A Sequel to 'Miss Austen' Is Coming

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On Jane Austen's 250th birthday, Masterpiece has announced that it is developing a second season of Miss Austen alongside Bonnie Productions. Like the first season of Miss Austen, the second will be based upon a novel by Gill Hornby, The Elopement, which was published earlier this year. 

Hornby has written a biography of Austen for young readers, and her historical fiction novels are based on the real lives of Jane Austen and her family and peppered with allusions to Austen's famed novels. Whereas Miss Austen (the novel and the first TV season) focused on Jane's sister Cassandra, The Elopement follows the sisters' niece Fanny and her stepdaughter Mary a few years after Jane's death – so in between the two timeframes of Miss Austen.

Fanny Knight was a daughter of the Austen sisters' brother Edward, who shows up in Miss Austen when Cassandra stayed at his estate and found herself looking after her nieces and nephews (presumably including Fanny) while Edward's wife enjoyed a respite and kept her from family dinners. (Hornby has also written a novel named after Edward's estate, Godmersham Park.) 

Fanny was a correspondent of Jane's, but she also lived through some drama fit for an Austen novel: her brother eloped with one of her stepdaughters, causing a scandal. That is "the elopement" of Hornby's novel, and the subject of the second season of Miss Austen.

We don't have any details on casting or airdates for the second season of Miss Austen yet.