The card index she made to marshal her discoveries ran to some 10,000 entries. She located family gravestones and followed Austen’s footsteps across the south of England. For her updating of the Family Record, Le Faye drew on all kinds of unpublished (and widely scattered) material, ranging from letters and diaries to parish records and naval log-books. There was still much to be placed on the record, despite Austen’s ever-increasing popularity. That Le Faye was licensed by the family to do this made her, in effect, the authorised biographer of a long-dead author. For Le Faye was also a scholar who could divulge a fantastic piece of Austen family gossip with the comment: “MiaoThis spirit of discernment is epitomised in her first book, Jane Austen: A Family Record (1989), which expands vastly on Jane Austen: Her Life and Letters: A Family Record (1913), written by two descendants of Austen’s nephew James Edward Austen-Leigh. The watercolour portrait of Jane Austen by James Andrews that provided her image on the British £10 note issued in 2017.
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