Is Jane Austen's legacy more than just romantic love? With Andrew Hunter Murray and Gill Hornby
Ask Penguin
Penguin Books UK
4.1 • 550 Ratings
🗓️ 15 October 2025
⏱️ 50 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
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Summary
Why do we still love Jane Austen’s novels 250 years later? What makes her stories continue to inspire readers and creators today? And if Jane were alive now, which book would you recommend she read?
In this special episode, recorded at Jane Austen’s family home in Alton, host Rhianna Dhillon is joined by Miss Austen author and president of the Jane Austen Society, Gill Hornby, alongside author and creator of the West End show Austentatious Andrew Hunter Murray, to explore Austen’s legacy and provide some regency-inspired book recommendations.
Discover all the books mentioned in this episode here: Jane Austen Episode
Visit Jane Austen’s home: janeaustens.house
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Gill Hornby is a writer and journalist. Her novels Miss Austen and Godmersham Park were Sunday Times bestsellers, and Miss Austen was adapted into a four-part BBC drama starring Keely Hawes as Cassandra Austen. She is also the President of the Jane Austen Society.
Andrew Hunter Murray is a writer, broadcaster and comedian. His first novel, The Last Day, was a Sunday Times Top 10 bestseller, and one of the top 10 fiction debuts of 2020; his second, The Sanctuary, was a Waterstones Thriller of the Month; and his third, A Beginner’s Guide to Breaking and Entering, was shortlisted for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for comic literature. in 2011, Murray was a founding member of the West End comedy show Austentatious.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to this very exciting, very special episode of Ask Penguin, the podcast all about books and the authors who write them. |
| 0:12.1 | I'm Rihanna Dillon. Now, normally, we record from the Penguin Studio in London, but in this episode, I'm so thrilled to say that I'm coming to you from Jane Austen's actual drawing |
| 0:22.7 | room at her family home in Hampshire to mark the 250th anniversary of her birth. |
| 0:28.8 | Now, I'm sure that most people listening love Jane Austen as much as we do here at Penguin. |
| 0:33.7 | The word iconic is thrown around an awful lot, but we really want to delve into why her work is still adapted, talked about, loved, 250 years after her birth, especially considering a canon only consists of six full-length novels. What is it about the Mr Darcy archetype that we still measure heroes by? And why is that letter |
| 0:54.9 | writing scene in persuasion the most romantic thing that's ever been written? I'm joined by |
| 1:00.3 | returning guest Jill Hornby, author of many books, including The Elopement, as well as Sunday |
| 1:05.9 | Times bestseller's Godmission Park and Miss Austin, the latter of which was turned into a four-part BBC |
| 1:11.8 | adaptation, and she's also the president of the Jane Austen Society. Who better to speak to |
| 1:17.7 | at Jane Austen's house? I'm also joined by writer, broadcaster and comedian Andrew Hunter Murray. And he's |
| 1:23.8 | the co-host of the award-winning podcast, No Such Thing as a Fish, and author of The Last Day, a Sunday Times bestseller, as well as The Sanctuary and a beginner's guide to breaking and entering. |
| 1:34.5 | Andy studied Jane Austen at uni and has spent 10 years performing in the improv group, Ostentatious. |
| 1:40.6 | Thank you both so much for being here. |
| 1:43.2 | Honestly, I couldn't have asked for better guests, given where we're all sitting, |
| 1:46.5 | which is in the drawing room, a very vibrant, gorgeous yellow colour, |
| 1:51.2 | and the place where Jane wrote, practiced piano, |
| 1:54.3 | and even read aloud from the very first copy of Pride and Prejudice. |
| 1:58.8 | So how are you both? |
| 2:00.2 | And how does it feel to be in Jane Austen's |
| 2:03.0 | drawing room? It feels terrific. It feels, it's all been leading to this, you know? Everything in your |
| 2:09.3 | life? Yeah. Yeah. Jill, obviously, Jane, is such a huge part of your life anyway. I imagine |
| 2:14.8 | you're very familiar with the house. Yes, I've been here |
... |
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