Jane Tapley

Jane Tapley is a literary lecturer, Blue Badge guide and one of Travel Editions’ most popular tour experts. She has led literary tours for the company for many years, exploring the lives, works and landscapes connected with Agatha Christie, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens and William Shakespeare.

Jane’s career combines literature, theatre and social history. For around four decades, she has worked as Special Events Organiser at the Theatre Royal Bath, where she has interviewed visiting actors, authors and directors. She also lectures widely to theatre, history and arts organisations and has written and researched theatre programme notes on works including Hamlet, Sheridan’s The Rivals and Jane Austen’s Emma.

Her long association with Bath gives Jane a particularly rich understanding of Jane Austen and the Regency world. She has also worked as a consultant on food and domestic life for television adaptations of Austen’s novels, helping to place the author’s characters and stories within the everyday customs of their period.

Jane’s Travel Editions tours range from Austen’s Hampshire and Bath to Dickens’s Kent, Shakespeare’s Stratford-upon-Avon and the places associated with Agatha Christie in Torquay, Harrogate and London. Rather than treating these locations simply as backdrops, she explains how each writer’s surroundings, relationships and experiences informed their work.

Theatre is an important part of Jane’s approach. Her tours often include performances and dramatic readings, using her professional connections and knowledge of the stage to bring familiar texts and characters vividly to life.

Warm, entertaining and exceptionally knowledgeable, Jane has become a firm favourite with Travel Editions travellers, many of whom return to join her on further tours. Her enthusiasm, storytelling and ability to connect literature with real places help guests gain a deeper appreciation of both the writers and the worlds they created.