One of the most provoking things in my life is historical nonsense presented as historical accuracy. I’ve been a volunteer guide in Georgian Bath for 30 years, taking visitors around the city – yes, it is a city as our diocese is with Wells, which has the cathedral – and introducing them to its history, so I like the truth.
I’m also a guide for Jane Austen fans, who flock to Bath to discover the places she immortalised in Persuasion and Northanger Abbey. Because I’ve written a biography about her, I was recently asked by Radio Times to talk about the city when she was here, as yet another television extravaganza was in the offing. As I feared, except for the photography and rather quirky score, it was the worst of all possible Georgian worlds!
