Summer 1801. Sidmouth, England.

Paula Byrne’s latest novel, Six Weeks by the Sea, is the fascinating story of how Jane Austen, the most famous romance writer of all time, fell in love for the first time.  The Austen Family descends upon a fashionable Georgian seaside resort in Devonshire for a six-week holiday.  Jane’s brother, Frank, is on leave from the Royal Navy, and dearly wishes to unite his sister with his friend Captain Peter Parker. But another holidaymaker, a handsome stranger, catches sight of Jane and is determined to make her acquaintance. This rival to Captain Parker is Samuel Rose: a lawyer, literary man and abolitionist. As the weeks pass, Jane’s relationship with both men brings about unexpected surprises. By the end of the summer, the course of her life will have changed forever.

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Author photo © Guillem Lopez