Did you watch Miss Austen, a recent tv adaptation of the book by Gill Hornby? I love a period drama and really enjoyed seeing the story come to life with some great actors. Gill Hornby also wrote Godmersham Park which is inspired by the real life friendship between Anne Sharp and Jane Austen. I was delighted to see Gill Hornby has written another book based on real life events in the world of Jane Austen.

The Elopement by Gill Hornby

The Elopement tells the story of Mary Dorothea Knatchbull, the step-daughter of Fanny Austen Knight (late of Godmersham Park and niece of Jane Austen). Mary Dorothea has an awful childhood with her mother dying when she was very young and being left to rot in a boarding school. She keenly feels the death of her mother, the absence of her brothers who are also away at school, and her desire to please her father, Sir Edward.

When he takes her out of school at the age of 13, little does she know her life is starting a new chapter when her father marries Miss Fanny Austen Knight of Godmersham Park. Her hopes for family life are quickly dashed by her new mama, although she spends the next few years enjoying the company and lives of her colourful Austen relatives.

Her social world increases, but with it comes the knowledge of friends falling in love, only for their marriage hopes to be stopped by family and other practicalities – from not enough money to not enough social status. There are whispers of elopement too, a huge scandal for the time. First her poor governess falls in love and is dismissed, followed by Ned Austen Knight, and her dear sister Cassy. Mary Dorothea wonders if she will make a love match and it seems like her parents have their own ideas over a suitable match.

Mary Dorothea falls for Ned Austen Knight, heir to the Godmersham and Chawton estates. When her father forbids her to accept his marriage proposal, the couple elope to Gretna Green, the first place they can legally marry. What would Jane Austen say? Mary Dorothea achieves the love match denied others but at the cost of an estrangement from her family which lasts decades.

Five children later and surrounded by family and friends, led by Cassandra Austen, a close neighbour on the Chawton estate, result in a happy marriage. Sadly the marriage ends prematurely through the death in childbirth, a common cause of death for women at this time.

 

I really enjoyed this book. It is so easy to imagine yourself in the magical world of the Knights and Austens at this time and the author brings it all to life vividly. I cried at the injustice of Mary Dorothea passing away so early when she deserved a long life with her children and which she didn’t get to enjoy with her own mother.

The notes at the end of the story show much of it was based on the diaries of Fanny Austen Knight, which she wrote from the age of 11 to old age.

 

The Elopement by Gill Hornby will be published by Random House UK on the 22nd May 2025. Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC.