In my mid-20s, I decided to broaden my reading. I was stuck in a rut of glitzy bestsellers and overhyped new titles, so I returned to the classics and one of the first books I read was Pride & Prejudice. I still remember being surprised that a story written in the early 19th century could feel so fresh.

Neither had I appreciated how much of what I’d read had been influenced by Jane Austen. The way she challenged perceptions of how men and women should behave; the way she wrote about class and families.

The dresses and social conventions may have changed but many of the dilemmas faced by her characters live on in different guises.

Possibly my favourite Jane Austen quote is not from her work. Following the publication of Pride & Prejudice, an acquaintance is reputed to have told her brother that he’d like to know the author’s real identity. “It’s much too clever to have been written by a woman,” he said.