Jane Austen at Home

I am disappointed by the claims made in this week’s Private Eye.

The facts and interpretations paralleled between my book Jane Austen at Home, and Paula Byrne’s excellent Jane Austen A Life In Small Things, which I reference in my extensive footnotes, are not novel, are not unique to Byrne’s work, and would appear in any up-to-date, well-researched biography of Jane Austen.

‘My’ Jane Austen, in Jane Austen at Home, is fresh, up-to-date, and shaped by the most recent scholarly debate.  But most of all, she’s personal.  Every word of her is written with integrity, conviction and love.

Private Eye have more than once printed the claim that Judith Flanders was not paid upfront for her work as historical consultant on the 2013 BBC Four series A Very British Murder.  This is also inaccurate and should have been checked.

And I thought I had that special bond with Ian Hislop too…