Emma

New Cellars, Pembroke College

 "And, you know what? There will come a day when you’ve holed yourself so deep into your letters that not even we’ll be able to find your way out for you!."

Everyone knows Jane Austen. Ever winning the race of Britain's favourite *female* writers, her wit and humour and wisdom in all matters of society and romance seem to know no bounds, as charisma flows from her every word.

And everyone knows a 'Jane'. Everyone has a favourite, waiting-to-be-perfect, waiting-to-publish at all author, constantly struggling with their writer's blocks, their mental blocks, and the eternal romantic cockblock of far too high standards.

But nobody would want to be the 'Jane'.

Faced with constant scrutiny in the polite society of 1800s Bath and the painful flashbacks to her romantic failings, Jane begins to barricade herself into her own mind, a barricade which can only be pierced by the written word.

Enter Emma.

Emma is the character who - in various forms - possesses all writers struggling to write: she intrigues, she inspires, even as she invades all aspects of her writer's life to calamitous consequences. As reality and fiction begins to blur, the question remains whether Jane has the strength to return home or fall deeper into her world of delusion.