Jane Austen is the world's bestselling novelist - 200 years after her death we seem to have a never-ending appetite for the swooning of Sense & Sensibility and the smouldering passion of Pride & Prejudice - resulting in a near constant supply of film adaptations and spin-off books. The fan market for Austen - the Austenites - is huge and international. This book will reveal the real Jane: bitchy, gossipy, badly behaved at times as well as show the side we all love: the writer, sister, true romantic.

Lauren Nixon is a guide for the Jane Austen Centre in Bath, writes for the Austen society magazine, and speaks regularly at the Austen Festival.