Anna was surely the first ‘Janeite’ and harboured a life-long ambition to emulate and honour her aunt. In March 1845 she inherited Jane’s manuscript in the will of Jane’s sister Cassandra and set about writing her Completion, of similar length, and similarly unfinished.
Anna Lefroy’s Continuation Jane Austen’s 11 Chapters
Chris had written books about his great great great grandfather, the Portsmouth painter R.H.C. Ubsdell (1812-1887) which he entitled ‘Hampshire’. They are available on Amazon:
Ubsdell had painted members of Jane Austen’s family including a miniature of Anna Lefroy delivered to her at the cottage in the grounds of Oakley Hall in the October of 1845. Fascinated by this story Chris acquired the original Lefroy Sanditon manuscripts from the USA and set about writing a stageplay based on the two fragments. Chris included an ending that appeared a logical extension of the plot development in the Lefroy Continuation.
On 27th June 2014 the play was performed as a blocked script-in-hand performance at The Headgate Theatre Colchester, filmed by four cameras
On 28th Nov 2014 an edited 2 hour recording of the Headgate Theatre performance was released on DVD. This includes the 10 minute short film shot on location at Glemham Hall, Suffolk, and the duet “Blue Briny Sea” shot on location at Chawton House Library.
Also released on 28th Nov was a 40 min Documentary shot at Chawton Cottage, Chawton House Library, Steventon, Selborne, Wyards Farmhouse Alton, Oakley Hall, Knowl Hill and Bray that tells of the writing of Sanditon by Austen, Lefory and Chris Brindle, and the writing of the first biography of Jane Austen by her nephew, James Edward Austen Leigh. The Documentary has music by American composer Amanda Jacobs performed on the histroric pianos at Chawton Cottage and Chawton House Library.