] ..... S&S is a thinly-disguised retelling of Warren Hastings' possible relationship with Philadephia Hancock, JA's aunt.

Gideon Polya could also have looked a bit closer at Warren Hastings life. I'm not going to dispute that JA may have used the story in part for S&S; I think she used Hasting's life and that of her aunt Philadelphia extensively for inspiration - but it is far more obvious in other works.

] I just can't imagine that JA would distress her family by publishing a story based on one of its member's indiscretions

JA used those indiscretions extensively! JA first uses Philadelphia's experience of being heartlessly packed off to India by her relatives in the Juvenalia (Catherine, or The Bower). Let's not forget that Philadelphia was packed off by JA's own mean great-aunt and uncle, Catherine Hampson and her husband John Cope Freeman!

JA's second cousin Mary was a famous adultress. Their respective mothers were cousins and knew one another well. JA met Mary's mother at Stoneleigh. Stoneleigh and Mary have a strange similarity to Sotherton and the adulteress Maria Bertram.

Basically Polya may have missed a great, big, glowing, neon sign emblazoned across the whole of Persuasion. Warren Hasting's first wife was called Mary or Anne Elliot. It's not in ANY of the Hastings biographies that I have read. It is possibly Mary/Anne Elliot who knew Philadelphia and travelled on the same boat to India with her. When Mary/Anne Elliot died she left Hastings with two step-daughters, possibly called Anne and Mary and a third daughter Elizabeth (and the boy George who died at the Austen's home). Elizabeth died shortly before her mother

Two years later Hastingsa supposedly then had another daughter with Philadelphia, also called Elizabeth (Eliza Hancock). Hastings was apparently very vain about family connections in the same way Walter Elliot was and he also found retrenchment somewhat unpleasant. Hastings showed a great deal of financial favour to Eliza (who was only a god-daughter in respectable company) whilst his other two Elliot step-daughters were sufficiently overlooked that the woman looking after them had to send begging letters to Hastings. Again, these details are very scant in the biographies of Hastings but JA could have known them from her mother as she (Cassandra Leigh) had been responsible for Hasting's son, half brother to the three girls (a touch of the S&S allegories there).

Just as a final parallel, when Hastings turned up in India some of his biographies mention the fact that Lady Russell lead society there.

] -Warren Hastings had a friend called Middleton. So did Col Brandon

Warren Hastings also had a good friend called Elliot - but not related to his wife Elliot and probably coincidental (unlike name of wife)- The names Middleton (and Elliot) are exceedingly common so not evidence in itself. If JA was using it I would guess it is because she was related to them. The Willoughbys (to whom she was related) were/are the Lords Middleton. I can track most major JA character names to a member of her family.

] -There is a Willoughby in S&S, and the same surname occurs somewhere in JA's family

It's the origin of JA's mother's name, Cassandra Willoughby was JA's 1st cousin 3xR and married JA's great, great uncle, James, Duke of Chandos. This couple were also BOTH related to Warren Hastings

] -Hastings was a 'nabob' - made a lot of money in India and retired to England on the proceeds. So did Col Brandon. (Did he?)

Correct me if I'm wrong but I think Hastings "took it off the nabobs" rather than actually being one himself - "nabob" might be used as a term of his richness and the origins of said wealth but technically one has to be a wealthy member of the Indian ruling class to qualify as a "real" nabob.

] -Brandon is almost an anagram of nabob (!? Don't think I'll ask the author for help with the Times crossword!)

Amusing but I don't think this is why she used it!! JA and was related to the Brandons as was Hastings. Charles Brandon was Duke of Suffolk (first private owner of Stoneleigh) and married Warren Hasting's and JA's relative-in-common, Mary Tudor, Queen of France. Their daughter was Eleanor Brandon.

] The main thesis of the book is that it is OK for a novelist to ignore the unpleasant side of life

I am inspired to try and get a copy of the book. I think JA is very concerned with unpleasantness - not the grandiose unpleasantness of retrospective history but the fascinating unpleasantness of character one sees in Mrs. Norris, Mrs. Bennet, all JAs hypochondriacs, Lady S. Fanny Dashwood et. al.

Quote from Gideon Polya: My book is entitled, 'Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History' and sub-titled, 'Colonial rapacity, holocaust denial and the crisis in biological sustainability'. I describe this whitewashing of history as 'Austenising' after Jane Austen, whose exquisite novels were utterly free of the ugly social realities of her time. Some of Jane Austen's siblings and other connections, were involved in the rape of India.

I think this is why Polya's ideas seem interestingly different - he is a biochemist who comes to Hastings and JA through his interest in India and the Bengali famine (his wife, Zareena, is Bengali and he knows his stuff) whereas JA came to Hastings through her family connections and the inter-relation of individual personalities.

For anyone wanting further evidence of whether or not Warren Hasting's was Eliza Hancock's Dad, have a look at a picture of the famous miniature of Eliza (in many JA's biographies; Tomalin, Honan, Laski - couldn't find online) and then have a look at a picture of Warren Hastings. What do you think?

PS anyone know the name of the ship that took Philadelphia out to India?