Review by The Bookbag (4 stars)

Here’s an extract from The Bookbag’s review:

‘The story’s set very much in the twenty-first century rather than the nineteenth and Juliet Archer’s retelling is skilful and never forced, despite staying very close to the original plot. Emma Woodhouse is the marketing director of Highbury Foods and Mark Knightley has come home from India to take over the reins of Donwell Organics whilst his father is away on an extended holiday. Harriet Smith is Emma’s PA and she’s a superb creation – Essex girl through and through. Her farva as a tan ass says something about the residence of a relative, but I’ll let you work it out for yourself.

‘The story is told in turn by Mark and Emma in short chapters. It took me just a few moments of wondering why Emma was (seemingly) so taken by a nice pair of female legs before I got into the rhythm but after that we swung along very nicely. Sometimes it was laugh-out-loud funny to see the same situation from the so-different perspectives, and Juliet Archer knows how to keep the reader’s interest and the plot moving along very smoothly.

‘So, what would Jane Austen have thought of Juliet Archer’s retelling of Emma? Well, she’d have smiled delightedly at the writing, catching as it does the gentle comedy of her own work. She’d have been shocked at the sex scenes, wondering if, like some of the language, they were entirely necessary, particularly she might have added for those of us who are not entirely certain what ‘the hilt’ is and what it is in ‘up to’. I think she’d have mused on the fact that the modern Emma is rather more likeable than her Georgian counterpart and enquired if that was deliberate or if we were simply more used to spoilt rich girls. She’d have nodded wisely and accepted the book as fine tribute.’

The reviewer awarded the book 4 stars (out of 5) and summarised it as ‘Definitely recommended’, leaving this JA well and truly chuffed, ‘up to the hilt’.

The anatomical term ‘up to the hilt’ was, of course, inspired by a certain Guy of Gisborne, whose weapon - according to the BBC’s very own shrine to Richard Armitage - is the sword. And who knows? The Great JA might easily have used such an expression herself if she’d watched Robin Hood of a Saturday evening …