GILBERT White and The Oates Collection at Selborne is joining forces with Alton’s Jane Austen’s Regency Week to host a talk uniting two of Alton’s most famous literary residents.

The naturalist’s work The Natural History of Selborne is reported to be the fourth most published book in the English language, never out of print since its publication in 1789.

Gilbert White died in 1793, aged 73, when Jane Austen was only a teenager living in Steventon – several years before she moved to Chawton and wrote the novels which have made her so globally recognised. But the pair had more in common than at first meets the eye.

The informal talk will be given by Kimberley James, of Gilbert White’s House, and will take place at Gilbert White’s home in Selborne tomorrow, starting at 2.30pm. Kimberley will talk about the connections between the lives of each writer, both pioneers in their literary fields. How their styles complement each other and how the legacies they left behind differ.

Tickets, priced £5, to include admission to the grounds that inspired Gilbert White, can be bought from Alton Community Centre or from Gilbert White’s House in Selborne.