Cherie Blair
The QC and former first lady's favourite line is from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice
‘It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife…’
One of the most famous introductory sentences in British literature. The story of course centres around Mrs Bennett’s dilemma, what is she going to do with so many daughters, particularly when she’s always worried that when her husband dies they will all be penniless?
That was a very common situation in the 19th century when Jane Austen was writing about it, it’s not something that happens in England now. But across the world there are still far too many women whose only choices are marriage or being faced by being looked at as a burden by their families.
