In A Rambling Fancy, Caroline Sanderson seeks out Jane Austen’s England – the churches, great houses, coaching inns, rectories and seaside lodgings – to see what still remains today. Following in Jane Austen’s footsteps, Sanderson tramps the muddy fields around Austen’s childhood home in rural Hampshire, walks the elegant streets of Bath, and strolls along the breezy promenades of south coast resort. Drawing upon Jane Austen’s letters as well as her many novels Caroline Sanderson charts her own experiences of the very places from which Jane Austen sought inspiration, reaching some original and fascinating conclusions.

Sanderson, a lifelong Austen devotee, also sheds light on just why this very English novelist is still so universally cherished and why Austen’s influence remains so great. Are we riding a wave of nostalgia for a way of life now completely lost to us? Or have we finally cast off the chintz and embraced Austen as a novelist for our own times – one whose understanding of how we behave towards one another, and of the importance of money, sex and social status is just as pertinent as it ever was?