Feting Jane Austen on her 250th birthday

The cult of the British author, born in 1775, shows no signs of dimming

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Ballgowns are being stitched, bonnets brushed and tea rooms prepped as the United Kingdom prepares to celebrate the 250th birthday of beloved literary icon Jane Austen.

Quite how the author, born in the small Hampshire village of Steventon on 16 December 1775, has managed to entice and enchant readers for more than two centuries in an ever-changing world remains a mystery.

"Her novels are really concerned with wider moral issues," said Kathryn Sutherland, an Austen researcher and professor at the University of Oxford. People feel Austen "is accessible, even though she is great literature, and also that you can read her books many times and each time you find something new in them", she added.