Last week, I gave a talk on Jane Austen’s connections with Nova Scotia at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, and last night, I attended a talk by my friend Kate Scarth on L.M. Montgomery and Nova Scotia at Government House in Halifax. I’ll share photos from both events below!

Kate and I both love talking about Austen and Montgomery and Nova Scotia. Next month, during the week of the L.M. Montgomery Institute conference, we’re going to do a joint event for her new book, Romantic Suburbs: Imagining Home in Greater London, and my novel The Austens. More details on that soon, but for now, if you’re planning to attend the LMMI conference in Charlottetown, please save the date and time, June 26th at 4:30 p.m.

Before I get to the photos from the two lectures, I want to share the exciting news that The Austens appeared at #2 on the list of the Top Selling Austen Books at Jane Austen Books (based in Ohio), published in the most recent issue of Jane Austen’s Regency World magazine (published in the UK), and at #2 on the list of the Top 5 Local Bestsellers for Prince Edward Island in April, published earlier this week on the Atlantic Books Today website. Needless to say, I am thrilled that my novel, published by a small press in Nova Scotia, is continuing to find readers in this region and in other parts of the world.

I’m very happy to have this photo of The Austens and me in the Small Craft Gallery at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. Thank you to Ariel Bissett for taking this picture!

Here’s Philip Holmans, owner of World Tea House, describing the selection of teas he brought to share with the audience during my talk:

I’m delighted that my parents and my dear friends Sheila and Hugh Kindred attended:

Lorraine Baxter, Sarah Emsley, John Baxter

Sheila Johnson Kindred, Sarah Emsley, Hugh Kindred

Many of you will know that Sheila Johnson Kindred is the author of Jane Austen’s Transatlantic Sister: The Life and Letters of Fanny Palmer Austen and that she and I have been collaborating for years. If you’ve read and enjoyed The Austens, you might like to read Jane Austen’s Transatlantic Sister as well (and vice versa!). It’s available from Bookmark, Jane Austen Books, and many other sources.

And of course I can’t mention Sheila without providing a link to the Austens in Halifax walking tour we created. The tour highlights places I spoke about during my talk on “Imagining the Austens in Halifax.”

One last photo from that event: at this point, I was talking about how useful it was when I was writing The Austens to be able to visit the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic and study their 1813 model of the Halifax Naval Yard.

On to Kate and L.M. Montgomery! Government House was the perfect setting for her excellent talk. For one thing, the Old Burying Ground, which Montgomery fictionalized as “Old St. John’s Graveyard” in Anne of the Island, is directly across the street.

Government House

Kate talked about Budge Wilson as one of the many Nova Scotia writers inspired by L.M. Montgomery. Here’s Kate discussing Wilson’s novel Before Green Gables and the Budge Wilson Bookmark plaque.

Kate and me at the reception that followed her talk

I picked up my copy of Kate’s brand new book, Romantic Suburbs, a few days ago, and took photos of it in the Halifax Public Gardens, where it seemed very much at home.

I’m excited about our joint reading in PEI on June 26th, and, of course, I’m excited to be attending the L.M. Montgomery Institute conference. Megan Follows, who played Anne Shirley in the Emmy Award winning Anne of Green Gables movies, is one of the keynote speakers. If you’re interested in her talk but aren’t able to attend the conference, you might like to register for a free ticket to watch this event online. She’ll be speaking on Saturday, June 27th at 11:00 a.m. ADT. Here’s the registration link.

I’ll close for today with photos from Canadian Independent Bookstore Day, April 25th. It was an honour to see The Austens on display at Bookmark and King’s Co-op Bookstore, and my mother and I both enjoyed our first visit to the Dartmouth Book Exchange.

Thank you to Sue Slade for the photo. It seemed like the right day to wear my “Bookwoman” t-shirt and my (made in Nova Scotia by Amos Pewter) maple leaf necklace and earrings.

Best wishes for a great weekend!

If you enjoyed this newsletter, I hope you’ll consider recommending it to a friend. If you aren’t yet a subscriber, please sign up.

Here are the links to the last two instalments, in case you missed them:

“The beautiful, capricious, reluctant Canadian spring” (photos from a weekend in Prince Edward Island)

An April scrapbook page

CBC Radio Documentary: “Our Jane”

CBC article: “‘Our Jane’: N.S. fans celebrate her 250th birthday, and her Halifax connection”

My debut novel, The Austens, is now available from Pottersfield Press! Order signed copies (personalized, if you wish) from Bookmark (for shipping within Canada) or Woozles (for shipping within Canada and the United States). Order from Jane Austen Books (they’re based in Ohio and accept international orders as well as orders within the United States). The ebook is also available; additional sources are listed here.

Copyright Sarah Emsley 2026 ~ All rights reserved. No AI training: material on http://www.sarahemsley.com may not be used to “train” generative AI technologies.