I was privileged and delighted to show the actress Joanna Lumley around Winchester Cathedral and, like thousands of other visitors, she was fascinated to hear more of Jane Austen’s final journey from College Street, through The Close to her burial place in the cathedral’s north aisle. 

Jane Austen had a wicked sense of humour and I’m quite sure she’d have been tickled pink at the thought of a life-size statue of her on the green by No 9, in the Inner Close.

This statue would be a most fitting memorial to one of Hampshire’s most illustrious ladies and I don’t doubt countless visitors from around the world will be sending pictures back home of themselves standing beside her. 

Bruce Parker,
Appleshaw,

Andover

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