Jon Spence's brilliant biography of Jane Austen is an intimate portrait of the much loved novelist. Spence paints a vivid picture of Jane's world; her situation and circumstances, their benefits and drawbacks, and the people who influenced her - family and friends, rejected suitors, tiresome acquaintances and unruly nephews. 'Becoming Jane' shows how Jane Austen's own personal experiences resonated throughout her work and how one person, above all, affected her life and caught her imagination; the young Irish lawyer Tom Lefroy. It is a world familiar to us from Jane Austen's novels - but in 'Becoming Jane', Austen herself is the centre of attention.
