Hello again, dear readers! This year, we’ve begun a blog series highlighting Austen-lovers around the world—sharing how they first discovered Austen’s fiction, why they love Austen, how they’ve contributed to the Janeite community, you get the picture. Fans, who cultivate and engage in discourse surrounding Austen’s life and fiction, participate in workshops and conventions, host book clubs, and don I ❤️ Darcy merchandise with pride (but hopefully not prejudice—wink, wink), are the reason Jane’s spirit survives in the twenty-first century. We deserve a shout-out! And we deserve the chance to connect with like-minded individuals across the world. This week, we’re highlighting Lady Annette Cheney-Williams—middle school history teacher by day and Janeite superstar by night!
Lady Annette Cheney-Williams was only nine years old when her third-grade teacher, in an attempt to keep her entertained after finishing her work early, gave her a copy of Pride and Prejudice to read until the others caught up. Granted, it was an abridged, illustrated version designed for kids, but still—it was Austen, and Annette couldn’t get enough.
Raised on the navy base in San Diego, California, Annette’s military father instilled in her a deep love for history very early in life. Her grandmother gifted her the American Girl doll Felicity when she was seven, a Colonial America-era character with corresponding apparel, accessories, and even full-length novels, the last of which included passages exploring the real-world history of the heroine’s story. After falling in love with Felicity’s story, Annette decided to do some research of her own—all before the era of computers, which meant the precocious elementary-schooler was consulting books, encyclopedias, and other pre-tech resources in her local library.
It seemed natural that she would latch onto Pride and Prejudice in the same way, adoring the manners, the dresses, and Austen’s uniquely beloved characters. At the tender age of nine years old, Annette embarked on a mission to read all of Jane Austen’s novels in their original, unabridged forms. It took her a year or two to make it through each book, but with the help of her English-major mother, her excitement compelled her to finish the task with age-appropriate speed.
When her family moved across the country to Weston, Florida, Annette was in the throes of adolescence: fourteen, in all its messy, awkward glory. Entering a new school—co-educational for the first time in Annette’s life—on the opposite coast was not easy. Several of her classmates, in the cruelty of their youth, made fun of Annette’s southern Californian accent, slang, mannerisms, and style.
But when Clueless—a major motion picture adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma featuring Alicia Silverstone as the Valley Girl-chic Cher Horowitz—had a five-year anniversary theatrical rerelease in 2000, Annette’s Southern Californian background was suddenly a form of social capital. “You’re just like Cher!” her classmates told her. She experienced popularity for the first time since moving to Florida.
“Cher made my life way easier in high school,” Annette says with humor.
Fast-forward twenty years and Annette is one of the most passionate, involved Janeites this author has ever met. Living in Orlando, her full-time career as a middle school history teacher does nothing to derail her work cultivating a community dedicated to celebrating and preserving Austen’s work.
A few years ago, Annette founded La Belle Assemblée, an Orlando-based Jane Austen fan group named after one of the most important fashion magazines of the Regency era. Now, she also serves as the secretary and member-at-large of the Orlando JASNA chapter and volunteers on the Mount Dora Jane Austen Festival board. Annette attended (and LOVED) the 2023 Jane Austen Summer Program symposium on Austen’s juvenilia as a JASP Teacher Scholar. In fact, she presented on our symposium to the Orlando JASNA chapter upon her return home and is currently planning a group trip back to North Carolina for JASP 2025.
Annette does more than plan and host fabulous Regency-inspired balls and tea parties, though. She hosts a book club through her Austen fan club and her local JASNA chapter recently fundraised money to purchase and donate annotated series of Austen’s novels to elementary school libraries in the area, also creating the Accelerated Reader quizzes for each book. Annette’s passion for involving children in Austen culture also extends to the Kids Fringe Festival of Orlando, which organized an Austen-themed sock puppet show this year. Additionally, her JASNA group donated funds to assist Chawton’s recovery after the Covid-19 crisis of 2020.
Looking forward, Annette is organizing a 2025 JASNA group-trip to England for Bath’s 250th Anniversary Festival celebrating Austen’s life and legacy. She would also like to take her group to Steventon, Winchester Cathedral, the parks of London, and of course, the iconic Chawton Cottage. Having lived in the United Kingdom briefly after college, Annette was lucky enough to visit Chawton once before, where she felt history come alive right before her eyes: “I kept thinking, ‘She [Austen] touched this door… her writing desk is still there. They keep everything so perfect. I just felt like I stepped back in time, and I was there with her.’”
Now that Annette has graduated with her master’s degree in 18th-19th-century British and American History and Education, her next career goal is to become a professor at the University of Bath, where she hopes to live full-time one day. For someone who already owns five square feet of land in England (“I had to buy some land to get myself that ‘lady’ title,” she laughs), this author harbors no doubt that Annette’s dreams are soon to become a reality!
Find links to Annette’s social media pages via her website, or connect with her anywhere @goldrushbeauty.
Excerpted from Zoom interview with Lady Annette Cheney-Williams, March 5, 2024.
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