Keira: Which is your favorite Jane Austen novel and why?

Jane: Persuasion is my favourite Austen novel. There are lots of reasons why I love it – the characters are fabulous, the theme of love being lost and found is timeless, and Jane Austen’s writing is at her best, I think.

Keira: How do you get your Jane Austen fix?

Jane:  I immerse myself in the books, but I also enjoy some of the adaptations. I read Jane’s books several times a year.

Keira: Most Jane Austen sequels focus on the relationship between Mr. Darcy and Miss Elizabeth Bennet from Pride and Prejudice; what inspired you to try your hand at Colonel William Brandon and Marianne Dashwood?

Jane: I wanted to know more about their relationship, as there are few clues at the end of Sense and Sensibility. How did Marianne come to love a man she considered to be too old and staid? I thought it would be exciting to explore how the effects of their former relationships might impact on their life together.

Keira: What do you feel is the hardest aspect of writing a Jane Austen sequel? Is it the research, the writing, the dialogue, or other?

Jane: I want to do justice to the original book and try my hardest to keep the same themes, tone and flavour. Because I am writing for a modern audience, it is sometimes challenging to keep the balance right between writing for them and yet staying true to style.

Keira: Marianne is torn between Brandon and Willoughby in Willoughby’s Return. Why is the decision a difficult one and what qualities does each man have in his favor?

Jane: Marianne is still quite immature at the start of Willoughby’s Return. She is ruled by her emotions and Willoughby comes back into her life at a point when she is questioning Colonel Brandon’s love and affection for her and when she is at her most vulnerable. Willoughby reminds her of a time when she had few responsibilities and for a moment she is swept along by her feelings. I don’t think Marianne sees each man in terms of what they have going for them, she reacts to circumstances and their behaviour towards her.

Keira: If you had to choose, what scene in Willoughby’s Return is your absolute favorite—one you would not allow to be edited out of the novel?

Jane: I think the winter scene where Marianne and Margaret go skating on the frozen Serpentine Lake. Without giving too much away this is a dramatic scene which ends at a critical point. I love writing descriptions and thoroughly enjoyed doing the research about frost fair activities held at the time.

She (Margaret) had heard of famous frost fairs in London when the great River Thames had frozen over but nothing had prepared her for the sight of the Serpentine Lake fringed with glowing lanterns in the dim afternoon light, the branches of trees dipping their lacy fingers into the polished, black ice. Crossing and re-crossing the vast expanse skated a myriad of figures in a stately ballet, silhouetted against ribbon streams of sunshine in tints of rosy pink to gild the clouds. There were icemen sweeping and burnishing the lagoon to a gleaming finish, hiring out skates for those intrepid enough to try them. Several booths had been set up from which hot ginger wine, ale, or brandy could be purloined. The costermongers were setting up shop by selling fruit, their wives tempting weary skaters with oysters and hot meat pies. The noise of people shouting, cheering, and laughing echoed in the still air to the accompaniment of cracking ice, loud as a firing musket.

Keira: Tell us a little about Margaret and her quest for a love match.

Jane: Margaret has reached the age for falling in love, but has not met anyone who has yet stolen her heart. I wanted her to be bowled over and fall head over heels despite her initial resistance to the idea. I loved writing the twists and turns on her journey to forming a lasting relationship.

Keira: Which character did you have the most fun writing?

Jane: Mrs Jennings – she is an interfering busybody with a good heart, and I enjoyed writing her character very much.

Keira: How do you define love?

Jane: Love can be defined in so many ways – of romantic love with a partner, I’d say it involves caring for that person with unconditional affection, putting their wants and needs before your own, sharing their triumphs and disasters – being with them!

Keira: Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Jane:  Jane Austen’s characters are never caricatures. It was important to me to explore how Marianne and Margaret, not to mention Willoughby and the Colonel would react in certain situations, and to be honest about how they would behave bearing in mind the constraints of the time. There are many unspoken thoughts, conversations and misunderstandings, which change the course of the plot or move it forward. I’ve always enjoyed the fact that Austen employed these devices in her books – it is largely a modern concept that we share our feelings and discuss them openly. In Willoughby’s Return, I try to show how a relationship might unravel if communication between a married couple might break down, but in the best Austen tradition I guarantee a happy ending for all concerned! Thank you very much for the interview Keira.

Buy: Willoughby's Return

About the Author

Jane Odiwe is an artist and author. She is an avid fan of all things Austen and is the author and illustrator of Effusions of Fancy, annotated sketches from the life of Jane Austen, as well as Lydia Bennet's Story. She lives with her husband and three children in North London. For more information please visit Jane’s website, and on Twitter.

Giveaway: One lucky commenter will win 1 copy of Willoughby's Return. Open to US and Canadian readers only. Enter by asking Jane Odiwe a question. One entry per comment; multiple entries allowed. Ends: November 18, 2009. Increase your chances by reading Jane's guest blog Some Sights and Sounds of Regency Britain and answering her question about Austen fantasies.

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by Jane Odiwe, guest blogger and author of Willoughby’s Return

Thank you very much for giving me this opportunity to talk to you all about my new book. One of the things I enjoy about writing my Austen sequels is the research I have to do for each novel. I love to set each major scene giving clues to how places looked at the time, as well as considering sounds and smells! Jane Austen did not devote much of her writing to descriptions of places and scenes as she took it for granted that people would know what she was talking about, but I think it is important that I transport my reader back to the 1800’s especially if they know little about the era.

I have Marianne and Colonel Brandon go to London for the season. I read everything I could about shopping, amusements and entertainments of the time and it is very fortunate that so much of the part of London I was researching still exists even if some of the buildings have changed. Helping to transport me back in time was a map from 1803 that I downloaded from the internet. Off I went on the tube to stand in Oxford Street and Bond Street trying to imagine that the cars roaring by were carriages and that the sounds around me were different again.

I wanted to give an idea of how exciting it would be for Marianne’s sister, Margaret, to come to London for the first time. She is a young lady who has grown up in the relative quiet of the countryside:

Fascinated by everything she saw, marvelling at the shops on every side, Margaret exclaimed at all she witnessed. Watchmakers, silk stores, and silversmiths displayed their wares behind sparkling glass, illuminated by the amber glow of oil lamps. Exotic fruit and towering desserts in the fruiterers and confectioners formed a dazzling spectacle; pyramids of pineapples, figs, and grapes cascaded from porcelain epergne. Marchpane castles, rosewater creams, and fruited cake vied for attention on platters of every shape and size. And the crowds of people stretching across the wide pavements, the ladies gathered outside in admiration of the linen shops, draped with silks, chintzes, and muslins were a sight to behold; such fashionably dressed gentility as Margaret had never seen before… After the relative quiet of life in Devon and Dorset, she could not believe how noisy London was to her ears; not only the sound of rumbling carriages and carts, but the clatter of patterns on pavements and the distinctive cries of street sellers rang everywhere about.

I love writing descriptions of interiors. When Marianne and Colonel Brandon visit his sister, Lady Lawrence, at Whitwell, it gave me an opportunity to ‘paint’ the setting. We know from Sense and Sensibility that Brandon’s sister spent some time in France and I decided that her taste in design would have been influenced by her travels abroad.

The Brandons were shown into a large salon, filled with the most beautiful fittings and furniture. The style was French, the room ornate with gilded chairs, pier glasses, and chandeliers of the finest crystal. The silk-covered walls glowed with coral shades and iridescent hues of shell pink, further illuminating the room in flowing drapes at the floor-length windows, in the decorative ceiling, and in the Aubusson rug, which burgeoned with fat summer roses and green leaf garlands.

Lady Lawrence sat upon a velvet sofa, bolstered with pads and rolls, guarded by golden lion heads on either arm, which seemed ready to spring into life and leap out at anyone who might come to disturb her apparent idle repose. Despite the warmth of the day, she was covered to her waist by a heavy coverlet fringed with gold braid. She did not get up when they entered but excused herself, claiming that the damp of the day was responsible for her inability to stand.

Whilst writing Willoughby’s Return, I celebrated a special birthday and was lucky enough to spend a few days with my family in the house where Sense & Sensibility 1995 was filmed! It was great fun walking in the footsteps of Marianne and Elinor Dashwood, seeing the spot where Willoughby pulled up in his curricle and where Colonel Brandon helped Marianne cut reeds in the estuary. It was such an enormous treat and great inspiration for my writing.

I had a wonderful time researching Willoughby’s Return. If you could go back in time and star in your own Austen fantasy, where would you like to go? Would you prefer experiencing a vast country house, a grand ball, or perhaps an evening at a Georgian circus like Astley’s?

WILLOUGHBY’S RETURN—IN STORES NOVEMBER 2009

A lost love returns, rekindling forgotten passions…

In Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, when Marianne Dashwood marries Colonel Brandon, she puts her heartbreak over dashing scoundrel John Willoughby in the past.

Three years later, Willoughby's return throws Marianne into a tizzy of painful memories and exquisite feelings of uncertainty. Willoughby is as charming, as roguish, and as much in love with her as ever. And the timing couldn't be worse—with Colonel Brandon away and Willoughby determined to win her back, will Marianne find the strength to save her marriage, or will the temptation of a previous love be too powerful to resist?

Buy: Willoughby's Return

About the Author

Jane Odiwe is an artist and author. She is an avid fan of all things Austen and is the author and illustrator of Effusions of Fancy, annotated sketches from the life of Jane Austen, as well as Lydia Bennet's Story. She lives with her husband and three children in North London. For more information please visit Jane’s website and follow her on Twitter.

Giveaway: One lucky commenter will win 1 copy of Willoughby's Return. Open to US and Canadian readers only. Enter by answering Jane Odiwe's question about your own Austen fantasy. Increase your chances by reading Jane's interview and asking her a question. Ends: November 18, 2009.

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