M Y Y L LE EW W EES S Jane Aiken Hodge recently celebrated her 90th birthday. A career writing historical romances began after her thirtieth birthday when her younger daughter started school. Jane stopped writing novels after her thirty-fifth was published in 2003. She started drafting her memoirs but got bored and now she does editing and other writing work as it arises. She’s something of an expert on Regency women; her books include a biography of Jane Austen. Are you local? I was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts [Jane’s father was poet and critic Conrad Aiken], but my family came over to Britain when I was three and we lived in Winchelsea. After the birth of my sister, we moved to Rye. During the ferocious divorce of my parents, my mother used to meet the man who later became my stepfather, Martin, in The White Hart, which is how I first knew about <strong>Lewes</strong>. I bought this house, which was called the Welcome Stranger, in 1972, at auction. It has an Elizabethan bread oven in the cellar, and was clearly an ale house handy for the Priory. Their hops fields were near Eastport Lane. I was told it became a doss house sleeping eighty men, with bunks in what is now my sitting room. What do you like about <strong>Lewes</strong>? <strong>Lewes</strong> is my patch. The beauty of it is that you can do everything on foot. I don’t drive, but go out every -day hunter-gathering with my old rucksack to get dinner, often dropping into the library, which is wonderful. I had some involvement in lobbying to get the new one built. And <strong>Lewes</strong> is so friendly. When I walk down the High Street, I see batches of people I would like to talk to. I would rather enjoy having a party and just inviting people I like the look of. Also, it’s so interesting to enter a house and catch sight of a lovely garden tucked away in the back, which you never knew existed. What’s your favourite pub? I like to go to country pubs for lunch with my daughter or friends. The Jolly W W W. V I V A L E W E S . C O M Sportsman, the Rainbow, the Griffin and the Trevor Arms are my favourites. What’s your poison? Dry sherry and red wine. My father passed his Wine Society shares onto me and I get it delivered by the boxful. Where do you shop? I use the milkman, Patel’s, shops in the Riverside and Bill’s, and the car boot sale and charity shops for books. I would choose Waitrose over Tesco. I once discovered I had shares in Tesco and demanded they be sold. I now realise, for all sorts of reasons including shopping and e-mailing family, how useful it would have been to have become computer literate. But my sister Joan Aiken [also a prolific writer. The Wolves of Willoughby Chase was one of her books] and I encouraged each other not to. What’s your favourite <strong>Lewes</strong> landmark? I enjoy looking up to the castle from here, and it is lovely, but I’d have to say the Grange Gardens by a short head. I treat it as my garden, it’s so close, and they’ve done so much to improve it. They have just won a national award for good maintenance. How would you spend a perfect Sunday afternoon? I love walking by the sea. My favourite walk is the one that starts by the barn up at Seaford Head, along the cliff and down to Cuckmere Haven. Can you recommend a good film? I loved The Queen, but I don’t get to many films these days. They go too fast, leaping from point to point and I don’t hear so well. More often, I go to Glyndebourne or the Theatre Royal. How do feel entering your tenth decade? With the world as it is, I feel I’ve been around long enough. It’s not a bad time to quit, though I feel I should be out on the streets campaigning against global warming. I gave up my American citizenship in the Nixon era, but if I hadn’t, I would now. V Photograph: Alex Leith Photograph: Katie Moorman
Indulgence A fine example of Georgian architecture with 16th Century origins, The Shelleys offers the highest standards of service, cuisine and hospitality. The Shelleys The High Street, <strong>Lewes</strong>, East Sussex, BN7 1XS T: 01273 472361 F: 01273 483152 info@shelleys-hotel-lewes.com www.the-shelleys.co.uk
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