Three women, two families, one forbidden marriage. Get ready to fall in love with the brand-new regency romance from the Sunday Times bestselling author of Godmersham Park and Miss Austen, now a major BBC TV series.

‘A richly imagined family saga, love story and social comedy’ Times

'Gripping and moving and also so sharp and funny. I loved it!’ Sabine Durrant, bestselling author of Lie with Me

‘Has all the wit and wisdom of a Jane Austen novel’ Red

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1820. Mary Dorothea is living under the sole charge of her widowed father, Sir Edward, a man of strict principles and high moral values.

But when Sir Edward marries Miss Fanny Knight of Godmersham Park, Mary’s life is suddenly changed.

Mary’s new stepmother, Fanny, comes from a large, happy and sociable family, and Fanny’s brothers are amusing, handsome and completely charming.

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.

Sir Edward’s outrage is immediate, his refusal absolute. The union will never take place.

There appears to be only one solution . . .


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Praise for The Elopement:

‘Hornby’s Austen books are funny, bittersweet family sagas, impeccably researched and lavishly imagined’ The Times

'Tremendous' Nigella Lawson

'Has all Austen’s wit and unnerving powers of observation with an extra twenty-first century zap' Ferdinand Mount, prize-winning author of Big Ceasars and Little Caesars

‘Few writers are as perspicacious or half as delightful as Hornby’ Karen Joy Fowler, international bestselling author of The Jane Austen Book Club

‘A captivating return to the world of the Austens’ Woman & Home

‘Combines meticulous period research with a fine feeling for the characters' inner lives, hopes and fears’ Daily Mail


Readers are loving The Elopement:


'I was hooked from the first page' 5-star reader review

'I loved every minute of this novel' 5-star reader review

‘One of the best books I’ve read this year. It’s a delight - by turns refreshing, funny, romantic, poignant and touching’ 5-star reader review

‘Full of warmth, wit and suspense’ 5-star reader review

'It is so well-written with vivid period detail that I felt immersed in the Austen world and did not want it to end' 5-star reader review

Hornby’s Austen books are funny, bittersweet family sagas, impeccably researched and lavishly imagined * The Times *
Combines meticulous research with a fabulously heartfelt feeling for her characters . . . Filled with Austen-esque ironies and humour. * The Daily Express *
Joyous . . . captured with apt perspicacity and keen wit * Mail on Sunday *
Has all the wit and wisdom of a Jane Austen novel * Red *
Combines meticulous period research with a fine feeling for the characters' inner lives, hopes and fears * Daily Mail *
I’m so fond of Gill’s books for their vividness at explaining the historical period. She also truly cares about her characters and their welfare * Aine Toner, Belfast Telegraph *
Has all Austen’s wit and unnerving powers of observation with an extra twenty-first century zap * Ferdinand Mount *
Few writers are as perspicacious or half as delightful as Hornby * Karen Joy Fowler *
Gripping and moving and also so sharp and funny. I loved it! * Sabine Durrant *
Tremendous . . . Darker than Miss Austen but rendered with her characteristic lightness of touch and neat wit * Nigella Lawson *

Gill Hornby is the author of The Hive and All Together Now, as well as The Story of Jane Austen, a biography of Austen for younger readers.

Her subsequent novels, Miss Austen and Godmersham Park were Sunday Times bestsellers, and Miss Austen is a four-part BBC adaptation starring Keely Hawes as Cassandra Austen. She is also the President of the Jane Austen Society.

She lives in West Berkshire with her husband and four children.