Eccentric Fran wants a second chance. Thanks to her intimacy with Jane Austen, and the poet Shelley, she finds one. Jane Austen is such a presence in Fran's lif

"Strange and haunting, a gothic novel with a modern consciousness." —Philippa Gregory "A haunting, sophisticated story about a woman discovering the truth abo

'All women together ought to let flowers fall upon the tomb of Aphra Behn; for it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds,' said Virginia Woolf.

Joan revisits her life, blighted by WW2, drawing her daughter into her imaginings and desires. The boundaries between them collapse.

Innovative essay by leading scholar, examining the Austen phenomenon, her love of spoof and burlesque, with newly edited Sanditon text.