Paula's new book, The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things, is a Sunday Times Top Ten and Guardian Bookshop No.1 Bestseller  

“Paula Byrne's magnificent The Real Jane Austen explodes the old view of her subject. Her research is wide, deep and meticulous ... Her method is kaleidoscopic, offering a fascinating social and cultural history of the time served up in a series of learned yet wholly accessible essays, the formidable scholarship subsumed, never paraded ... surviving memorabilia are triumphantly deployed ... deeply touching ... a more vivid and memorable Jane Austen emerges than a relentlessly 'straight' old-fashioned narrative could deliver”

Peter J. Conradi, Times Literary Supplement

“sparklingly multi-faceted, catching the light in intriguing ways” ****

Kathryn Hughes, Mail on Sunday

“vividly persuasive”

New York Times - Editors' Choice

“brilliantly illuminating”

Simon Callow, The Guardian

“refreshing, ambitious and immensely detailed … It is good to meet the real Jane Austen at last”

Susan Elkin, Independent on Sunday

“astonishing stories abound ... illuminating Austen's personality, travels and worldview”

Michael Dirda, Washington Post

“a fine appraisal of the novelist's environment, truly Austenish in the way [it] burrows into a sequestered and often secretive private world”

Peter Conrad, The Observer

“for all those people who are still searching to know more about this remarkable woman, Paula Byrne’s book will provide a truly satisfying and enjoyable read” **** Aline Reed, Sunday Express