Everyone is familiar with the quote, "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man, in possession of a large fortune, must be in want of a wife." What we may perhaps not all be familiar with is where it comes from, the brilliant mind that coined it, or with the six finely crafted novels that came from such "a beautiful mind."

Jane lived during some of the most turbulent times that Britain has lived through, and her family was, to some extent, involved in these happenings. Madame Guillotine took the life of a cousin’s husband. She had brothers in the British Navy. She was a young lady when the American Revolution was happening. Oddly enough, though, these happenings are almost non existent in her novels. All her books revolve around middle class society and matters of matrimony and family relationships. Does this make her simple-minded or the scope of her novels too narrow to be worth anything to readers in the 21^st century? On the contrary! It is her small scope that recommends itself so highly. Books like "The Scarlet Pimpernel" may excite our interest, and accounts of the American Revolution may stir patriotic fervour, but it is Jane’s stories that we really identify with. She has captured the souls and characters of so many people – truly, man does not change and "there is nothing new under the sun." We can see ourselves and recognise others in her novels. They have a timeless quality because they deal with people, not with events.

Jane Austen was born into a loving family in December of 1775. She was the seventh child, with five brothers and one sister. Her father was a clergyman in the village of Steventon, in Hampshire. Her mother was an active and attentive housekeeper. Jane’s older sister, Cassandra, was to be her closest and dearest friend until the end of her life. Cassandra painted the only authentic portrait of Jane that we have, and illustrated the "History of England" that Jane wrote when she was 16.

Although Jane & Cassandra shared a special bond the entire Austen family was close, and delighted in each other’s company. They performed skits together. Jane’s father taught the girls how to read and gave them a better education than many young ladies from that time would have had. They took delight in sharing books with each other ("We are great novel readers," declared Jane). Jane’s whole family encouraged her in her writing – Jane’s father bought her notebooks to record her stories in and they all listened eagerly to her tales. In fact, one of Austen’s brothers was a moving force in attempting to get some of her early novels published. They all wrote (a brother for an Oxford paper, her mother poems, etc.) and all possessed a lively sense of humour. An early indication of Jane’s humour is to be found in the registry book at her father’s Church; she wrote, "Banns of Marriage: Henry Frederick Howard Fitzwilliam of London and Jane Austen of Steventon. Marriage Jane Austen of Steventon to Arthur William Mortimer of Liverpool."

Despite these "entries" into her father’s book, neither Jane nor Cassandra ever married. Cassandra was once engaged, but before the wedding could take place her intended died of a fever.

Jane spent most of her life in Hampshire. She lived for several years in Bath after her father "retired." After he died Jane, Cassandra and their mother moved to a cottage in Chawton where Jane worked on her novels and they all gardened and read.

It was here that Jane died, probably from Parkinson’s disease, in 1817. Her "dear Cassandra" was with her.