Welcome
Thanks for dropping by my little corner of the web. It’s good to have you here.
My father taught me to love books when I was just a child, a lifelong passion that includes writing them as well as reading them. I started scribbling short stories (mostly about ponies) at school, an those scribbles slowly led me to the best job a person could ever have – being a writer.
My latest release is a fairy tale romance: a Cinderella story featuring a handsome prince and an unusual heroine. It is easy enough to fall in love with a prince – but what happens next? It’s a bit of a change from my usual Australian set novels, but Marrying The Rebel Prince was such fun to write, and isn’t the cover just a dream? You can read more here.
I also write as Juliet Bell – in collaboration with my writer friend Alison May. Juliet Bell has a preoccupation with misunderstood classic fiction, and stories that explore the darker side of relationships. Juliet’s latest book is The Other Wife – our tribute to Jane Eyre. You can read more about it here.
I love writing books about the Australian outback, and have been touched by the amazing response from readers to my Coorah Creek books. It’s a series of novels set in a small town in outback Australia. The town is fictional, but it’s very real to me and to my readers. The series has won a number of awards, including the Epic Romantic Novel of the Year in the UK, Two Book Buyers best Awards and the Aspen Gold Readers’ Choice award in the USA.
There’s a lot more on my website – more books and some free short stories to read. While you’re here, please have a click around. There are musings on the blog, and details of my tutoring and manuscript appraisal services for writers.
Do come back soon.
Janet
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Jane, Elizabeth and Me.
Peggy Ann Garner as Jane and Elizabeth Taylor as Helen.
My relationship with Jane Eyre goes back to 1943. No – I’m not that old. That’s when the black and white film of the book, starring Orson Welles and Joan Fontaine was released. I saw it many years later – and the part that really moved me was the time young Jane spent at the Lowood Institution – and the tragic death of Helen, played by a very young and angelic Elizabeth Taylor.
When my collaborator Alison May and I set out to write our second Bronte-inspired book as Juliet Bell – it had to be Jane Eyre. And I had to write that section of the story.
We moved the book in time and place and The Other Wife is set in Australia in the late 1900s. Continue reading
