29 April 2025

Jessica Bull lives in South East London with her husband, two daughters, and far too many pets. She’s addicted to stories and studied English Literature at Bristol University, and Information Science at City University, London. She began her career as a librarian (under the false impression she could sit and read all day), before becoming a communications consultant.

Her debut novel, Miss Austen Investigates, sold to Penguin Michael Joseph at auction for six figures and is published in 18 territories worldwide. A Fortune Most Fatal, the second book in her cosy crime (or cozy crime) Jane Austen murder mystery series was published in March 2025. You can find A Fortune Most Fatal and Jessica’s other books on the Catalogul Bibliotecilor Comunitare Suffolk.

What was your first introduction to Jane Austen?

Jane Austen has been an enormous influence on my imagination ever since the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice in 1995. When this came out, I was 17 and studying for my A-levels. When I asked my English teacher about Austen, he sent me to the library to borrow a copy of Northanger Abbey. After that, I became a Janeite for life!

But it wasn’t until the pandemic hit in 2020, that I realised how much I needed Austen. I turned to her for comfort, rereading all her novels as well as every biography I could find. It was realising how hard Austen had struggled to write and get published that encouraged me to start composing fiction again after a hiatus of 10 years.

You worked for The London Borough of Camden library service before you became a published author. What are your memories of that time?

I began working in libraries when I was still at school. My favourite part was speaking to all our patrons about what they were reading. I was really surprised to discover the most popular section by far was crime. As a nerdy teenager, I’d been focused on working my way through the classics – but I followed up on some of those recommendations, and discovered I too loved a good murder mystery too, especially P.D. James and Minette Walters.

Your first book in the series Miss Austen Investigates was published in 2024. When did you first make the decision to take your love for Jane Austen’s work and use it to place her as a character in a crime solving world?

Through my reading, I felt I had a vivid impression of Austen’s character and I really wanted to portray the vibrant, witty, and joyfully irreverent woman I believe she was. I also wanted to tell her story, because it’s tempting to conflate Austen with her more privileged heroines and imagine her path to success was easy. All the things that stand in the way of her investigations in my novels are the same obstacles she faced in becoming a published author, and the unique qualities which enabled her genius in real life (such as her sense of justice, an innate understanding of human nature and a determination to succeed) allow her to solve the mysteries.

Ne poți spune puțin despre ultima ta carte? A Fortune Most Fatal?

In this second instalment of Miss Austen Investigates, a broken-hearted Jane Austen travels to Kent to look after her brother Neddy’s children and further her writing. She soon realizes it’s imperative she uncovers the true-identity of a mysterious young woman claiming to be a shipwrecked foreign princess before the interloper can swindle Neddy’s adoptive mother out of her fortune and steal the much-anticipated inheritance all the Austens rely on.

It’s inspired by the true story of Mary Baker, who, in 1817, persuaded a Gloucester magistrate and his wife she was Princess Caraboo of the fictional island of Javasu in the Indian Ocean, and that she had been captured by pirates and escaped by jumping overboard in the Bristol Channel and swimming ashore. She was eventually discovered as a runaway servant. Everyone who knew Mary said she loved to tell stories. It made me wonder, if Mary had been born into the class of women who were fortunate enough to receive an education, would she be remembered as another Jane Austen?

You have a vast knowledge of your subject. What is the most surprising fact you found about Jane and her family?

In 1799, Jane Austen’s aunt, Mrs Leigh-Perrot, was arrested in Bath for shoplifting a card of lace worth twenty shillings – a capital crime in Georgian England. If she’d have been found guilty, the only alternative to the gallows would have been transportation to Australia. Mrs Leigh-Perrot was eventually acquitted but it was a fraught time for the family. While she was confined at Ilchester Gaol, Mrs Austen offered to send Jane and Cassandra to keep her company, but Mrs Leigh-Perrot declined to allow “those Elegant young Women [to] be … inmates in a prison.” Think of the novels we might have had if Mrs Leigh-Perrot had said yes!

Ce urmează pentru tine?

I’m busy writing more in the Miss Austen Investigates series. My novels are not retellings of Austen’s works, but they are tributes and explore similar themes, so I hope to write at least six ­just as she did.

Ne poți spune un lucru despre tine pe care cititorii tăi nu l-ar ști?

I have tried many ways to inhabit Jane Austen’s world, and some of these have been more successful than others – my flock of backyard hens is thriving, but it’s not so easy to learn to ride horseback in your forties! Famously, Janeites love to dress up in Regency costume and I very much enjoyed getting my old sewing machine out to create some. I even turned my very obliging husband into my own leading man by sewing him a Captain Wentworth-style naval jacket.

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