"I like to imagine how the first discussion at the Bank of England about revamping our paper currency went. I suspect it went something like this:

MERVYN KING: So I’m thinking of taking that woman off the fiver and popping Churchill on there, ’kay?

SUIT 1: Instead of the Queen?

MERV: No, dumbcluck. The bird on the other side. Elizabeth something.

SUIT 2: The Second? That’s the Queen, sir.

MERV: No, no, imbeciles, the other side. Elizabeth Fry, that’s it! Who was she, anyway? Anyone know? [Silence. Eventually, SUIT 3 raises a cautious hand.]

SUIT 3: I think she was a prison reformer, sir. Quite influential in her day, I believe. Transformed life for thousands with her campaigning for better treatment for the poor. Sir.

MERV: Did she win any world wars? Write any speeches? No? Right then, Winston it is.

And just like that, the only woman of note on our currency was gone. No, the Queen doesn’t count – she’s there by accident of birth, not achievement. It’s the other side – the celebratory, we-recogniseand- honour-your-worldchanging- accomplishments side – that matters.

That this could happen in 2013 at the Bank of England – a public body with, therefore, a responsibility to act in the spirit of equality – shows how far this crazy idea of egalitarianism still has to travel.

But of course, what can also happen in 2013 is a quick, huge and well-organised protest via social media. And so it went here. Journalist Caroline Criado-Perez started an online petition to keep a woman – just the one, if we may – on our currency. It swiftly gathered over 35,000 signatures. Now the Bank of England (now headed by Mark Carney – Merv retired shortly after igniting the £5 touchpaper) has announced that Jane Austen will replace Charles Darwin on the £10 note in 2017.

As an Austen fan, I’m delighted, though I still think it’s a) a bit tough on Darwin, who did revolutionise Western thinking, after all, and b) arguable that having a talent for writing, however enormous, is less worthy of celebration than the strength and determination shown by trailblazers like Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, the UK’s first female doctor, and mathematician Ada Lovelace. But I am both nitpicking and wary of antagonising Janeites, who tend to be not only dangerously passionate but, under their petticoats and bonnets, heavily armed with weaponised bon mots and satirical glances, so we’ll leave it there.

Lucy Mangan: "Jane Austen on a ten pound note? It’s just the start"