Product details
- ISBN 9780008753184
- Weight: 180g
- Dimensions: 129 x 198mm
- Publication Date: 04 Jun 2026
- Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
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From the bestselling biographer and author of the book that inspired the BBC TV series – Jane Austen Rise of a Genius – comes a gorgeously escapist novel about the summer the greatest romance novelist fell in love
‘A glorious romantic retelling’ SUN
‘Delicious’ THE TIMES
‘The Jane Austen beach book fans have been waiting for' KIRKUS
1801, Sidmouth.
The Austen family descends upon a fashionable seaside resort in Devonshire for a six-week holiday. Jane's brother, Frank, is on leave from the Royal Navy, and dearly wishes to unite his sister with his friend Captain Peter Parker. But another holidaymaker, a handsome stranger, catches sight of Jane and is determined to make her acquaintance.
This rival to Captain Parker is Samuel Rose: a lawyer, literary man and abolitionist. As the weeks pass, Jane's relationship with both men brings about unexpected surprises. By the end of the summer, the course of her life will have changed forever.
‘I felt like I was reading a Jane Austen’ Kylie Pentelow, Woman’s Hour
PAULE BYRNE is a bestselling biographer, a novelist and one of the world's leading experts on Jane Austen. The Real Jane Austen and Jane Austen – Rise of a Genius have been praised for their original insights and distinctive approach. She also wrote the tie-in book to the award-winning movie Belle and she turned the life of Marlene Dietrich into a historical novel, Blonde Venus. Her other acclaimed biographies include Hardy Women and The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym. She was the literary consultant for the television series based on Jane Austen's unfinished last novel Sanditon and is a regular broadcaster, particularly about Jane Austen.
