Lions and Liqorice
by Kate Fenton

Lions and Liquorice  by Kate Fenton Paperback - Large Print- 1996 Thorndike Press; ISBN  031232801X amazon.com amazon.co.uk amazon.ca

NOTE: Lions and Liquorice has been re-released as Vanity and Vexation

Vanity and Vexation by Kate Fenton  Paperback - 288 pages - July 2004 Thomas Dunne; ISBN 1402202733 amazon.com amazon.co.uk amazon.ca

For those of you who haven't heard of it, it's a novel about a television production company that comes to a village to film P&P, and it's a kind of contemporary version of the plot with the Darcy character as the (female) director of the production and the Lizzy character as a local (male) resident. Very clever, and kept you trying to spot the parallels and work out how the author would use P&P in her own plot. By Kate Fenton.

BTW, very strong language if that offends you.

It's about a film crew shooting a production of P&P in an English village. The Darcy character is the (female) film director, the Lizzy character is a local (male) writer.

It actually works quite well and is certainly the best P&P sequel/spin off that I've ever read! 

Most of the basic plot elements are used, and, most of the major characters are present.  However, the genders of the characters are all reversed.  Nicholas Llewellyn Bevan, an impoverished writer corresponds to >Elizabeth Bennet.  Mr Darcy is represented by Mary Hamilton, the efficient, unemotional, rich and powerful director.  Nick's widowed brother-in-law is the Jane Bennet character.  And Mr Bingley is the soft-hearted, easily persuaded star of the movie.

As for some of the plot points, we have the snub and the separation of the secondary hero and heroine by Mary Hamilton, in much the same way as Mr Darcy does it.  There is a Wickham type who disparages Mary which keeps the main hero and heroine apart.  There is a mostly unexpected meeting.  And, a Lydia who allows Ms Hamilton to save the day.

All this is done in a 90's style and done very credibly.  There is one technique that had me confused for a little bit.  Nick ... nope, I will let you discover it for yourself.  Although I knew how it would end, it was fun to see how it was done.  It was also fun to map Kate Fenton's characters to Jane Austen's.  All in all, this was a really fun read.

While I whole-heartedly recommend this book, young readers should beware; there is a small amount of explicit sex.  Although it is done tastefully, I would probably give it an R-rating.  I think that there is also foul language, but I am not so familiar with British slang as to be able to identify all of those words and phrases. So, if you are of age, you should read this book; I think that you will enjoy it..

As an American, I found some of the dialogue in Lions & Liquorice a bit hard to follow - and that is given seven years of listening to colloquialisms offered by my British husband, his sister, and my British-want-to-be brother.  There is also quite a bit of vulgar language but, again, these phrases might not be as harsh to British readers.

My other complaint would be that these characters and their relationships with each other were not developed as much as I would have liked.  Perhaps Ms. Fenton felt that most of the readers would already be well aquatinted with the characters through their love of P&P.  Still, I would have liked for Mary Hamilton to have had more time to observe Nick behaving very lovingly toward his son and brother-in-law - just as Darcy formed some of his opinions regarding Elizabeth from witnessing her affection for Jane.  Also, we don't see enough of Nick's wit and character to really entice Mary into taking that leap from casual sex to semi-committed.  And finally, Mary doesn't seem to go through as much of a transition as Darcy - she isn't as bad initially and she doesn't reform as much finally.

However, the plot twists which allow for the gender reversal were really terrific.  There were some holes - Mary's father strikes me as being a character that I'd like to have seen more of.  Mr. Hamilton reminds me more of Mr. Bennet than of Lady Catherine and yet, he makes a pretty big leap in determining Nick's character rather quickly.  Never the less, as someone who had contemplated writing a modern day P&P with the genders reversed - I was really impressed with How Ms. Fenton pulled it off.  Using the movie industry as a setting was truly brilliant!

L & L has some very funny dialogue, some great situational comedy (LOL) and also a few parts that tug at your heart strings (I'm not ashamed to admit that I shed a few tears for Nick).  Had a little bit more time been spent on expanding the characters and a little less profanity been used - this could have been a phenomenal book.  As it stands, it is still a very enjoyable read.

Thank you, Ms. Fenton, for giving us JA fans a little more fun reading!