Timothy Peters

Emma presides over the small provincial world of Highbury with enthusiasm, but she will find that it is all too easy to confuse good intentions with self-gratification. The often insensitive, well-meaning, incorrigible Emma Woodhouse having engineered the marriage of governess, companion and friend Miss Taylor, now turns her attention towards making a match for Mr Elton, the local vicar, and her new protégée Harriet Smith. Her one voice of reason and restraint is Mr Knightley, who has known her since she was a child and who watches her behaviour with wry amusement and sometimes with real anger.

Upstairs: the wealthy, aristocratic Bellamys. Downstairs: their loyal and lively servants. For nearly 30 years, they share a fashionable townhouse at 165 Eaton Place in London’s posh Belgravia neighborhood, surviving social change, political upheaval, scandals, and the horrors of the First World War.