Austen Autumn Guide to Bath

The mornings feel cooler. The light turns honeyed across the Georgian stone. Cafés fill with people lingering over coffee, bookshops become especially tempting, and an afternoon walk seems to call for no particular destination. It is the season of Austen Autumn, a celebration of Jane Austen’s connection to Bath. But you don’t need a bonnet or a carriage to enjoy it.

If Jane Austen were writing her Bath novel today, perhaps this is how her day might unfold.

Early mornings call for a coffee and a blank page

Start slowly.

Find a table at Colonna & Small's on Chapel Row, where the morning begins with serious coffee and the city just beginning to stir.

Bring a notebook. This is important.

You might be writing a novel, answering emails, or simply making a list of places you want to visit. The point is to sit somewhere beautiful with a coffee, and nowhere you need to be for the next hour.

Bath has always been a city for people-watching. Take your time.

A mid-morning for picking up a book or two 

Head towards John Street and allow yourself to get lost in Mr B's Emporium of Reading Delights.

This is not a bookshop for the hurried. Its labyrinthine rooms are made for browsing, with books seemingly everywhere you look. Mr B’s describes itself as a place where books reign supreme, and it has been a Bath institution since opening in 2006.

The rule here is simple: don't arrive looking for a particular book. Let the shelves choose for you.

Pick up a novel because you like its cover. Read the first page of something unexpected. Find a beautifully illustrated edition of an old favourite. And, inevitably, leave with more than you intended.

If you happen to be in Bath during Austen Autumn, it would be remiss not to seek out Austen herself, but there is no need to stop there. The best literary afternoon is one that takes you somewhere you didn't expect.

A quick retreat in your hidden cove

By mid-afternoon, come home to the Francis Hotel.

Jane Austen stayed on Queen Square in 1799, so there is something rather pleasing about settling into our lounge with a book while the same square unfolds outside.

During the Jane Austen Festival, afternoon tea takes its own small inspiration from the writer and her Bath. Alongside the traditional scones, sandwiches and sweet things comes a Bath Bunn, a nod to Austen's own reference to Bath buns in a letter to her sister Cassandra.

There will be books, too.

Our friends at Mr B’s have brought a selection into the lounge, so you can settle into a chair, pour another cup of tea and read for a while.

This is the part of the day where plans tend to disappear.

Out for an early evening meander

Before evening, make time for a little retail therapy. Take a wander to Hidden Store Bath at Pierrepont Place and look for something small and slightly unnecessary.

A piece of jewellery. Something for the kitchen. A curious object. A gift you didn't know you were looking for.

The best things to take home from Bath are rarely the things you planned to buy.

Aperitif hours

By now, the light has begun to change.

Return towards Queen Square and make your way to Emberwood, where fire-led cooking and a drinks list celebrating the region set the tone for the evening.

Sink into Emberwood, the Regency Cooler takes its cue from the era with El Tequileño Reposado tequila, house lemonade and a herb bouquet, Regency in spirit, contemporary in execution.

This is where our modern Austen heroine might linger a little longer. She has nowhere else to be.

A lamp-lit dinner for one, or two

Stay at Emberwood for dinner, letting the evening unfold at its own pace.

There is something wonderfully unhurried about a long dinner in early autumn. The doors close against the cooler air, conversation gets louder, and the city outside becomes part of the atmosphere rather than the destination. The lounge is waiting, the book you bought this morning is still unfinished, and tomorrow can wait.

Sink into your bed, radio on, nightcap waiting

Back in your room, open the book.

Read one chapter. Then another.

Perhaps this is what an Austen Autumn in Bath really is: not a recreation of the past, but a modern version of the things that have always made the city appealing.