The Austen Girls

I am a history teacher trying to find enjoyable, accessible and (fairly) accurate historical fiction to recommend to my teenage students. I have always adored Lucy Worley and am equally a fan of Jane Austen (which is impossible to avoid living in Winchester for some years!). I have read a couple other of Lucy Wolsey’s books in the similar style but this was by far my favourite. It was easy to ready while thrilling at the same time. I would also recommend this to anyone who’s about to study Pride and Prejudice as the storyline has some parallels but also gives a beautiful, visual flavour of life at the time. I think this is the perfect example of historical fiction for young adults. I high recommend and can’t wait for the next instalment by Worsley!

I enjoyed this story of Fanny and Anna, Jane Austen's two nieces, told in a semi-fictional format with an Austen-like plot structure but with modern twists.Fanny was in fact Jane Austen's favourite niece, the daughter of Jane's brother Edward, and she is known to have been very close to Jane during her life. Jane was 17 when Fanny was born. Many years later Fanny as an old woman, wrote about her aunt with a viewpoint distorted by Victorian social pressures. I think her nephew did that too.However, I took this young adult story in the spirit in which Lucy Worsley intended, to give young readers a feel for the style and themes of Jane Austen in an appealing contemporary way, plus to fill them in on some biographical details of Jane Austen's family life. I found this a pleasurable and enlightening read but the ending disappointed me.

I bought this as a gift for my wife's birthday. She's a huge Jane Austen fan as well as a fan of Lucy Worsley's books and programmes. She already has Lucy Worsley's Jane Austen at home. Despite being billed as a teen novel, my wife (41) really enjoyed it. I recommend it for the Austen fan in your life.

Good tale about the Austen girls and their times.

Purchased as a gift and it was well received by the recipient.