The real-life dramas experienced by Jane Austen’s nieces Marianne, Louisa and Cassandra Knight were straight out of a novel by the great writer herself. Author Sophia Hillan follows May, Lou and Cass from middle-class England to famine-ravaged Ireland in the early 19th century. It is a story of elopements, early deaths, years of exile and an unsuitable marriage regarded as so inappropriate it was mentioned in the House of Lords.

Hillan, a former assistant director of Queen’s University of Belfast’s Institute of Irish Studies, tells the extraordinary story of the three women who had Austen as an early companion and teacher. Through it, she uncovers new material on Jane Austen and her family and sheds light on a fascinating period in history.