Jane Austen Book Club: Longbourn by Jo Baker

Welcome to our Truth Universally Acknowledged Book Club: here's your chance to reread your favourite Jane Austen books in the company of like-minded readers. Even better, you can explore the perceptiveness and skill of her writing for the first time.

Why not join Ros and Sue as we immerse ourselves month by month in the delights of Sense & Sensibility, Pride & Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey, Persuasion, Sanditon and Lady Susan. We'll also read other authors who have been inspired by Jane's work to create their own versions of her stories: Emma by Alexander McCall Smith, Northanger Abbey by Val McDermid, Jane Austen Ruined My Life by Beth Pattillo, The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler and Death Comes to Pemberley by P D James (previously dramatised by the BBC).

And if you have any further suggestions for Austen-themed books, do share them with us.

Please bring along £1 (or £12 for the year) as a contribution to Meetup fees - this £1 is only payable by non-IVC fully-paid members (and can be reclaimed if you decide to join the CambsIVC membership group).

Reading choice for Tuesday 14th October:
Longbourn by Jo Baker was published in 2013, exactly 200 years after Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice which inspired it. It is wash-day for the housemaids at Longbourn House, and Sarah's hands are chapped and raw. Domestic life below stairs, ruled with a tender heart and an iron will by Mrs Hill the housekeeper, is about to be disturbed by the arrival of a new footman, bearing secrets and the scent of the sea.

Read so far:
Sense and Sensibility (published 1811)
Sense & Sensibility - Joanna Trollope (published 2013)
Miss Austen - Gill Hornby (published 2020)
Pride and Prejudice (published 1813)
The Other Bennet Sister - Janice Hadlow (published 2018)

Please do join us at these CambsIVC Jane Austen events to come:
Tue 11 November Book Club - Death Comes to Pemberley by P D James