About the Author

Gill Hornby is the author of The Hive and All Together Now, as well as The Story of Jane Austen, a biography of Austen for young readers.

Her subsequent novels, Miss Austen and Godmersham Park, were Sunday Times bestsellers, and Miss Austen is now a four-part BBC series starring Keeley Hawes as Cassandra Austen.

She lives in West Berkshire with her husband and their four children.

Also by Gill Hornby

The Hive

All Together Now

Miss Austen

Godmersham Park

TITLE PAGE

DEDICATION

For Charlie, Sam and George, with love

A Note about Names

Edward Austen, brother of Jane, was adopted in his teens by a childless couple, Thomas and Catherine Knight, and became their heir to Godmersham Park in Kent, as well as Chawton in Hampshire. When Thomas Knight died, Edward took over both estates, but it wasn’t until Catherine Knight’s death, in 1812, that he took full possession. And it was in that year, as he was obliged under the terms of the will, that he changed his name. From then on, he was known as Edward Austen Knight, and decided that his eleven children would drop the Austen altogether and became simply ‘Knight’. How I miss being dear old Austen, his eldest daughter, Fanny, wrote in her journal.

This novel is based on the true story of the Knight family after that time, a period in which, by an unfortunate coincidence, three of the main actors share the name Edward. Though there is no record of his family ever using the diminutive, I have, for simplicity’s sake, taken the liberty of renaming Edward Knight II: Ned.

EPIGRAPH

I leave it to be settled, by whomsoever it may concern, whether the tendency of this work be altogether to recommend parental tyranny, or reward filial disobedience.

Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

The Families

The Knights of Godmersham Park

EDWARD AUSTEN KNIGHT, widowed father and elder brother of Jane

And his eleven children:

FANNY KNIGHT

EDWARD KNIGHT, ‘NED’, heir to the estate

GEORGE

HENRY

WILLIAM

LIZZIE

MARIANNE

CHARLES

LOUISA

CASSY

BROOK JOHN

SAYCE, Fanny’s Maid

MR JOHNCOCK, the Butler

BOOKER, Maid to the children

MRS SALKELD, the Housekeeper

SACKREE, known to the children as ‘CAKEY’, the Head Nurse

The Knatchbulls of Mersham-le-Hatch

SIR EDWARD KNATCHBULL, widowed father

His aunt: LADY BANKS, widow of Sir Joseph Banks, the distinguished botanist

And his children:

MARY DOROTHEA

NORTON

EDWARD (died 1818)

CHARLES

WYNDHAM

JOHN

The Austens of Chawton Cottage

MRS AUSTEN, mother of Jane

MISS CASSANDRA AUSTEN, Jane’s sister

Prologue