Category: News

Author talk. Merewether Historical Society, Tues. 8 February 2022
At 11.00am, Merewether Bowling Club, Caldwell Street, Merewether

Author talk, Moss Vale Probus Club, Thurs. 11 February 2021
At 10.30am, Mittagong RSL Club, Bessemer Street, Mittagong

Author Talk, Camden Historical Society, Wed. 13 November 2019
At 7.30pm, 40 John Street, Camden

Author Talk, City of Sydney Historical Society, Tues. 12 November 2019
At 2.00pm, the Mechanics Institute, 280 Pitt Street, Sydney

Guest speaker, Women’s Pioneer Society of Australasia Luncheon, 21 August 2019
Royal Automobile Club, Sydney

Author talk, Newcastle & Hunter District Historical Society, Sunday 28 July 2019
At 1.30pm, Old Savoy Theatre, Cromwell & Alma Sts, New Lambton

Author talk, Hawkesbury Historical Society, Saturday 22 June 2019
At 2.00pm, Hawkesbury Regional Museum, 8 Baker Street, Windsor

Author talk, Dharug & Lower Hawkesbury Historical Society, Saturday 25 May 2019
At the Stone Chapel, Gunderman

Author talk, Manly Warringah Historical Society, Sat.13 April 2019
At 2.00pm, Nth Curl Curl Community Centre, Cnr Abbott & Griffin Rds

Author talk, Woollahra Library, Wednesday 10 April 2019
At 11.00am, 451 New South Head Road, Double Bay

Author talk, Hunters Hill Historical Society, Thurs 28 February 2019
At 10.30am, Hunters Hill Museum, 22 Alexandra Street

The James Jervis Memorial Lecture, Parramatta & District Historical Association, 17 October 2018
At 6.30pm, an author talk on D’Arcy Wentworth, celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Association, at Burnside Public School, Parramatta, New South Wales, 2150.

Author talk at The Cheeseboard, 28 June 2018
At 6.30pm, an author talk on Persuasion, evocation of a lost romance, at 31 Wolverhampton Street, Stafford, Queensland, 4053.

Jane & D’Arcy at the Cooroy Festival, 12 May, 2018
Cooroy Library, Queensland, 4563.…

Abstract submitted for JASNA AGM 2018

I would like to present to the Kansas AGM my contention, set down in Jane and D’Arcy, that Jane Austen’s Persuasion is an allegory based on her own life experience. Persuasion is the sad and lamentable story of a lost love that eventually ends in happiness when the long absent hero returns. Following a series of embarrassing romances and encounters, he eventually reciprocates with a declaration that he has always loved her, giving the story a fairy-tale, happy-ever-after ending.

There is another ending to Jane Austen’s story that was too painful for her to explore. It is her own real-life story in which the hero, forced from her life by the Austen family, never returned. At the very early age of fourteen, Jane fell in love with D’Arcy Wentworth, with whom she had an exciting and eventful love affair. The Austen family, to protect their good name, enforced their separation. Jane was persuaded to abandon her lover and their affair was never to be mentioned again. Continue reading PERSUASION: THE EVOCATION OF A LOST ROMANCE

Wal Walker, a descendant of Darcy, tells his family story of the enduring romance between Jane and Darcy, lifting the veil of secrecy that has hidden their love story for over two hundred years.

Among the many new books written to celebrate the bicentenary of Jane Austen’s death, an unheralded contribution from Australia, Jane & D’Arcy, tells the Wentworth family story, never before made public, of the teenage romance of Jane Austen and D’Arcy Wentworth.

Jane & D’Arcy reveals the story of the enduring love of Jane Austen for the real Mr Darcy, D’Arcy Wentworth. He remained the fixed star in Jane’s firmament, and their enduring romance inspired much of her writing. D’Arcy left England in 1790 for the colony of New South Wales while Jane remained in Steventon, in her father’s rectory. In their separation, in time, their lives blossomed, each within their narrow confines. It was as if their parting gave them the opportunity to fulfil their destiny.

Jane Austen went on to publish and hand to posterity, novels to amaze the whole room. D’Arcy, an Irish surgeon, became a leader in the early colony of New South Wales, and an advocate for the rights of the convicts and emancipists. His eldest son, William Charles, the Native Son, was the liberator of New South Wales from British colonial rule.

Jane & D’Arcy is in two volumes, Folly is Not Always Folly and Such Talent & Such Success. It tells the long hidden story of their romance and adventures. It will move and delight Jane Austen’s readers.

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While researching the writings of D’Arcy Wentworth I compiled these lists from his extensive Medical Notebook

D’Arcy’s references to 14 eighteenth century medical journals
D’Arcy’s references to 300 eighteenth century medical practitioners
D’Arcy’s references to 400 medical conditions and treatments

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Melbourne Launch, Such Talent 

Such Talent & Such Success was launched in Melbourne at Avenue Books, Albert Park, on Monday 25 September.

Author Talk Bathurst

On Saturday, 19 April at 2.00pm, Wal Walker gave a talk about Jane & D’Arcy at the Bathurst Library.

Author Talk Buderim

On Friday 4 August, Wal Walker gave an author talk in the sunny courtyard of Books of Buderim.

Sydney Launch, Such Talent 

On 28 July 2017, at 10.00am, Such Talent & Such Success was officially launched in the Great Hall of the University of Sydney. Pro Chancellor Dorothy Hoddinott welcomed Jane Austen lovers, students and staff, Wentworth family and friends and visitors, and invited former Chancellor of the University and former New South Wales Governor,  Professor the Hon. Dame Marie Bashir, to launch the second and final volume of Jane & D’Arcy.

Author Talks

At 5.30pm, 18 July 2017, the 200th anniversary of the death of Jane Austen in Winchester, author Wal Walker gave a talk at the Sydney Institute, Level 40, Governor Phillip Tower, entitled
Jane & D’Arcy : Fact or Fiction.

At 6.30pm, 20 July 2017,  he spoke about Jane & D’Arcy at the Leichhardt Library, 7-15 Wetherill Street, Leichhardt.

Melbourne Launch, Folly

Folly was launched in Melbourne on Monday 15th May 2017 at Readings in Hawthorn.  It was attended by Wentworth family and friends, Jane Austen lovers and a descendant of her brother Charles.

Canberra Launch. Folly

Folly was launched in Canberra, the National Capital, at Paperchain Bookstore, Manuka, on Friday 12th May 2017.  It was attended by Wentworth family members and Jane Austen lovers and aficionados, who had a range of questions.

Sydney Launch, Folly

On 7 April 2017, Folly is not always Folly was officially launched by Professor the Hon. Dame Marie Bashir, the former Governor of New South Wales, at Parliament House in Sydney, the house D’Arcy built as part of the Rum Hospital, where he lived for some years. The launch was attended by over sixty of his descendants, and friends.

 

 

 

 

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Link to the original article: The Guardian – 24 November 2016

An article in The Guardian on 24 November 2016 stated there was no evidence that Jane Austen ever visited Wentworth Woodhouse in South Yorkshire.

Wal Walker’s reply in The Guardian – 27 November 2016

In April 2017, Folly is not Always Folly, the first volume of Jane & D’Arcy, will be published in Sydney, with the second volume, Such Talent & Such Success, to follow later in the year.

Jane & D’Arcy is D’Arcy Wentworth’s family story, written by one of his descendants. Folly is not Always Folly recounts her meetings with William Wentworth Fitzwilliam, the 4th Earl Fitzwilliam of Wentworth Woodhouse, and her visit there, the date and the occasion.

Jane & D’Arcy will offer a key to much of Jane Austen’s writing, and the powerful emotional songlines that thread across her writings, which even today remain largely unexplored.

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