Monica Fairview, Author

Well, it was a lovely P&P200th birthday celebration for me because my book The Darcy Cousins was shown on the BBC Breakfast news. This was in an interview with Jane Odiwe who recently published Searching for Captain Wentworth. The interview also featured Jane Odiwe’s lovely Jane Austen-related artwork.   It may not be my 15 minutes of fame, but it’s thrilling for my book to be on the BBC, the same venue that produced Colin Firth’s brilliant Mr. Darcy! If you’d like to see the interview on the BBC website, you’ll find it here. It includes the infamous wet scene. Feast your eyes! http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-21227207

Who would have thought it? On that momentous day when Jane Austen received her published copy of P&P, she had no inkling that she was going to be one of the best known authors in the English language, ranked along with Shakespeare as an essential classic. On January 27th, JA received her own copy, fresh off the press, and was as delighted with it as any author who sees their work in print. ”I have got my own darling Child from London,” she famously wrote in a letter, and the thrill of publication is there.  Sadly, that was where the thrill ended. Firstly because she’d sold the novel for a one-off fee to her publisher, and therefore never received royalties for it. Secondly, because the novel was published anonymously. Now, knowing JA, she may well have had some sly pleasure in overhearing conversations about her novel from people who had no idea she was the author, but I would imagine there must have been many occasions when she wanted to shout out her name from the rooftops ...