Jane Austen was born in Hampshire in 1775, the seventh child and youngest daughter of George Austen, rector of Deane and Steventon, and his wife, Cassandra. She began writing poems, plays and stories for her family from a young age, and her first published novel, Sense and Sensibility, was released by Thomas Egerton to sell-out acclaim in 1811. Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814) and Emma (1815) followed, and these were the last of Austen’s works to come out in her lifetime. Her novels, including the posthumously published Northanger Abbey (1818) and Persuasion (1818), are today considered amongst the finest in the English language. She died at Winchester in 1817.
Fay Weldon is the author of The Life and Loves of a She-Devil (1983). She has written over 30 novels since her first was published in 1968; five collections of short stories; and many plays for stage, radio and television, including in 1980 an adaptation of Pride and Prejudice for the BBC. Her Letters to Alice: On First Reading Jane Austen (1984) has become a classic introduction to Austen’s fiction. She was made a CBE for services to literature in 2001, and is currently Professor of Creative Writing at Bath Spa University.