JOANNA Trollope OBE recently gave a fascinating wider world lecture at Mount Kelly about her experience of updating a classic Jane Austen novel.

Miss Trollope talked about the background to Austen’s first novel Sense and Sensibility, which she wrote at the age of 19 and paid to have published 16 years later in 1811 as a novel ‘by a lady’.

Miss Trollope read an original extract from Sense and Sensibility followed by the same passage in her updated version, set in 2013.

She explained how the characters have essentially remained the same, with jeans and Facebook simply replacing bonnets and quills, and Mr Willoughby’s gift of a horse becoming an Alfa Romeo!

The audience was entertained by Miss Trollope’s predictions of Jane’s attitude to modern life and how our main preoccupations — money, class and romance — have changed very little over time. The lecture concluded with an insightful question and answer session, including some valuable advice for emerging writers and a book signing session facilitated by Book Stop in Tavistock.