Pride and homicide

‘I have to apologise to Jane Austen for involving her beloved Elizabeth in a murder investigation but this fusion of my two enthusiasms – for the novels of Jane Austen and for writing detective stories – has given me great pleasure which I hope will be shared by my readers.’

When you’re over 90 and have received seven honorary degrees from various universities without ever having gone to university in the first place, you can do pretty much whatever you like. And if it’s prolonging the life of one of English literature’s best loved heroines, so much the better. (Especially if you’re Faber & Faber.)

The astonishingly sprightly PD James has gone one step further than all of us who idly wondered what became of Elizabeth and Darcy when they got hitched having spent all of thirty minutes in each other’s company (and most of it spent bickering).