I'm Julie Andrews, and it is my great pleasure to bring you Jane Austen Stories,

the new show from the Noiser Podcast Network.

I'll be reading Pride and Prejudice.

We'll walk grand estates and take tea with well-dressed gentlewomen,

but in this tranquil corner of England, not everything is quite

as it appears. Listen to Jane Austen's stories wherever you get your podcasts.

It is a cool spring day in April 1925. In Astell Manor, an imposing Jacobian house in the south of England, a young man named Robert Byron stands before a mirror, carefully smoothing down his unruly hair.

Satisfied with the result, he opened the bedroom door and hurries downstairs, the violet

scent of his luxurious hair cream wafting after him.

As he nears the drawing room, snatches of conversation drift out into the corridor, overlaid

with the sound of a jazz record playing on the gramophone.

Stepping into the room, he is greeted by a hail of voices.

Several of his closest friends from Oxford University lounge on the chairs and sofas dotted around.

Like him, they're dressed in brightly patterned fair-ile jumpers and clashing silk ties,

a far cry from the stuffy suits favoured by their parents.

Olden court in their midst is Nancy Mitford, to whose family this house belongs.

A young woman with striking green eyes, her dark hair is cropped fashionably short,

and she is dressed daringly in a knitted sweater and trousers.

Wandering over to the gramophone, Robert notes with amusement that though her sisters Pam and Diana are also

present, it is Nancy who holds the men's complete attention. They sit enraptured by her constant stream of witty chatter and biting remarks.

Suddenly, the door crashes open and two younger girls rush in.

Nancy beckoned them over and holds up a book of poetry.

...