‘Emma continued to entertain no doubt of her being in love. Her ideas only varied as to how much…’

Jane Austen’s Emma has delighted readers since it was first published in 1815, despite the fact that Austen thought she had created a heroine that ‘no-one but myself will much like’. Of course in a way she was right – Emma Woodhouse is pretty, rich, privileged and wants for nothing. In short, she’s faintly annoying. But this is what has always attracted readers to Emma more than any other Austen heroine – she is flawed but fun. Her acerbic humour and arch commentary on the society that surrounds her draws us in and means we are totally on her side by the time pride leads her to a fall… which of course it does…!

If you’ve been enjoying the new TV adaptation on Sunday nights (BBC1 at 9pm – we’re three weeks into the four-part series) you’ll be on tenterhooks to what happens next in the romantic fortunes of Highbury’s irrepressible matchmaker. Emma’s determination to find love for her friends has already backfired once, leaving her mortified and poor Harriet Smith inconsolable. Will the dashing Frank Churchill succeed where Mr Elton failed? And what is to become of Jane Fairfax? Tune in on Sunday for the next instalment…

In the meantime, try our quiz to find out which female character from Emma you’re most like! Are you the reserved but perhaps-not-so-demure Jane Fairfax? A supremely confident Augusta Elton? Find out in our quiz on Facebook.

To win one of five copies of our special tie-in edition, with an introduction by the BAFTA-winning screenwriter Sandy Welch, post your funniest matchmaking story on the blog – we’ll award copies to our five favourites!

Jenny - Press Officer

UPDATE: Thanks for posting so many hilarious stories! I’m pleased to announce that Emily is the winner of a brand new copy of Jane Austen’s Emma - after all, not only did she go to the cinema with the wrong man, she then spent the entire evening with him over dinner and only realised her mistake on the way home! Quite an achievement. Hope you enjoy the book!

Emily’s disastrous date:

I once agreed to go on a blind date with a friend of a friend. I’d arranged to meet him outside a cinema. I hadn’t thought to ask what he’d be wearing so when I spotted someone looking a bit lost and confused I tentatively asked them if they were looking for me. He smiled and said yes - phew! We watched the film, then he invited me out for a meal. I had a lovely time, he was the perfect gentleman. Then I realised I was late for my bus so I said I’d call him and dashed off.

While I was sat on the bus my phone rang. It was the friend who’d arranged it all for me, before I could thank her she said “Why did you stand him up?” After much confusion it turned out that my ‘date’ had been with a complete stranger, and the real date had arrived after I’d gone inside and was left standing outside waiting for me.

As the phone number I had was for the man I was supposed to be meeting and not my mystery date I couldn’t call him, and never did see him again!

Here are a few things I know:

• about 8% of children in the UK go to Independent schools
• the Council of the European Union is the governing body of the EU, but the Council of Europe, which has no power to make laws, is something completely different
• work laws for children ages 14-16 stipulate that they are not allowed to deliver milk or work in a chip shop
• children in the UK don’t play outside the home as much as they did in the past

Neat, right? Well, don’t be too impressed. I only know these things because I’m British. Really, I passed a test and everything.

The Home Office’s guide to UK citizenship is filled with lots fascinating facts and figures like these relating to life in Britain – I learned a bunch of them and passed my test at the beginning of this year. But it wasn’t fun. The book is deadly dull. By chapter 2 I had tears in my eyes, thinking ‘there HAS to be a better way to convey this information.’ Where’s the drama? Where’s the laughter? Where’s the fun?

So I decided that someone else should take a stab at writing this book, someone who can make it something you really want to read. And who better to tell us about life in modern Britain than the team at Have I Got News For You? The result – the Have I Got New For You Guide to Modern Britain – is better than I could have ever hoped for, providing not only a brilliant potted history of the UK, but also their typically incisive takes on government, the media, religion, education, and more. You’ll feel extra-British after reading it.

And now I know a few more things, like:

• the names of all of the posts in the Cabinet and how many of them are filled by Peter Mandelson
• the difference between public schools (which are effectively private) and private schools (which are open to the public if they can afford the fees)
• how the Church of England’s role in the world can be explained through Dad’s Army
• what a map of the UK would look like if it were based on ownership of tasteful carpets

Neat, right?

Albert - Editorial Director

Watch a video for Have I Got News For You Guide to Modern Britain

Rick Stein has been on a hugely successful tour over the last few weeks to promote his Far Eastern Odyssey.  It started out with sell out signings at both Waterstone’s Canary Wharf and Peterborough followed by signings in Leeds, Wilmslow, Yeovil, Truro, Padstow and Falmouth.  A fantastic signing in Birmingham culminated in Rick being showered with gifts by a fan at Harvey Nichols.  He also did a series of recipe demos, with over 450 people attending the last event in Bath!

Claire - Senior Publicity Manager

Watch Rick talk about Rick Stein’s Far Eastern Odyssey

The lovely Rick Stein came in to see us last week to film this short video clip about his new book and BBC 2 series Rick Stein’s Far Eastern Odyssey.

Rick travels all over the Far East covering the cuisine of Cambodia, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bali and Thailand and the book is packed with 150 brand new recipes guaranteed to spice up your cooking!

Clare - Senior Marketing Executive

A couple of months ago, I wrote a short post about the brilliant time I had at Ainsley Harriott’s house and posted some photos of the very delicious food he cooked for us (well, cooked for the video we were recording, but we got to eat it, and it sounds cool to say that Ainsley cooked for us, so I’m sticking with it).

The book is out on Thursday, and to celebrate its publication, we’ll be posting recipes from the book on Twitter – four great recipes in under 140 characters – that’s how simple they are to prepare! We’re using hashtag #foodin140 to group all the recipes together, and if you’re on Twitter and you’ve got some great recipes, we’re encouraging you to use it as well! Just shorten your recipes down, and include #foodin140 at the end.

You can find us on Twitter here: http://www.twitter.com/eburypublishing

Katie - Digital Marketing Executive

It’s not every day that Ainsley Harriott cooks you lunch, but one of the editors and I were lucky enough to experience just that earlier this year. We went over to Ainsley’s beautiful house in South London to film him cooking three recipes from his new book, Just Five Ingredients. The idea behind the book is that you can make all sorts of delicious meals without the need for long and complicated ingredient lists.

Well, once the filming was done and the food was prepared, we couldn’t very well let it go to waste, could we!? So for starters we had some asparagus with creamed mascarpone, cracked black pepper and parmesan; for the main course we had seared chicken with guacamole, tomato and lime; and we finished the meal off with some delicious pineapple carpaccio with chilli mint and passion fruit syrup. Delicious!

I took a couple of photos at the filming and if you fancy whipping one of these up, the recipes are all available in the book, which is out now.  Or you can head over to YouTube or Amazon and watch Ainsley cooking them up online!

Asparagus with creamed mascarpone, cracked black pepper and parmesan

Seared chicken with guacamole, tomato and lime

Pineapple carpaccio with chilli mint and passion fruit syrup

 Katie - Digital Marketing Executive

This spring sees the return of Doctor Who to our screens in the first of four specials.

Companions and Allies is a lavish new guide to the show, containing information about the friends and heroic comrades who have accompanied the most famous of Time Lords over the years. From William Hartnell’s first Doctor to David Tennant’s highly lauded regeneration, this book shows how human beings have been plucked from their often ordinary lives into a world of adventure, and how Earth forces such as UNIT, with Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and others, have joined the Doctor in the battle against the Galaxy’s greatest evils.

Author Steve Tribe has selected his favourite spreads from the book to give you a sneak preview inside.  Click on any of the images to zoom in.

Nick - BBC Books Editorial Assistant

In case you missed it last week, the sneak preview of the new series of Torchwood is now online and it looks fantastic.

To tide you through the months until the new series begins, have a look at the BBC Books Torchwood novels.

See the winners of the David Attenborough photography competition on Flickr!

Since April 2008, we have been running a competition through the David Attenborough website. Entrants had to e-mail in a photo that related to one of the 5 Life themes: Life in Cold Blood, The Life of Mammals, Life in the Undergrowth, The Private Life of Plants and The Life of Birds. We had a great response to the competition, with some fantastic entries, making it quite hard to choose the winner. However, finalists from each category have now been shortlisted and put on to Flickr. The shortlisted photographs have been sent to Sir David who will choose 2 runners up from each category and an overall winner. The 10 runners up will receive a copy of the Life in Cold Blood book and DVD and the overall winner will win the book and DVD as well as a Canon Digital IXUS i7 camera.

To see the shortlisted entries, visit flickr.

To find out more about the Life series and Sir David and to submit your nature photos to the online gallery, visit the David Attenborough website.

Clare - Senior Marketing Executive