The Witches of Richmond stalked me, took me by surprise and whacked me round the head before I realised what was happening!

And, by page 124, Sarah Tucker’s novella, written by said author as part of her MA thesis, not only had me tittering in economy as I flew to and from Vienna, but also checking that no one was reading over my shoulder.

And that’s because it has a nice line in titillation – with good reason I may add – as EL James’ Fifty Shades of Grey becomes one of three novels that makes its way into Tucker’s narrative in the guise of its two main protagonists, Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele.

For the uninitiated, if you will forgive my Freudian slip, they are the couple who take sado-masochism and spanking to new heights!

But this is no cheap Mills & Boon, designed to exclusively thrill – although it does occasionally have you racing through what seems like naughty but nice narrative, the type of prose any matriarchal Catholic mother might warn her son against reading - but more a thoughtful study of superficial choices, lost identity and the diminishing returns of female lives potentially mortgaged away to the promise of money: ‘Theo was a hedge funder, with an income of over £8,700,000 a year excluding bonus.’

And that’s what I loved about this book. Who Theo is, is somewhat academic – read it for yourself and you’ll quickly figure that out – but I really did like Tucker’s Jane Austen type sarcasm, dry wit, and sardonic tones: ‘Janey wished she had read Brideshead Revisited before embarking on a relationship with a Catholic. She would have walked away at "Hello"’.

As a former altar boy marched up the aisle on his confirmation day with the promise of an afternoon buffet in the church hall once he had sworn his devotion to Papist Rome, I roared at that one sentence because it encompassed my entire life in 22 words! I simply ‘got it’.

The Witches of Richmond looks at the lives of three women: Gina, Janey and Lizzy who all enter a pop-up boutique shop in Richmond Hill, one of London’s posher suburbs.

But, just like Mr Benn (you either know him or you don’t!), their lives are transformed as they step into the shop’s changing room and find themselves not in a small cubicle in which to try on the latest fashion garment, but a theatre auditorium.

There three classic stories come to life: Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway and EL James’ Fifty Shades of Grey. The consequences are funny and fatal.

As Tucker pens an imaginary narrative between Mr Darcy and Elizabeth ‘Lizzie’ Bennett, aka Gina, I can almost hear her say, ‘I know what Austen actually said, you arrogant s**t, but this is how the conversation should have gone!’ Intelligent sparring follows wherein Gina explains to Darcy that he is most probably self-centred, uncompromising and, in truth, a bit of a tosser!

One liner’s like: ‘his ex-wife, who, like over-ripe brie, is rich, thick and knows no boundaries…..’ and ‘…they all go to these retreats, Ibiza, California, Goa, India, anywhere that ends in a vowel and return full of jargon, hummus, green tea, more yoga clothes and singing bowls but little else,’ had me laughing out loud.

Sarah Tucker has a rich vocabulary but, if you think for a minute that this is a cheap rip off of someone else’s literary masterpiece, or a chick flick with smatterings of titillation – then you are gravely mistaken.

She takes three literary works, two classics and a modern-day best seller, dissects them, applies modern thinking to age old prejudices, narrow minded thought and outmoded concepts, and, in doing so, presents a fresh, humorous take on age old problems.

Thought provoking fun wrapped up in a clever concept. If you love subtle satire then this is for you.

The Witches of Richmond. Author: Sarah Tucker
Illustrations: Nicholas Roberts
ISBN 9798639719189
Available: www.sarahtucker.info