First published in the Isle of Thanet News of Friday 31st December 2020 So farewell 2020 – the year that kept on giving – as you

Author. Speaker. Journalist. Presenter
First published in the Isle of Thanet News of Friday 31st December 2020 So farewell 2020 – the year that kept on giving – as you
*Photo: Dividing the nation to battle Covid First published in the Isle of Thanet News of Friday 2nd October 2020 JANE’S PLAN TO TACKLE COVID With Covid
*Photo: All Jane wants is a plumber First published in the Isle of Thanet News of Friday 21st August 2020 I still dream about my A-levels.
First published in the Isle of Thanet News of Friday 7th August 2020 I know it might seem odd to wax lyrical about a financial institution
*Photo: Parking charges – photo by Chris Constantine First published in the Isle of Thanet News of Friday 24th July 2020 So BORIS has been in Downing
*Photo: A trip down memory lane to Harpers Wine Bar First published in the Isle of Thanet News of Friday 17th July 2020 After the furore last
In the meantime, an apprentice, please? First published in the Isle of Thanet News of Friday 10th July 2020 Hark! Is that the sound of pens –
*Photo: Still no hairdresser’s appointment for Jane First published in the Isle of Thanet News of Friday 3rd July 2020 SO TOMORROW – coined by the actor
*Photo: A divide between the morning bike riders and those seeking solace in cake… First published in the Isle of Thanet News of Friday 26th June 2020
*Photo: Jane’s sarong becomes a mask… First published in the Isle of Thanet News of Friday 19th June 2020 Jane Wenham-Jones in week whatever of the dissolving
First published in the Isle of Thanet News of Friday 12th June 2020 Lockdown Diary Number 397 Jane Wenham-Jones loses track of how long it’s been now…
Lockdown Lowdown Diary ~ Week 3 (First published in The Isle of Thanet News Friday 17th April) As lockdown continues, Jane remains in isolation with
Dreading the rellies? Christmas can be a minefield when today’s modern – often blended – families are suddenly brought together. But you can survive them
‘No. 1 – The Italian job’ courtesy of the www.theisleofthanetnews.com They’re back! Popular Thanet columnists Jane Wenham-Jones and Mike Pearce reunite for a lunch date which
This first appeared in Woman’s Weekly Fiction in 2010. Can’t say much has changed…. 🙂 Happy Valentine’s Day! You might think that someone who has
At midnight on 31st December I was travelling by car through the bottom of Broadstairs. In Ramsgate, minutes earlier, they’d been spilling out of pubs,
In the absence of a Gazette column to post this week, I thought I’d share a Woman’s Weekly piece I wrote back in 2013. In
Proud to see that in the final copy of the Isle of Thanet Gazette I appear in, I have made it onto the letters’ page
Since writing this I have been told (by a usually-reliable source) that the Thanet Way is built on London clay and is “undulating”. So, if
This might not be desperately interesting to those living outside Thanet but council sell-offs could affect wherever you are too. Especially if you’re ever unlucky
WELL DONE the TUC for voting to prohibit employers from forcing women to wear high heels at work. Heels may look terrific but in my
As I reach for my hard hat and flak jacket, here is my latest Gazette column… Whoever first said you only regret the things you
Poor old Northamptonshire County Council has come under fire for putting on a course entitled How to Tie a Scarf. The three-hour session – a
Don’t ever let it be said there’s nothing to do in Thanet. For those wishing to be entertained, the excitement kicks off this evening (Friday
It’s going well so far, isn’t it? As I write, the big property funds have been forced to suspend trading, we’ve lost our triple-A credit
I woke up on Saturday morning feeling strangely unwell. I mentally ran through what I’d eaten the night before and counted up the glasses of
So it’s finally here. After all the weeks of posturing, scare-mongering, claims and counter claims, the referendum is finally upon us. Come Thursday we can
My latest Plain Jane column. The version that came out in print – and online – was mysteriously lacking my last sentence. Is it that dreadful
I recently had the pleasure and privilege of interviewing Fay Weldon. The Grande Dame of contemporary women’s fiction-with-an-edge – with whom I spent an hour
Friday Quiz Time and your starter for ten. Who knows what auspicious and momentous event took place on May 6th? Yes, well done, you at
Celebratory times! Manchester City make the last four in the Champions League, the Queen – longest serving British Monarch – hits 90 (Happy Birthday Your
So Margate’s most famous daughter has married a rock. This is not the fond description of a nice solid chap, one who can be reliably
In these difficult and joyless times of conflict, health scares, national obesity and George Osborne, may I take the rare opportunity to look on the bright
“We’re almost there–” proclaims the latest shrink-wrapped brochure from Stone Hill Park, above a photo of children hopping, somewhat bizarrely, in sacks, through fields of
So the referendum on membership of the EU is set for June 23 and we can now look forward to wall-to-wall media coverage of the
Channel Four’s Michael Crick started it, the Electoral Commission is looking into it and now, according to Mr Crick’s blog, one Michael Barnbrook from Ramsgate,
FAR be it from me to agree with Nigel Farage (unless he’s talking about Manston airport) but I can’t help feeling a certain sympathy with
So 2015 is nearly over and I am struck by the people around me expressing gratitude. An “annus horribilis” as one beleaguered friend put it,
I confess I have lost the plot when it comes to Manston. Much as I continue to grieve for the heady days of KLM and flights
Who knew? Our sewage systems are positively awash with precious metals. Analysts at Thames Water have discovered that when we wash our hands or clean
Intriguing news from giant online seller Amazon, who are planning to sue 1,100 “fake” reviewers in a bid to claim damages for their “manipulation and
Oh Lord, I agree with Michael Gove. Prisons do need reforming and should not be, as Nick Hardwick, Chief Inspector of Prisons puts it, “places
In a spirit of better late than never, we are posting this anyway even though half of it is now past its sell-by date. But
SO THERE went summer. I know it goes more quickly as you age and grow grumpy but this one really has sped past at an
If we live in a small world then Thanet is microscopic. Hold forth in the pub about the bloke from the garage and it will
DEPRESSED by pub closures and the rise of alcopops? Good news is at hand. Sales of the cheap-booze-and-coloured-sugar drinks favoured by overgrown children are falling.
My esteemed colleague, Mike don’t-get-me-started Pearce, has been on one of his jaunts. I don’t ask for details – they invariably involve pinball machines, model
I didn’t see the rides at the opening of Dreamland. The wait was too long, the speeches too protracted and when the ribbon had finally
SO FAR this year, what with speaking and interviewing and literary festivals and running off to bang my head against a different wall, I have
I HAVE been self-employed now for nigh-on 30 years and have long suspected this has rendered me utterly un-hireable to anyone in the usual (some
OH DEAR! It seems I haven’t got off to the best possible start with our new Kipper council. Let’s hope I don’t require a new
This was my Isle of Thanet Gazette column, published 8/05/2015 that gave rise to the following on this week’s letter page. As I said on
I interview the Tory hopefuls by adopting police tactics. Sir Roger Gale has been in politics for half a century and the MP for Thanet
Continuing our series in which Jane Wenham-Jones meets the candidates, this week: Labour… THERE is a framed cartoon by Giles on my writing-room wall that
I AM looking forward to meeting South Thanet’s Russ Timpson for two reasons. Firstly, the man has a sense of humour (not always a given
A friend of mine once sat next to Nigel Farage on a plane. “He was very charismatic,” she said, clearly charmed even though her politics
“What a place to live!” wrote a friend from the Cotswolds, who’d been watching, aghast, the documentary Meet the Ukippers, aired last Sunday. I was at
FRIDAY 13th. Time to don the bubble wrap and protective headgear, avoid ladders, leave plenty of time to catch the train, and for the chaps,
WITH under 100 days to go until the general election, the big issue, pundits tell us, will be the future of the NHS. It will
WELL, how’s yours been so far? My New Year greetings come late, after spending the opening hours of 2015 horizontal and groaning, in the clutches
OUR columnists Jane Wenham-Jones and Mike Pearce don’t need a certain supermarket to remind them that Christmas is for sharing. Every year, she gets out
I DON’T know whether they teach this in journalism school – I am entirely self-taught (also known as untrained ) – but it is a
I THINK I know this area pretty well, but from time to time I am surprised to discover somewhere in Thanet I had no idea
MALE friends won’t believe me, but I don’t much like shopping. Not for me “a day out” at Bluewater, or an afternoon “just looking” at
Plain Jane 311014: Why prescribing Viagra to all men over 50 could save NHS GREAT discoveries, it seems, arise from a split second of blinding
Somewhat after the event, but every day is chocolate day where I come from …. 🙂 Plain Jane – It’s National Home Security month, Dyspraxia
Of course Nigel Farage was selected as our UKIP candidate for South Thanet. He was always going to be and I am surprised that those
Margate is in the news again. Described as “the formerly gritty seaside town”, Margate has made its way onto yet another list, coming in at
Originally published last week but I’ve been away teaching at the fabulous Chez Castillon… HAPPY Birthday Prince George and congratulations on being able to walk.
ANDY Murray lost the tennis; the Germans won the football (so far). Type two diabetes is on the rise, standards are falling. Rumour has it
Plain Jane: Is Thanet really only known for the shipping forecast? As regular readers will know, I am an ardent proponent of this fair isle as the
RECENT figures have shown that 24,000 children each day are taken out of school for a family trip. If I still did the school-run, it
So another shake-up for our beleaguered local government. In-fighting and power struggles down at Cecil Street are nothing new, of course, but I am genuinely sorry
I have been writing this column for an astonishing 11 years – ever since I bludgeoned the then editor Mike Pearce, into giving me
Plain Jane: Family tree research just to get my passport If I can give you one small piece of advice this week – along with
April 2012 – the first time… You never really know someone until you live with them. A truth universally acknowledged by generations of women who’ve
YOU know me, dear readers, I don’t like to complain – a regular little Pollyanna here, we are – but things have been, how shall
SIR Andrew Dillon, the pleasant-sounding head of Nice (the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence), is expressing doubts about taking “wider societal benefit” into
I am naturally thrilled to hear that Thanet Council have been hitting their targets, with a bullseye for 44 out of 58 “key projects”. I
OK HANDS up – who’s fallen by the wayside already? You over there with the fag and the cream bun – weren’t you going to
Regular readers of this column (God help you) will know that my final offering of the year has historically been a round-up of my top
My latest Isle of Thanet Gazette column – the annual joint offering with fellow columnist, my mate Mike 🙂
I like Laura Sandys. While not a natural inhabitant of the same neck of the woods, politically, as our good MP for Thanet South, (to
WHO says we can’t make our own entertainment? This family, gathered round the kitchen table on a dark, windswept night, has just spent an enjoyable
How time flies… a big hand for Carole Blake! My small tribute to the Queen of Shoes and her Fifty Years in Publishing. It was
I am not doing NaNoWriMo officially, but with a book to finish, another one to start, columns piling up, hundreds of emails to answer and
SO MANSTON Airport has been sold for a pound. As the lovely Ed and I agreed, had we known it was going to be so
A lovely blog post here from the immensely talented Clare Mackintosh (watch out for her debut novel next year – it’s going to be astonishing)
I AM on a deadline or three. There’s a scarily half-done manuscript to deliver, and articles needed sooner. I have bills to pay, e-mails to
LAST week, much to the consternation of the local bloggers, I flew to Manchester. Via Amsterdam. Yes, I got on a plane at Manston, landed at Schipol,
For those of you gagging to read my Isle of Thanet Gazette column without having to shell out 80p, here it is, hopefully better late
THEY say everyone’s got a book in them and I say: Sometimes it should stay there! The explosion of ebooks and self-publishing has made everybody
ALL together now, a great big ahhhhhh. I love a new-born baby (it’s the next 18 years that wears one down). And, together with the
SO THE heat is finally on – and has even reached Thanet – with temperatures predicted to soar into the thirties and stay there. Cue
ONE of the things you learn as you get older is that whatever it was, it was always longer ago than you think. I was
Bit late getting this up here as have been away to the Winchester Writer’s Conference where I had the enormous privilege of hearing Julian Fellowes speak!
And now I AM on the new website… hurrah! But here is my latest Plain Jane for those who’ve got used to reading it here… And Happy
The Isle of Thanet Gazette has a new website ( www.thanetgazette.co.uk) but it’s not yet sporting my latest column. So, for the strong-stomached, you saw it
Plain Jane with Jane Wenham-Jones: With beaches like ours, why are we still languishing in deprivation? I BLAME my colleague Mike Pearce. I go to
If Thanet councillors don’t want people to see them brawling, they should behave with dignity YEARS ago, when I was young and passionate, I joined