Jane Austen's love of tea is to be investigated as part of a 'historical interrogation' into her links to the slave trade.
The celebrated author wrote Pride and Prejudice and Mansfield Park while living in a cottage in the Hampshire village of Chawton, which has now been turned into a museum.
Staff at the home devoted to the 18th century author are now re-evaluating her place in 'Regency era colonialism'.
Her links to the slave trade come through her father George Austen, the rector for a nearby parish who was at one point a trustee for an Antigua sugar plantation.