Freya Sampson talks about her new Jane Austen inspired novel

As soon as I had the idea to  write  a novel about a famous book boyfriend coming to life, I knew two things. One, the book boyfriend had to be Jane Austen's Mr Darcy, a character I’ve  adored since I first read  Pride and Prejudice  aged fifteen (which conveniently coincided with the BBC's magnificent adaptation and Colin Firth in that wet shirt). Two, if Mr Darcy was going to turn up in twenty-first-century Britain, I had to take him – and myself – to Bath.  

As someone who has loved Jane Austen since I was a teenager, Bath has always felt magical, but visiting as a writer made me see it in a whole newlight. This time, I wasn't   just admiring the architecture; I was constantly wondering what it would feel like to arrive here if you had known the city in Austen's lifetime. Modern Bath is very different from Regency-era Bath, of course. There are buses where there were once carriages, Caffé   Neros instead of coffee houses, and a lot  more selfie sticks than parasols. Yet beneath modern life is the same elegant Georgian city Mr Darcy would remember, with the same   honey-coloured stone and grand crescents sweeping  gracefully across the skyline. As I   got off the train from London and walked up to the Abbey, it struck me that if Mr Darcy were in my shoes, coming to Bath would be the first time he’d  felt truly at home.  

Walking around Bath also reminded me how recognisable Austen's characters still are. Nowhere was that more apparent than at the Jane Austen Centre. Rather than simply telling the story of Austen's life, the Centre lets you step into her world. Hearing about life in Regency Bath from the perspective of one of Austen's own characters immediately shifts your imagination from biography to lived experience. I found myself thinking less about dates and historical milestones, and more about the rhythms of Regency life: the careful etiquette of social calls, the pressure of appearances, and the conversations that might have inspired some of the greatest characters in English literature.   

It was also at the Jane Austen Centre that I first learned about the annual Jane Austen Festival and, in particular, the spectacular Regency Promenade that opens the festivities each September. The moment I heard  that hundreds of people parade  through the streets of Bath in Regency costume, I knew it had to find its way into Most Ardently Yours<. I don’t want to spoil exactly how it appears in the novel, but it became one of my favourite scenes to write. After all, what could be more disorientating for Mr Darcy than discovering an entire city full of people dressed exactly as he remembers... only to realise they're doing it for fun!  

Before my trip to Bath, I'd  been focusing on how bewildering twenty-first-century life would be for Mr Darcy. Afterwards, I found myself thinking about how much he'd recognise instead. Austen's novels endure because they were never really about empire-waist gowns or drawing rooms. They were about first impressions, family expectations, social embarrassment and the terrifying vulnerability of falling in love;  and these things feel just as relevant in a world of dating apps and mobile phones as they did in Meryton.  

My visit changed the way I wrote Most Ardently Yours. I arrived hoping to research a   city, and left feeling as though I'd spent time getting to know the world that shaped one of our greatest novelists. And in doing so, I found the perfect place to bring one of her greatest heroes back to life.  

Most Ardently Yours by Freya Sampson is available for purchase now at this link.