The Elopement

<b>Three women, two families, one forbidden marriage. Get ready to fall in love with the brand-new regency romance from the <i>Sunday Times </i>bestselling author of <i>Godmersham Park </i>and <i>Miss Austen</i>, now a major BBC TV series<i>.</i></b><br><br>‘A<b> richly imagined family saga, love story and social comedy</b>’<i> Times</i><br><br>'<b>Gripping </b>and <b>moving</b> and also so <b>sharp</b> and <b>funny</b>. I loved it!’ Sabine Durrant, bestselling author of <i>Lie with Me</i><br><br>‘Has <b>all the wit and wisdom of a Jane Austen novel</b>’ <i>Red </i><br><br><b>-----------------</b><br><br>1820. Mary Dorothea is living under the sole charge of her widowed father, Sir Edward, a man of strict principles and high moral values.<br><br>But when Sir Edward marries Miss Fanny Knight of Godmersham Park, Mary’s life is suddenly changed.<br><br>Mary’s new stepmother, Fanny, comes from a large, happy and sociable family, and Fanny’s brothers are amusing, handsome and completely charming.<br><br>One brother is particularly attentive and, as Mary approaches her seventeenth birthday, a bond forms between them that leads, on the last day of the year 1825, to a proposal of marriage.<br><br>Sir Edward’s outrage is immediate, his refusal absolute. The union will never take place.<br><br>There appears to be only one solution . . .<br><br><br><b>-----------------</b><br><br><u>Praise for <i>The Elopement</i>:</u><br><br>‘Hornby’s Austen books are<b> funny, bittersweet family sagas,</b> impeccably researched and <b>lavishly imagined</b>’ <i>The Times </i><br><br>'<b>Tremendous</b>' Nigella Lawson<br><br>'Has <b>all Austen’s wit</b> and unnerving powers of observation with an <b>extra twenty-first century zap</b>' Ferdinand Mount, prize-winning author of <i>Big Ceasars and Little Caesars</i><br><br>‘<b>Few writers are as perspicacious or half as delightful as Hornby</b>’ Karen Joy Fowler, international bestselling author of <i>The Jane Austen Book Club</i><br><br>‘A <b>captivating </b>return to the world of the Austens’ <i>Woman & Home</i><br><br>‘Combines <b>meticulous period research</b> with a fine feeling for the characters' inner lives, hopes and fears’ <i>Daily Mail</i><br><br><br><u>Readers are loving<i> The Elopement:</i></u><br><br><br>'I was <b>hooked </b>from the first page' 5-star reader review<br><br>'I <b>loved every minute</b> of this novel' 5-star reader review<br><br>‘One of the <b>best books I’ve read this year</b>. It’s a <b>delight</b> - by turns <b>refreshing, funny, romantic, poignant and touching</b>’ 5-star reader review<br><br>‘<b>Full of warmth, wit </b>and <b>suspense</b>’ 5-star reader review<br><br>'It is <b>so well-written </b>with vivid period detail that I felt immersed in the Austen world and<b> did not want it to end</b>' 5-star reader review