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| £1.99 on Amazon |
Jane Austen Variations
The Ghosts at Pemberley
by Fenella J Miller
Jane Austen has been one of my favourite authors since I was very
young – although I must admit I didn't fully understand the nuances of her
language and her gentle irony until I was in my late teens.
Of the six completed books I, like
most other readers, have Pride &
Prejudice as my favourite, and the one I like least is Emma, that is because Emma is not a character you warm to.
There have been many TV and film
adaptations of her books and again I enjoyed most of The Pride & Prejudice
ones; however, I didn’t enjoy the Mansfield
Park TV version with Billie Piper – I think she was wrongly cast.
There have also been Jane Austen
variations such as Death Comes to
Pemberley and Lost in Austen.
The PD James version was not well received and although well-acted there were
too many historical inaccuracies to make it enjoyable viewing. Lizzy, for
instance, wears the same green dress every day. Lost in Austen, although a fantastic, has to be my favourite. I’ve
watched the final scene many times as it is the most romantic ending ever.
I’ve also read dozens of sequels,
prequels and mash ups over the past few years. It appears that the thousands of
Janeite fans will read anything related to her work, although Pride &
Prejudice linked books are still the favourites.
I have been looking at what is
around at the moment and there is everything from appallingly written erotica
to some excellent sequels. There are also books where the only things that are
the same are the names - I don’t read books of that sort – I want my Jane
Austen variations to be firmly linked to actual books.
I really enjoy Amanda Grange, Jane Odiwe and Monica
Fairview’s books. There are also several authors producing contemporary
Jane Austen linked books – such as Juliet
Archer and Victoria Connolly. There
are dozens of other good writers but I prefer British authors. Although
traditional publishers decided the Jane Austen bubble had burst a few years
ago, author-publishers are still producing them and they are still being
devoured eagerly.
I wrote a Pride & Prejudice
version telling the story from Jane and Bingley’s viewpoints, Miss Bennet & Mr Bingley, some
years ago which still sounds a handful of copies a week. However, I have now
written the first in a four book series entitled, Pemberley, (I know, I could
have come up with a more original series title – but it is what it says on the
tin.) The Ghosts at Pemberley is
Kitty Bennet’s story and is, I hope, a genuinely scary ghost story as well as a
romance. This is now available on Amazon Kindle and there will be a paperback,
perfect for Christmas presents, out in November.
I am writing the second in the
series, A Scandal at Pemberley,
which is Georgiana Darcy’s story and this will be published next March as an
e-book and the paperback will follow in the summer.
http://amzn.to/1vmxlnH (Amazon.com)
http://amzn.to/1mx3lVA (Amazon.uk)
