The Elopement
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  • Published: 5 June 2025
  • ISBN: 9781804943236
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • Format: Audio Download
  • RRP: $29.99

The Elopement

Formats & editions
Tr. Paperback
3 Jun 2025
EBook
5 Jun 2025
Audiobook
5 Jun 2025
Hardback
5 Jul 2025
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Gill Hornby plunges us into the lives of the Austen family during the early 19th Century, where an unconventional marriage divides a family and turmoil ensues.

‘It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.’

1820, and the marriage between wealthy widower Sir Edward Knatchbull and Jane Austen’s handsome, dutiful niece Fanny Knight is widely praised as being the most excellent match in the county.

As Sir Edward’s wife, Fanny is expected to apply herself to the raising of his five children with the same dedication she has shown towards her siblings at Godmersham Park. In particular, she pays care to young Mary Knatchbull - the only girl of the family, and the apple of her strict father's eye.

Poor Mary has hitherto been raised under a cloud of quiet misery. But as the Knight and Knatchbull families merge, she discovers something like fun. The Knight girls are so sweet and the boys .... so very handsome and charming and madly athletic - especially Ned, the eldest and therefore the heir to Godmersham Park.

As Mary approaches her seventeenth birthday, a bond forms between her and Ned Knight, an understanding that leads, on the last day of the year 1825, to Ned declaring his hand. Sir Edward's outrage is immediate; his refusal unyielding. Ned Knight is his own wife's brother! The situation is simply unseemly. And besides, he dislikes the fellow. The marriage will never take place.

There appears to be only one solution for Ned and Mary - but can it really involve elopement?

____________

Love for Godmersham Park ...

'So envious of anyone yet to read this. A triumph!' Nigella Lawson
'A masterly piece of storytelling.' Helena Kelly
'The great writer is brought to life in this clever, well-researched piece of fiction' The Times
'Godmersham Park has some of the same understated wit and sharp observation as Austen's novels' Sunday Times
  • Published: 5 June 2025
  • ISBN: 9781804943236
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • Format: Audio Download
  • RRP: $29.99
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About the author

Gill Hornby

Gill Hornby is the author of the novels The Hive and All Together Now, as well as The Story of Jane Austen, a biography of Austen for young readers. She lives in Kintbury, Berkshire, with her husband and their four children.

portrait photo of Gill Hornby

Also by Gill Hornby

Godmersham Park
Miss Austen
See all

Praise for The Elopement

Turmoil ensues in this novel laced with scandal, elopement, gossip and family intrigue.

The Bookseller

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

A captivating return to the world of the Austens

Zoe West, Woman's Weekly

Joyous . . . captured with apt perspicacity and keen wit

Mail on Sunday

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

The Times

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

Daily Mail

Has all the wit and wisdom of a Jane Austen novel

Red

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

Tremendous . . . Darker than Miss Austen but rendered with her characteristic lightness of touch and neat wit

Nigella Lawson

A magical and terrifically interesting read

Persephone Books Newsletter

Combines meticulous research with a fabulously heartfelt feeling for her characters . . . Filled with Austen-esque ironies and humour.

The Daily Express
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