A private collector in Dorset won the auction for the first edition of P&P for £22,000 — still very much a bargain, in our opinion. No word on the other books, but keep an eye on the catalog page for a “Hammer Price” to be posted in the last column to the right. We will update this post when the sale prices are posted.

Unfortunately, despite a frantic last-minute check of the sofa cushions at AustenBlog World Headquarters, we were unable to come up with enough dosh to top the winning bid. All donations to the cause will be returned with the proper documentation. (You did keep your receipt, didn’t you?)

We do understand the impulse behind Alan Coren’s column on Jane Austen Overload–sometimes you have to mock, or set your hair on fire, or retire to Bedlam.

The film world is abuzz with the thrilling news that Working Title is soon to go into production with the screen adaptation of Jane’s Fighting Ships. The finished script has already been handed to them by the incomparable Andrew Davies, who says that while remaining true in every significant aspect to the spirit of the original book, the screenplay inevitably contains just a few small changes necessitated by the translation to the cinema. Feisty Abbey Northanger, radiant commander of the nuclear submarine HMS Persuasion, will be played by Billie Piper, Russell Brand stars as Sir Woodhouse, her dreary First Sea Lord husband, while the Chinese winkler found miraculously alive in the belly of a giant squid tragically dismembered by friendly nuking — the man for whom Cap’n Abbey irresistibly falls after he is winched dripping from the freezing Aral Sea — is to be portrayed by Colin Firth.

Well of COURSE he is! Read the whole thing, it’s hilarious.

Unsurprisingly, lots of news and reviews for Becoming Jane.

We were amused (and probably not in the way intended) by Chloe Rhodes’ adventure playing Jane for a day in Bath. Don’t miss the video. It’s fun to get dressed up and swan ’round Bath, but we have a piece of advice: try tightening that tapestry in the frame the way it ought to be, and the needlework will go lots better.

I need a walk around the block, but a woman of Austen’s standing couldn’t venture out without a companion.

To walk around the block? In Bath? Sure they could. Anne Elliot walked home to Camden Place from Westgate Buildings–not an inconsiderable walk–by herself. Lizzy Bennet walked several miles to Netherfield–by herself.

We also have several interviews, including one with the director, Julian Jarrold.

Becoming Jane bodes well for it. The spirited script by Kevin Hood and Sarah Williams combines lines already attributed to Austen with others that one suspects she wouldn’t be ashamed of. But, as Jarrold acknowledges with slight trepidation, Austen fans can be a touchy bunch.

He attributes the unusually protective relationship that British readers have with her partly to nostalgia for the elegant simplicity of the world Austen writes about. “There is a security and cosiness about her. This lovely life-style, without mobile phones — you had plenty of time to yourself, you learnt a musical instrument, you talked very beautifully. It’s the opposite of what we are today.”

Actually we think she’s a genius and don’t appreciate you turning her life story into a dopey date flick. Any other little question we can clear up?

Cards on the table — would Austen have been the writer she became if she hadn’t met Tom Lefroy? “That is the contention of the film. It wasn’t Tom Lefroy specifically, it was the experience. But I think it was very important and formative and it fed into the books.”

We think it was important for Jane to have understood what it was to feel affection for a man–but we don’t think Tom Lefroy was the only man for whom she felt affection.

IndieLondon interviews Anne Hathaway. Most of it we’ve heard already–spent time at British Library reading letters, nightmare of being stabbed with quill pen, yada yada yada. But then…

Q. Now that you’ve been Jane Austen can you ever be a Jane Austen heroine?

I’m a hack, I love to work, so I would love to play any of them. I’d love to play Anne Elliot.

That does it. Put down the Persuasion and back away slowly, young lady, or we really WILL stab you with a quill pen.

James McAvoy and Julie Walters were interviewed by Digital Spy.

I read Northanger Abbey at school, but I just thought, ‘This is impenetrable, I won’t be reading her again’.

Huh?

And then this came up and I read Pride and Prejudice. I was gobsmacked by it - it’s so funny and so modern. Unbelievable. You don’t expect funny to come through after 200 years - humour doesn’t transcend decades, let alone centuries. Look at Shakespeare – it’s not funny. No matter how they try to make Shakespeare funny, when it’s meant to be funny it’s not funny. But (Austen) is, so it’s no wonder she’s lasted.

Shakespeare isn’t funny? We’ve roared with laughter through productions of Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Taming of the Shrew…not funny? (We’ve also been known to giggle rather immoderately through the poisoning scenes in Romeo and Juliet, because the two spoiled-rotten brats finally got what was coming to them, but that’s probably not the same thing.)

That being said, yes, Pride and Prejudice is funny. Northanger Abbey is funny. All of Jane Austen’s novels are funny. Forget it. Moving on.

Reviews are found on Digital Spy (three out of five stars), The Times (three out of five stars) and This Is Hertfordshire (three stars), the latter with this rather hilarious ending:

There is one unforgivable act perpetrated, however. To reveal it would give too much away: let’s just say it involves a man and a certain sentence. If this doesn’t have Janeites picketing cinemas with Father Ted-inspired cries of “Down with this sort of thing,” then ladies, you should be ashamed.

Uh-oh!

Thanks to Alert Janeites Lisa and Marcy for sending links!

Alert Janeite Rosa Cotton let us know that Mansfield Park 1999 will be showing on UKTV Drama Sunday, March 11, at 9 p.m. Think of it as a warmup of sorts for Jane Austen Season.

Baja Janeite sent us some links to interesting Spanish-language Jane Austen-related items.

She found a biography of Jane Austen in Spanish by Oscar Sánchez Vadillo at a local Soriana (nation wide superstore). The book is published by Perymat Libros from Madrid, Spain, copyright 2005. It is part of a collection of biographies of women from history.

Also, P&P95 is available in Region 4 (Mexico) and Region 1, dubbed in Spanish but with an English audio track (no English subtitles).

With the new films coming out, Bath Tourism is featuring “Jane Austen’s Bath” on its Web site, with links to Austen-related places to see and things to do in Bath.

We recommend Bath as a destination for any Janeite–it’s a really spectacular place on its own, and to find actual locations for scenes in Jane Austen’s novels is a thrill.

Among other features, the Web site has some photos we haven’t seen from Persuasion 2007, including one of the Elliot sisters and one with their doating papa. Also, the site has the news that the Jane Austen Centre will have a display of costumes from P07 starting at the end of March.

Many of our American readers have expressed some disappointment that the Brits are currently having all the fun, with the opening of Becoming Jane and the ITV Jane Austen Season coming up very soon, but USAToday’s book section has taken notice of some of the upcoming books associated with Jane Austen…including one which the Editrix has been flogging like a rented mule.

The Jane Austen Handbook: A Sensible Yet Elegant Guide to Her World by Margaret C. Sullivan (Quirk, $16.95, May). Tips such as: How to make a morning call (accept tea or food if offered).

(There’s more to it than that!)

Also we see that the cover of the paperback version of the annotated P&P has Cassandra’s drawing of Fanny Knight.