At Basingstoke’s Market Place stands the first commemorative statue of Jane Austen, one of the greatest and most celebrated English novelists. For the first 25 years of her life, Jane Austen (1775-1817) lived in Steventon, Hampshire, only a few miles from Basingstoke. From an early age, Austen showed literary talent, and by the age of 12, she wrote poems and stories, exploring various genres, from parody to prose. Her writing subjects were influenced by Basingstoke gentry life, where she attended social gatherings, went to the market, and visited friends. These experiences have been the basis of her first novels, including Northanger Abbey, Sense and Sensibility, and Pride and Prejudice. In 1801, Austen and her family moved to Bath. The relocation and her father’s death affected her creativity, and she stopped writing for a decade. In 1809, Austen, her mother, and her sister moved to Chawton, Hampshire. Back in the tranquil environment of her childhood surrounding, she returned to her writing, revisiting her novels’ drafts and writing new ones. In 1811, at 36, Austen published her first novel, Sense and Sensibility, followed by Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), and Emma (1815). In 1815, while working on her next novel, Persuasion, she became ill with what is considered today as Addison’s Disease. She died at 41 before completing her last novel Sanditon. Austen published seven novels in her short life, and two were published postmortem. Her work gained universal acclaim, was adapted into hundreds of movies, TV shows, and plays, and inspired numerous sequels, prequels, and interpretations. The Jane Austen Statue honors Austen’s life and work and memorializes her connection to Basingstoke. Maria Miller, MP for Basingstoke, initiated the concept of creating the statue, and the Hampshire Cultural Trust commissioned it. The local sculptor Adam Roud won the commission, and the Countess of Portsmouth unveiled the statue on 18th July 2017 – the 200th anniversary of Austen’s death. The life-sized bronze depicts Austen as an ordinary person, walking through the market, clutching a book on her way to collect library books. A replica of this statue was unveiled at St Nicholas Church in Chawton on 8th June 2018. Other sites related to Austen in Hampshire are the Jane Austen’s House Museum in Chawton, her brother’s Chawton House, and Winchester Cathedral, Austen’s final resting place. Read more...