Jane austen collected her childhood writings into three manuscript notebooks, both as a record of her earliest work and for the convenience of reading aloud to her family and friends. volume the first (as she entitled it) contains fourteen pieces - literary skits and family jokes - dating from about 1787, when she was eleven, to 1793. amusing in themselves, they give us a direct picture of the lively literary and family milieu in which the novelist's juvenilia was formed. this new edtion carries a foreword by lord david cecil, a former president of the jane austen society and professor of english literature at the university of oxford. there is also a publisher's preface by brian southam, author of jane austen's literary manuscripts and other works on jane austen.