Best-selling British author Alexander McCall Smith is to pen a new version of Jane Austen's classic novel Emma with a 21st century twist, his publisher says.
McCall Smith, who has sold over 20 million copies of his No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, said being commissioned to rewrite Austen's 1815 original was "like being asked to eat a box of delicious chocolates".
"Not only is Emma one of the finest novels in the English language, but it is possibly Jane Austen's most thought-provoking and interesting book," the 65-year-old said.
"Writing a contemporary version of Emma is both a privilege and a real challenge."
The book will see McCall Smith swap the setting of his detective novels - Botswana's capital Gaborone - for modern-day England.
News that makes sense
Your trusted source for staying up-to-date with the world around you. Get free daily news updates and analysis, straight to your inbox.
Publisher HarperCollins said the new version of Emma would be released late next year.
Kate Elton, head of fiction at HarperCollins, said on Friday the publisher was "thrilled" to have signed up McCall Smith.
"The novels of Austen and McCall Smith share some essential qualities which make them enduringly popular with readers - gently poking fun at their characters' 'follies and inconsistencies' as Austen would have it, and a sense that people can learn from this so that goodness wins out in the end.
"It promises to be an amazing pairing."
The book is the fourth to be announced as part of the Austen Project, tasking authors with reworking Austen's witty 19th century romances for a contemporary audience.
The first book in the series, Joanna Trollope's new version of Sense and Sensibility, will be published this month, followed by Val McDermid's rewrite of Northanger Abbey due early next year.
Curtis Sittenfeld's updated Pride and Prejudice will be published in late 2015.
Born to Scottish parents in what is now Zimbabwe, McCall Smith worked for years as a professor of medical law before penning the adventures of Botswanan private investigator Precious Ramotswe.
He has since written several other series, and over 30 books for children.
