Jane Austen was born in Steventon Rectory on 16th December 1775. She began writing Pride and Prejudice when she was twenty-two years old. Originally titled First Impressions, it was initially rejected by publishers and only published in 1813 after much revision. She published four novels in her lifetime, Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814) and Emma (1816). Jane Austen died on 18th July 1817. Northanger Abbey and Persuasion were both published posthumously in 1818.

P. D. James is an award-winning crime writer and author of Death Comes to Pemberley. She was awarded an OBE in 1983, and was created a life peer in 1991.

Leanne Shapton is an illustrator, author and publisher based in New York City. http://leanneshapton.com/