UK celebrates icon Austen on bicentenary

Inspirational novelist to feature on bank note during year of special events

WINCHESTER, United Kingdom - Two hundred years after Jane Austen's death, Britain is celebrating one of its best-loved authors, who combined romance with biting social commentary that still speaks to fans around the world.

The author of classic novels Pride and Prejudice, Emma and Sense and Sensibility had only just become known when she died on July 18, 1817, aged 41.