Festival event to mark Austen's 250th birthday

Austen, born in 1775 in Hampshire, wrote six novels that continue to have huge appeal today

A literary festival is holding a special event to mark 250 years since the birth of Jane Austen.

The Stratford Literary Festival will host the "By a Lady: A Celebration of the Wit of Jane Austen" at the town's Crowne Plaza Hotel on Sunday at 19:00 BST.

Sally Phillips and Juliet Stevenson, two actors with links to the novelist's work, will lead a performance of readings from the novels as well as musical interludes.

The festival, which is in its 18th year, started on Thursday and ends on Sunday evening with the Austen event.

Born in 1775 in Hampshire, Austen was a 19th-century novelist who continues to have huge appeal today. Her six novels have sold millions of copies and have been turned into TV shows, films and even musicals.

Her portrait was chosen to appear on the £10 note in a design launched in 2017, in a nod to her literary legacy.

Sally Phillips is one of the actors who will lead the performance on Sunday night at the Stratford Literary Festival

Stevenson played Augusta Elton in a 1996 film adaptation of Austen's Emma, which starred Gwyneth Paltrow in the title role, and she has also recorded unabridged audiobooks of all of Austen's novels.

Phillips has played Shazza in the Bridget Jones films. The first Bridget Jones novel, by Helen Fielding, is loosely based on the plot of Austen's Pride and Prejudice.

Juliet Stevenson, who will also lead the event, has recorded unabridged audiobooks of all of Austen's novels

"Jane Austen [was] intensely interested in people - what makes them tick, what causes them to do what they do, how they interact with each other," Maggie O'Farrell, the patron of the Stratford Literary Festival, said in a statement.

She added that Austen's work was "subtle and complex", which meant it was "constantly open to new interpretations" that could interest new generations of readers.