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

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Meanwhile Jane's brother, Henry, begins to take an unusually strong interest in the lovely young governess . . . Godmersham Park by Gill Hornby is biographical fiction for the general market, which is a bit out of my normal reading genre. However, I thoroughly enjoyed the story and was not offended by anything in the novel. Henry’s actions are morally gray at times, but I liked him as a character. No cussing, violence, or sex scenes, but jealousy, unkindness, and petit theft do occur. Anne is neither servant nor master so the loneliness of being between is felt so that she is ripe for what is to come when the household is enlivened by family guests.

The governess role is a uniquely awkward one. Anne is neither one of the servants, nor one of the family, and to balance a position between the 'upstairs' and 'downstairs' members of the household is a diplomatic chess game. One wrong move may result in instant dismissal. Anne knows that she must never let down her guard. Despite her best endeavours, Anne finds that she is beginning to fall in love. But has her survival at Godmersham Park just become a good deal more precarious?

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Sharp makes intentional choices – not based on her heart – but on logic and circumstance. She’s determined to support herself. And that’s hard not to respect even if I wanted her to do a couple of things differently. Meticulously researched, Hornby's absorbing novel revels in the joys and tensions of life above and below stairs.”

Much of the author's research came from the diaries of Fanny Austen Knight who Anne looked after for several years at the house. She was Jane's niece and the daughter of Elizabeth Austen, The book moves slowly and there are Bridgerton and Downton Abbey vibes as the estate and landscape are brilliantly evoked as are the dresses and customs of the day. The author has done a really good job of bringing the time and society of that time to life as to the worry that women, whatever their station, worried about and had to face.This is a difficult review to write, for when it comes to Godmersham Park, I am of two minds. One the one hand, it is irrefutably a well-written book in terms of prose, character development, and historical detail. On the other hand, it is not what I would call a stimulating read. Reading it was not particularly enjoyable, nor was it altogether unpleasant. And therein lies the conflict: I neither like nor dislike this book.