Jane Austen’s ’Emma’ is a tale that has always been a favourite but it has been some time since I had read it and from page one I was once more happy to be back in the village of Highbury.

Every mess Emma makes is one you see coming and you cannot help but agree with both Mr Woodhouse and Mr Knightly when they beg her to stop. But she is a dreamer, and a dreamer must never be brought down to Earth even if her interfering nature does bring trouble to all those she loves. Austen writes her in such a manner that you cannot help but love her despite her follies and naivety towards her actions, and I know for certain I will return again to not only Emma but the other much-loved stories of Jane Austen.

Mr Knightly was a young girl’s ideal man when I first read Emma at twelve and he’s still the epitome of a caring gentleman now many years later. He hides his affection for Emma so well that you barely catch a hint of what is going on behind his more stoic words and actions but I think it is his constancy in the lives of both Woodhouses that permits us a glimmer of the heart he keeps hidden from harm. He is her voice of reason, her spending block and the one man Emma argues with and shows her true self too. I always loved that she herself is unaware of not only her own heart’s desire but Mr Knightly’s until he is courageous enough to open himself up to her scorn or refusal.

I'm so glad I re-opened this classic novel and returned to a world unbeknownst to Jane Austen? Made it a novel that always finds a home upon many a shelf.