’t complained yet, it has given you quite a shapely figure. It was a good idea to keep them on overnight.” Emma tried to be encouraging.

“That’s the only thing I will have any regrets about this weekend, after today I hope never to see a tight corset again.”

We all met for breakfast before making our way to The Victoria Park on Royal Crescent where the event parade was to start before making its way to the historic Roman Baths and the Abbey Grounds .We were amazed at how many people had made the effort to dress in period costume and were astonished to suddenly be faced with Mr Darcy and Mr Tilney who we had met the previous day in the hotel garden.

“Good morning Miss Morland, Ladies, may Mr Darcy and I have the pleasure of accompanying you all on this morning’s stroll through the city?”

“We would welcome your company kind sirs.” Elizabeth quickly replied casting her eye over her character’s brooding beau, Fitzwilliam Darcy, with a blush of admiration. On the walk through town the streets were crowded with onlookers, locals as well as tourists, and we must have ended up in lots of photo albums or on many facebook and instagram pages., particularly on those occasions when Henry and I, alongside Elizabeth and Fitzwilliam, were walking arm in arm like our fictional personas.

After the formal parade *2, we, along with many others stayed in town, visiting the shops and cafés, and watching the street entertainments. We were escorted throughout by our new friends who we found were in real life were actually called Henry and William, like us they had adopted characters with names similar to their own rather than just dressing up in costume.

The day soon ended and we had to make our way back to the hotel to get freshened up and changed into our outfits for the ball. I was glad to get out of the costume, the several layers of underclothes that came with the outfit had been a bit much on a warm summer’s day. The other girls fussed with their hair to put it into ringlets as was the fashion, unfortunately mine was still not long enough to follow them, so Emma pinned in a hairpiece in a similar style for me. Makeup was minimal, a light foundation, a dash of blusher, a little mascara, and a pale lipstick in keeping with the style of the period, but letting us still show ourselves off to the best advantage.

When I stepped into my pale blue full skirted satin ballgown and pulled on the matching full-length gloves I felt like a princess and couldn’t believe the emotions going through me and how my life had changed in a few months. I was almost as giddy as the girls about my appearance.

The ball was in the style the regency period with a professional lead dancer calling the steps, in a similar manner to the caller at modern square dances. As was the fashion until relatively recently, the ladies stood or sat at one side of the hall until approached by one of the gentlemen to join them on the dance floor. The dances were the more formal demure Quadrille and Cotillion as well as the livelier foursome reels and country dances and all of us were never short of partners. In particular,Elizabeth and I were regularly called up by Fitzwilliam and Henry, although we insisted on them sharing their time with the others too. it was a unique experience that none of us would forget. Most of the dances, as was the custom at the time, did not allow much close physical contact merely holding hands , or an arm across the shoulder, but the evening finished with what was at the time the new, slightly scandalous waltz. Henry held me close and led me through the dance with close bodily contact finishing with a firm hug and a kiss on my lips, stirring emotions in me that I was unsure how to respond to. Luckily Elizabeth and Darcy were near us and quickly came over to break up the embrace.

We thanked our partners for their attention over the evening and went to join the other girls to chat about the events of the night, my embrace and kiss with Henry being the main topic of discussion.

After all the excitement of the Saturday events, Sunday was an opportunity to calm down, relax and enjoy the sights of the city and be like all the other tourists and visitors, albeit still wearing our period day-dresses.

The final event was a formal reception and dinner, another opportunity to wear our ball-gowns, and feel glamourous. Unfortunately, constrained by our corsets we could not do justice to the sumptuous and delicious meal with its many courses, but it was still a wonderful experience.

Monday morning it was back to modern reality, the Regency costumes and accessories were packed away for return to the hire shop, and we returned to our modern clothes. most of the other girls turned up for breakfast dressed casually in trousers or jeans and jumpers, but Elizabeth and I chose skirts and cotton blouses. Our choice of style was a good one, as we were joined at breakfast by Henry and William. As we got up to leave they shyly approached us.

“Cathy, Liz, we have really enjoyed your company this weekend as our fictional counterparts, we were wondering whether we can keep in touch and maybe meet up sometime?” For once it was William making the conversation now released from his character as the brooding silent Darcy.

Having said our goodbyes and exchanged phone numbers we left Bath to return to the realities of our day-to-day modern lives.

To be continued.

*1 £10,000 a year is variously estimated to be equivalent to between £800,000 and £8.000,000 in modern value, depending on the calculation method.

*2 For more information on The Austen Festival, follow the link below.

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0308/7889/2172/files/JAF_F...