Book excerpt: An empowering memoir of a life reclaimed through reading'Moving and inspiring, this is a book you want to start reading again, as soon as you have finished' SUSANNAH FULLERTON'Wilson's memoir is essential reading for anyone who wants to experience and understand the unique comfort that Austen's works universally provide.' NATALIE JENNER'Essential reading for anyone who wants to experience and understand the unique comfort that Austen's works universally provide.' NATALIE JENNERRuth Wilson first encountered Pride and Prejudice in the 1940s and has returned to Jane Austen countless times over the course of a long life. After her sixtieth birthday, she took the radical decision to retreat from her conventional married life and live alone while confronting feelings of loss and unhappiness. As Wilson read between the lines of Austen's six major novels, she felt herself reclaiming her voice and her sense of self. An uplifting memoir of love, self-acceptance and the curative power of reading, The Jane Austen Remedy is an inspirational account of nine vivid decades, unravelling memories and searching for small truths to help explain the arc of a life that has been both ordinary and extraordinary.