Claire Tomalin

Jane Austen's 'Pride and Prejudice' appeared anonymously 200 years ago, made everyone laugh and was thought much too clever to be the work of a woman.

In our times it has been filmed and televised so many times that we are in danger of forgetting the book, the splendour of the words on the page and the story behind the book's creation.

The novel was begun when Austen was 20 - the age of her heroine Lizzie. It was not published until she was 37 - almost the age of Lizzie's mother Mrs Bennet and only four years before the author's death.

In the first of five lectures on different topics by the celebrated biographer Claire Tomalin, we look at the formation of the real 'Pride and Prejudice'.