Jane Austen was born in Steventon rectory on 16 December 1775. Her family later moved to Bath
then to Southampton and finally to Chawton in Hampshire. She began writing Pride and Prejudice
when she was twenty-two years old. It was originally called First Impressions and was initially
rejected by the publishers and only published in 1813 after much revision. She published four
of her novels in her lifetime Sense and Sensibility (1811) Pride and Prejudice (1813)
Mansfield Park (1814) and Emma (1816). Jane Austen died on 18th July 1817. Northanger Abbey and
Persuasion were both published posthumously in 1818. Francesca Segal is a journalist and
writer. Her debut novel The Innocents was awarded the 2012 Costa First Novel Award among
many other prizes. Leanne Shapton is an illustrator author and publisher based in New York
City. http: leanneshapton.com
