Austen’s novel thus seems especially right for adaptation into a contemporary setting such as this. The enthusiasm of the girls, Cat and Bella – notice the modified names – for their surroundings, for the books and plays and authors that they are experiencing at the festival, and for the world of social media, as well as for clothes, boys and their friends is appealing and makes you want to keep reading like the original, this is very much a teenage novel. It plays to the strengths of Austen’s novel McDermid’s version explores the preoccupation of youth with social settings, in this case at the Edinburgh festival rather than the society season in Bath, and the characters use social media and read vampire novels. It’s surprisingly true to the original – the updated version follows Jane Austen’s plot very closely, and part of the pleasure of reading is tracing the plot of the original book.

But in fact I did mostly enjoy it I got very involved in it and found much of it a pleasurable read. I must admit I wasn’t expecting to enjoy the book as I thought it might be trite and spoil the original. An enforced spell of rest means I am doing quite a lot of reading, so I’ve just finished Val McDermid’s Northanger Abbey, the second of the Austen Project books in which the novels of Jane Austen are given a contemporary setting by well-known writers.

Northanger Abbey by Val McDermid