Hello and welcome to My Jane Austen Book Club, Elaine!
Let’s start from your book, 'Love Without Time’. Is it a variation/modern day retelling
of one of Austen’s works or something different? Could you tell us more about
it?
‘Love Without Time’ is
my own original story about a Jane Austen-mad girl called Cassie Taylor who
accidentally walks into Regency England. It’s best described as a Jane
Austen-inspired time travel romance. It’s the first in a trilogy and I’ve
nearly finished the first draft of the second book, ‘By Time Divided’.
My heroine Cassie is in
the grounds of a hospital when she finds herself walking into Regency England. The
reason she’s at a hospital is that the man who she only just met that day, and
who saved her life, has been badly hurt and she’s waiting for news of him. I
won’t give anything else away, except to say that once in Regency England, she
has to learn to fend for herself in a world that’s very different from the
twenty-first century one she’s been used to.
Do you have a best favourite among Austen’s novels?
Why do you like it more than others?
I know nearly everyone lists
‘Pride and Prejudice’ as their favourite Austen novel, but it’s mine too! It’s
just so witty and fun and Elizabeth Bennet is the kind of person I’d love to
be. She’s feisty, intelligent and confident and she’s not afraid to speak her
mind. She won’t settle for anything less than true love and that’s why she
refuses Mr Darcy the first time. She doesn’t love him – in fact at that point she
can’t stand him. And Mr Darcy – the archetypal hero. Tall, handsome and
brooding, what’s not to like?
Another aspect of it
that I love is how it goes deeper than just a formulaic love story. Both
Elizabeth and Darcy are forced to examine themselves and their behaviour. The
fact that they’re both willing to change, to admit they were wrong is a sign of
their integrity as people. They feel like such real characters and I think
that’s why they’re so loved.
