IT SEEMS as if any artist worth his or her salt eventually turns up as a character in a movie; one of the latest to be thus honoured is the English author Jane Austen.

Becoming Jane, showing at cinemas here, tells the love story of Austen and a poor lawyer Thomas Lefroy who is said to have inspired the character of Mr Darcy in Pride And Prejudice.

The English author has long been an It girl of the literary scene, in a way that the Bronte sisters or George Eliot never have been.

Austen's popularity has not only endured long after her death in 1817 when she was 41 years, but has spawned a thriving cottage industry.

There are numerous fan sites devoted to all things Jane while film adaptations of her books are churned out regularly, garnering all the proper awards.

Online bookstore Amazon has more than 1,000 titles tagged to her name - a remarkable feat, as she published only six novels, two posthumously.

However, most of the titles on offer are books written about her, or are somehow related to her works.

There are biographies (Jane Austen: A Life by Claire Tomalin) and scholarly tomes (The Postcolonial Jane Austen by You-Me Park), and even a fictional autobiography (The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen by Syrie James).

Read the full story in Saturday's edition of The Straits Times' Life!