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Jane Austen life-size bronze statue planned for Bath

Jane Austen Centre Jane Austen waxworkJane Austen Centre
Jane Austen is thought to have shared family traits of a long nose and sparkly brown eyes

A life-size statue of Jane Austen will be installed in Bath, where the author lived with her parents at various addresses between 1801 and 1806.

The Jane Austen Centre said the bronze statue would be based on a waxwork unveiled in 2014, which is believed to be a very close likeness.

Managing director Paul Crossey said it was "fitting that Jane Austen should be honoured in the city".

The exact location of the statue is currently under discussion.

Jane Austen Centre Artist impression of the Jane Austen statue to be erected in BathJane Austen Centre
Several sites in the north of Bath have been identified as possible locations for the statue
Presentational white space

Several possible sites in the north of the city, relevant to Ms Austen's life and writing, have been identified.

"It will also be good to go a little way to redress the fact that less than 3% of all statues in the UK are of historical, non-royal women," said Mr Crossey.

Jane Austen's parents were married in the city, at St Swithin's Church in Walcot, in 1764 and on George Austen's retirement from his rectory in Hampshire, they moved permanently to Bath.

Two of her books - Northanger Abbey and Persuasion - are set in the city and Bath is mentioned in her other completed novels, including Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility and Emma.