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AUNTS

tHe bestselling author suggests key novels to help you through the trickier times in life. THE role of aunt in the modern family is nothing compared with those in classic fiction. We don’t wield the same power as, say, Wodehouse’s Aunt Agatha.

Our influence has dwindled. Now it’s all about shelling out in Topshop and hanging round the nail bar, rather than arranging marriages or controlling the purse strings. The older we get, does that seem more regrettable? Would we rather be more in charge?

It’s important to remember that aunts loomed larger in the days when people were more likely to die earlier, leaving their offspring in the care of relatives. Nowadays, thankfully, children are more likely to have four parents than none.

Poor Jane Eyre is orphaned at age ten and is entirely at the mercy of her aunt, Mrs Reed, one of the great monsters of literature.

It is not just the abuse of her niece, but also the abuse of her trusted position as guardian that make the opening of the novel so harrowing. It shocks every time.

It is possible, in the genetic lottery, to have more in common with an aunt than you do with your mother.

In Santa Montefiore’s Secrets Of The Lighthouse, Ellen flees from her mother to Ireland and a relative she never knew. Aunt Peg is nothing like her sister, and her lifestyle is just what Ellen needed. Through her aunt she finds who she wants to be.

‘I have always maintained the importance of aunts,’ wrote Jane Austen, who was one herself and made sure all her heroines had one — or an equivalent.

In Pride And Prejudice, there are two who have influence and they sum up the ancient versus the modern. There’s Lady Catherine with her land and money and her views on Darcy’s engagement.

Then there’s Aunt Gardiner, who is all warmth and fun — basically, the Topshop sort of aunt for her generation. Austen makes it clear which one she wants you to be.