Some years have passed since Jane Austen cast her sharp eye over the beautiful, charming and scheming young widow Lady Susan Vernon. However, the impoverished aristocrat never changed her manipulative ways. Now that Lady Susan is dead, how will her obituary read? Will it conform to the Latin maxim “De mortuis nil nisi bonum” (Do not speak ill of the dead)? Or will it allude to her devious character?

Tim Bullamore, an award-winning obituary writer best known to JASA members until recently as publisher and editor of Jane Austen’s Regency World magazine, gives an entertaining presentation of how her obituary might appear in The Times of London today.

It is recommended that before this meeting you read, or re-read, Lady Susan by Jane Austen. The 2016 film Love and Friendship based on Lady Susan is also highly recommended viewing. It is currently available to stream on Stan, Google Play and Apple TV.