Being an avid reader and author of romantic comedy novels, naturally Jane Austen looms large among my heroes and inspirations, and that goes back a long way. As a teenager in the Nineties, when Jane’s work was enjoying a huge surge in popularity, my Sunday evenings were often spent in front of one of the many excellent television or film adaptations of her novels such as Andrew Davies’ Pride and Prejudice and Emma Thompson’s Sense and Sensibility.

From there, and it’s the wrong way round, I...