Join us for an evening in the company of Gill Hornby as she talks about her wonderfully original and richly imagined novel Miss Austen.
Why did Cassandra Austen burn a treasure trove of letters written by her sister, Jane Austen – an act of destruction that has troubled academics for centuries?
It’s 1840: twenty three years after the death of her famous sister Jane, Cassandra Austen returns to the village of Kintbury, and the home of her family’s friends, the Fowles.
She knows that, in some dusty corner of the sprawling vicarage, there is a cache of family letters which hold secrets she is desperate should not be revealed.
As Cassandra recalls her youth and her relationship with her brilliant yet complex sister, she pieces together buried truths about Jane’s history, and her own. And she faces a stark choice: should she act to protect Jane’s reputation? Or leave the contents of the letters to go unguarded into posterity …
Gill Hornby has long been fascinated by the figure of Cassandra Austen, the elder sister who lurked quietly in Jane’s shadow. With empathy, emotion and wit she transports the reader to a different time and brings this Miss Austen brilliantly to life. We look forward to welcoming Gill to Oswestry!
Tickets: £8 without book (redeemable against a signed copy of Miss Austen) or £13 with book (includes a signed copy of Miss Austen). Tickets available from the bookshop or purchase online (with booking fee)