Jane Aiken Hodge Biography

British writer, born in Massachusetts, one of the daughters of Conrad Aiken (her sister is the writer Joan Aiken). She has written more than twenty historical novels, set mainly in the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century. Her novels often have unusual backgrounds: the American War of 1812 in Here Comes a Candle (1961); the Greek War of Independence, in which Byron died, in Greek Wedding (1970); and Georgia after the Napoleonic Wars in Savannah Purchase (1971). Shadow of a Lady (1974) touches on the life of Emma Hamilton, and Polonaise (1981) is set in Poland during Napoleon's occupation. She has also written two biographies, The Double Life of Jane Austen (1972) and The Private World of Georgette Heyer (1984).