Caroline Bingley in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (1811) said of Derbyshire that ‘there is not a finer county in England’. But what did Austen’s near contemporaries, including the great Romantic poets, make of the county? In this talk Dr Paul Whickman (University of Derby) explores how writers such as William and Dorothy Wordsworth, Mary and Percy Shelley, and Lord Byron responded to Derbyshire, reflecting on the role the county played in their respective imaginative and creative processes.

Free Entry.