Tim Luscombe is a writer and theatre director. As a playwright, his plays include EuroVision (1994), The One You Love (1996), The Schuman Plan (2006), Hungry Ghosts (2010) and Pig (2013).He has written several stage adaptations from 19th Century novels including Northanger Abbey (2005), Persuasion (2011), Mansfield Park (2012), Silas Marner (2014), Emma (2017) and Turn of the Screw (2018).In 2018, his auto-fictional book Learning German (badly) was published.As a director, his work includes over 50 theatrical productions in the West End, on- and off-Broadway, in Japan, Europe and all over the UK. In 1992 he co-founded the London Gay Theatre Company and was its artistic director till 1996.He lives in Berlin and is currently writing a novel. Jane Austen (1775-1817) was an English novelist whose works are among the most popular novels ever written. Her keen eye for social tension, and ear for taut, witty dialogue have delighted readers for centuries, while her novels have maintained historical importance through their analysis of the dependence of women on marriage to gain social standing and security. She has been widely adapted for both stage and screen, and continues to be among the most widely-read of late-18th-/early 19th-century writers.