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Jane Wenham-Jones

Author. Speaker. Journalist. Presenter

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Category: Isle of Thanet Gazette

Write Around The Isle and BroadstairsLit

September 8, 2017 janewj

Literary gatherings have been popping up left, right and centre – I go to quite a few of them myself – and there are now

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Jane remembers 2016

January 9, 2017 janewj

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,

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Plain Jane 281016: A fond farewell from Jane and Mike

October 30, 2016 janewj

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

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Plain Jane 211016: Who’s responsible for the idiotic 50mph Thanet Way limit?

October 22, 2016 janewj

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

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Plain Jane 071016: No selling to someone’s mate who then makes a DIY killing

October 9, 2016 janewj

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

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Plain Jane 230916: High heels are hardly well-suited for work

September 23, 2016 janewj

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

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Plain Jane 160916: Corbyn comes to Ramsgate.

September 16, 2016 janewj

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

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Plain Jane 190816: Council organises ‘how to wear scarves’ class

August 18, 2016 janewj

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

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Plain Jane 290716: Expect gleeful Tories at ‘re-elect Corbyn’ meeting

July 31, 2016 janewj

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

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Plain Jane 150716: Brexit is going well…..

July 15, 2016 janewj

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

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Plain Jane 010716: After the Vote

July 2, 2016 janewj

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

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Plain Jane 170616: How we vote on Thursday will probably come down to instinct

June 17, 2016 janewj

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

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Plain Jane 030616: Debt, water and the sugar tax

June 9, 2016 janewj

My latest Plain Jane column. The version that came out in print – and online – was mysteriously lacking my last sentence. Is it that dreadful

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Plain Jane 200516: Eggs, Donald Trump, and the church on Google

May 20, 2016 janewj

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

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Plain Jane 100516: I might give Channel Tunnel another chance

May 10, 2016 janewj

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

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Plain Jane 220416: I might give Wetherspoon another chance

April 24, 2016 janewj

Celebratory times! Manchester City make the last four in the Champions League, the Queen – longest serving British Monarch – hits 90 (Happy Birthday Your

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Plain Jane 080416: Marrying a rock – not as mad as it sound

April 8, 2016 janewj

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

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EASTER: Plain Jane brings your reasons to be cheerful – including beer and chocolate

March 25, 2016 janewj

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

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Plain Jane 110316: We don’t want a new town

March 12, 2016 janewj

“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

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Plain Jane 260216: Should we, shouldn’t we? EU decide

February 28, 2016 janewj

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

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Plain Jane 290116: Election gaffe

January 30, 2016 janewj

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,

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Plain Jane 150116: Wine, sugar and health improvements

January 15, 2016 janewj

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

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Plain Jane 010116: And so 2015 is over

January 3, 2016 janewj

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,

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Plain Jane 041215: Manston, driving and, well, Manston again

December 5, 2015 janewj

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

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Plain Jane 201115: Its vs it’s

November 21, 2015 janewj

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

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Plain Jane 091015: Rehabilitation not squalor for those in prison

October 19, 2015 janewj

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

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Plain Jane 250915: A trip down memory lane

September 28, 2015 janewj

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

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Plain Jane 310815: Watch where you walk

September 2, 2015 janewj

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

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Plain Jane 140815 – Bra-vellous project

August 14, 2015 janewj

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

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Plain Jane 310715: Time for a brew

August 2, 2015 janewj

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.

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Plain Jane 170715: I can be as judgemental as the next person

July 22, 2015 janewj

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

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Plain Jane 030715: Mike and Jane – Thrills at Dreamland

July 7, 2015 janewj

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

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Plain Jane 190615: Eating your way through hotel breakfasts

June 22, 2015 janewj

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

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Plain Jane 050615: It’s tough to get a job if you don’t speak nonsense lingo

June 5, 2015 janewj

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

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Plain Jane 220515 – A chilly reception

May 24, 2015 janewj

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

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The one that enraged a Kipper….

May 16, 2015 janewj

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

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Plain Jane 100415: Plain Jane meets the Tories and Manston Airport Independent Party

April 10, 2015 janewj

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

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Plain Jane 030415: Plain Jane meets the Labour and United Thanet candidates

April 3, 2015 janewj

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

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Plain Jane 270315: Meet the candidates for the Green Party

March 28, 2015 janewj

Continuing our series in which Jane Wenham-Jones meets the candidates, this week: the Greens… I was initially invited to visit the Green candidate for Thanet

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Plain Jane meets the Liberal Democrats

March 22, 2015 janewj

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

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Plain Jane 130315: Meet the Candidates

March 13, 2015 janewj

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

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Plain Jane 270215: Meet the Ukippers

February 27, 2015 janewj

“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

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Plain Jane 130215: Wearing bubble wrap and buying champagne

February 13, 2015 janewj

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,

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Plain Jane 310115: Saving the NHS is down to US

February 1, 2015 janewj

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

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Plain Jane 160115: A look back at 2014

January 18, 2015 janewj

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

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Plain Jane 191214: The season to be jolly… and moany

December 19, 2014 janewj

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

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Plain Jane 121214: Make a list

December 13, 2014 janewj

I DON’T know whether they teach this in journalism school – I am entirely self-taught (also known as untrained ) – but it is a

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Plain Jane 281114 – 3D pregnancy scanning

November 28, 2014 janewj

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

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Plain Jane 191114: Every Lidl helps

November 19, 2014 janewj

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

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Plain Jane 311014: Why prescribing Viagra to all men over 50 could save NHS

November 3, 2014 janewj

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

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Plain Jane 171014 – It’s chocolate week

October 22, 2014 janewj

Somewhat after the event, but every day is chocolate day where I come from …. 🙂 Plain Jane – It’s National Home Security month, Dyspraxia

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Plain Jane 190914: A megaphone, soapbox, and cheap-suited lackeys needed

September 21, 2014 janewj

Thank you to all those who have suggested that, further to my last column, I stand in the next election myself. My initial thought –

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Plain Jane 050914: Of course Nigel Farage won the hustings, he’ll win the election too

September 8, 2014 janewj

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

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Plain Jane 080814: From the art crowd to a new crowd and an old row

August 9, 2014 janewj

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

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Plain Jane 250714: Royalty, politics, tourism and how not to waste money

August 1, 2014 janewj

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.

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Plain Jane 090714: Three cheers for poo-lice

July 12, 2014 janewj

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

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Plain Jane 130614: Is Thanet really only known for the shipping forecast?

June 15, 2014 janewj

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

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Plain Jane 300514: My view on term-time holidays

May 31, 2014 janewj

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

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Plain Jane 160514: So here’s to you Iris, best of luck with Thanet council

May 16, 2014 janewj

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

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Plain Jane 010514: 11 years of writing about Thanet, and I’m not done yet

May 1, 2014 janewj

  I have been writing this column for an astonishing 11 years – ever since I bludgeoned the then editor Mike Pearce, into giving me

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Plain Jane 180414: Family tree research just to get my passport

April 20, 2014 janewj

Plain Jane: Family tree research just to get my passport If I can give you one small piece of advice this week – along with

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Plain Jane 200314: I don’t like to complain but…

March 22, 2014 janewj

YOU know me, dear readers, I don’t like to complain – a regular little Pollyanna here, we are – but things have been, how shall

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Plain Jane 200214: Who is worthy of NHS treatment?

February 24, 2014 janewj

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

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Plain Jane 230114: Time for council to do some good, for a change

January 29, 2014 janewj

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

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Plain Jane 090114: With five diaries, why do I keep missing things?

January 12, 2014 janewj

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

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Plain Jane 271213: My review of the people and places of 2013

December 28, 2013 janewj

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

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Mike and Jane: Christmas Time, Mistletoe and Whine…

December 23, 2013 janewj

My latest Isle of Thanet Gazette column – the annual joint offering with fellow columnist, my mate Mike 🙂            

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Plain Jane 221113: I like Laura Sandys, but…

November 27, 2013 janewj

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

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Plain Jane 081113: Who says we can’t make our own entertainment?

November 12, 2013 janewj

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

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Plain Jane 251013: Why I’m welcoming Manston’s new owner Ann Gloag

October 26, 2013 janewj

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

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Plain Jane 111013: Woe of Student Finance on deadline

October 12, 2013 janewj

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

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Plain Jane 130913: Maturity has its reward, thank heavens

September 16, 2013 janewj

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

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Plain Jane 280813: Everyone has a book in them…

August 30, 2013 janewj

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

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Plain Jane 020813: My Top Parenting Tips

August 4, 2013 janewj

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

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Plain Jane: The heat is on, some tips for surviving the summer

July 19, 2013 janewj

SO THE heat is finally on – and has even reached Thanet – with temperatures predicted to soar into the thirties and stay there. Cue

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Plain Jane in the Isle of Thanet Gazette from Friday 5th July

July 7, 2013 janewj

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

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Plain Jane in the Isle of Thanet Gazette from Friday 21st June

June 23, 2013 janewj

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!

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*Columnist of the Year*

Very thrilled with my #KPBA Kent Columnist of the Year Award for my #lockdowndiary column in The Isle of Thanet News.

The jury: “Jane’s lockdown diary was head and shoulders above the other entries and at a time when we were all left floundering, it was something really powerful to latch on to.”

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