Sandstone to publish 'fresh take' on Jane Austen

Sandstone Press will publish Jane and Dorothy: A True Tale of Sense and Sensibility by Marian Veevers, linking to the bicentenary of Austen’s death in July 2017.

Sandstone m.d. Robert Davidson bought world English language rights (excluding USA and Canada) from Laura Longrigg at MBA for an undisclosed sum. 

The book brings together the lives of two literary women – Jane Austen and Dorothy Wordsworth.  Born just four years apart, living in Georgian England, a world "torn between heady revolutionary ideas and fierce conservativism", the two women never met, although they had friends, family and many interests in common. This is the first time their two lives have been compared in this way, offering new insights into each woman and their age, the publisher has said.

Veevers, who lives near Grasmere, is based at the Wordsworth Trust. She has also researched and written a series of novels under the name Anna Dean set in Bath and Hampshire of Jane Austen’s time, published by Allison & Busby.

Davidson said: "Sandstone Press is delighted to have acquired this meticulously researched and thoughtfully interpreted combined biography. Marian Veevers has done such a rare thing. She has found a new way to look at an already closely studied era in English literature. Jane and Dorothy never met, but their lives were lived and their work created within the harmony of female experience of that time. As such, they speak to us in ours. Marian brings to the task of storytelling, the narrative skills she has honed when writing of the same era as novelist Anna Dean. Its original viewpoint, fresh information and sheer readability will make Jane and Dorothy a standout in the coming bi-centenary year."

Sandstone will publish in June 2017.