We think we know Jane Austen – but we’d know a great deal more if her sister Cassandra hadn’t burned her letters after her death. Why did she do it? In her daring and original novel Miss Austen, Gill Hornby imagines what fuelled that act of destruction carried out by a devoted sibling, and to venture into the closed world of the Austen family.

 

She’s joined by celebrated critic and biographer Claire Tomalin to discuss all matters Austen.