Jane Austen (1775-1817) was extremely modest about her own genius but has become one of English literature's most famous women writers. She is the author of Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Persuasion, Mansfield Park and Northanger Abbey.
Fiona Stafford is a Fellow and Tutor in English at Somerville College, Oxford.
Tony Tanner was a Fellow of King's College, Cambridge, and Professor of English and American Literature at Cambridge.