Godmersham Park: The Sunday Times top ten bestseller by the acclaimed author of Miss Austen

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Both Fanny and her governess lived long lives, but spent only a few years together at the Godmersham estate. Anne Sharp is an interesting person because of her relation to Jane Austen, whose chief social relations seem otherwise to have been mostly with her large extended family. Gill Hornby culls from Fanny Austen’s diaries, Austen family letters, and other breadcrumbs left behind to piece together a story of Anne’s life and her relationship with Jane Austen.

Like many women of her time, Anne chose to become a governess because of unexpected circumstances and limited options. Anne felt incredibly real to me and I loved the way that Gill Hornby has created such a vivid character from Fanny’s journals. Gill Hornby has used Fanny Austen’s journals to create a wholly believable novel of life in the family of Jane’s elder brother Edward over that two years. The authors note was a great summary of events after the novel ends and added to the enjoyment as it was a bit of an abrupt ending otherwise. There, she learns firsthand about the precarious and often lonely existence of a governess, as well as the freedoms that are lost when one enters service.Indeed, where Miss Austen felt well thought out and plausible, Godmersham Park feels far more like fiction than fact. This is a lovely novel and, like Miss Austen, although it doesn’t self-consciously try to recreate the style of Jane Austen’s work, the language still transports you back to the early years of the 19th century. That meant there were several storylines that looked like they were going to go somewhere but were never mentioned again. In my recollection of that book at least, her beloved sister was someone whom Cassandra often found herself managing -- clever, but difficult, prone to depression, clearly frustrated by the lack of an outlet for her talents in the years before she managed to become a published and productive author.

Anne is often lonely, and though she becomes friendly with regular houseguests Hariott Bridges, the younger sister of Elizabeth, Henry Austen, Edward’s younger brother with whom Anne forms an unwise attachment, and later Jane Austen herself, there is a distance dictated by her position.Henry Austen, Jane's favorite brother, well known for his charm, also dominates the story to a degree I had not expected, but I was never entirely sure what his function was in the novel, or his game. Alone and desperately in need of an independent income, she is to become a governess to twelve-year-old Fanny Austen.

Gill Hornby’s excellent 2020 novel Miss Austenexplored the well-worn tale of Jane Austen’s life at one remove, through the eyes of her sister, Cassandra. Jane herself is talked of and corresponded with in the first half of the book but does not make an appearance until Act 3, chapter 27.Though little detail is known about their relationship, Anne Sharp and Jane first met during the period that Anne was engaged as a governess at Godmersham Park for Fanny Austen Knight, Jane's niece, and remained close friends until Jane’s death. While she finds twelve year old Fanny engaging and enjoyable, she figuratively walks a tightrope, not quite fitting in with the servants, but not equal to the family. Taking on this role represents a reduction in circumstances for Miss Sharp, who has no other prospects and whose father is giving her no income.