Rosie Rushton

Like death and taxes, nothing is certain but the market for Jane Austen fan fiction. Seriously, writing a story based on Austen's characters is a sure-fire money spinner, because obsessive fans like myself will buy anything even vaguely related to the original books. Luckily, Rosie Rushton's teen take on Emma, my favourite Austen novel, is another winner - sort of Clueless in the style of Juliet Archer's The Importance of Being Emma. A fast read, but one that will hopefully tempt teens into show more reading the source material.

'Emma Woodhouse had, for seventeen years and ten months, had pretty much everything in life her own way, and saw no reason at all why the situation should ever change'. Rushton's YA update remains creatively faithful to Emma, barring a rather more forceful and obnoxious heroine. Emma's father is an ageing rock star turned eco-warrior, concerned about the environment instead of his own health ('When he held dinner parties at Hartfield, he served only locally grown organic food, and English wine that was made from grapes that had been consulted as to their feelings during planting'), Harriet is a shy school friend with family troubles, the garrulous Miss Bates is now Lily Bates, another classmate of Emma's who looks after her disabled mother, and Lily's cousin Jake Fairfax is the mysterious local celebrity who shares a secret with wealthy playboy Freddie Churchill. All the old names and relationships are instantly recognisable, if occasionally revamped, including 'dear, darling, wonderful, gorgeous' George Knightley, Emma's next door neighbour and lifelong friend. I thought the various tweaks and twists necessary to bring the story into the twenty-first century were all very fitting, especially 'Freddie' Churchill's secret relationship, and enjoyed the new seaside setting of Brighton, too. The writing is sharp and funny, the characters are likeable, and Emma is suitably bitchy and domineering (I love that she's thinking of studying psychology and human behavioural sciences at university!) The ending felt a little rushed, but then the final chapters in Austen's Emma do, too.

Great fun, and definitely recommended! I might try some of Rosie Rushton's other Austen novels next. show less

I didn't enjoy Rosie Rushton's 21st century update of Sense and Sensibility quite like her adaptation of Emma (Secret Schemes and Daring Dreams), but then I feel the same about Austen's original novels too. Still, The Secrets of Love is a clever reworking of the Dashwood sisters' lives and loves, about three sisters who lose their estranged father and have to downsize and move from Brighton to Norfolk. Ellie is the eldest and most responsible, who falls for somebody else's guy, Abby is the show more middle sister torn between two boys, and Georgie is the youngest, a daredevil tomboy.

Some scenes were very effective, like the death of Mr Dashwood and Abby's dramatic exit, but the writing overall seemed stilted and the dialogue rather dated ('Ace!') and Americanised ('I guess'). I did appreciate how Rushton worked with Austen's characters - Pandora the wicked stepmother was a worthy stand-in for Fanny - but chick-lit for teens could never quite match Austen's genius, I'm afraid. show less

I think Rosie Rushton is very clever at adapting Jane Austen's novels for young readers, but even to my thirty-something awareness, her dialogue still sounds dated! I loved her take on Emma (Secret Schemes and Daring Dreams), but was a little less enamoured of The Secrets of Love (her treatment of Sense and Sensibility), and I think her most recent reworking of Mansfield Park falls into that same three-star rating. Perhaps because Emma is my favourite novel, whereas MP falls to the bottom of show more the pile, but I found her updated characters almost cartoonish, and the heavy handed moralism of Austen's tale is back in spades.

Frankie Price is the poor little rich girl, daughter of a bipolar mother and an absentee father, who is sent to live with her middle-class cousins. Much is made of the fact that Frankie's mother is adopted, and I wondered why, until twigging that falling in love with your first cousin is no longer the acceptable romantic failsafe that it was in Austen's day! I did like some of the modern twists - Mr Bertram is head of a fashion chain which employs Mexican sweatshops, instead of being a plantation owner, and the shocking play becomes a music festival, but I'm not sure that the rest of the story would appeal to any reader not looking for parallels with Austen's novel. Frankie is still a priggish killjoy, Ned is now a social worker, Alice is an out-and-out cow with no complexity of character, unlike Mary Crawford, and Aunt 'Nerys' is a fairy godmother compared to Mrs Norris.

A lot of the subtlety of the original story, though far from popular with me, is lost in translation here, I'm afraid, though kudos to Rosie Rushton for even attempting to update nineteenth century social etiquette into a modern day equivalent. show less

In this retelling of "Sense and Sensibility," the three Dashwood Sisters' each deal with tragedy in their own way. It's a little bit heavy-handed, but teen girls will enjoy the setting and the drama.