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Jane Wenham-Jones

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Tag: writing

You can hum Britannia while you clear the table

August 29, 2020 janewj

*Photo: Stick to the music for Last Night of the Proms First published in the Isle of Thanet News of Friday 28th August 2020 Boris Johnson thinks

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Will my window-cleaner be oven-ready?

May 9, 2020 janewj

*Photo of the Book launch via Zoom on May 7th 2020 ~ with, from the left:Top row: Janie Millman, Jane Wenham-Jones, Katie FfordeMiddle row: Jo

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Didn’t I have a lov-er-ly time…

July 3, 2017 janewj

Another to add to my list of fab festivals I have worked for. Had a great time at the Buckingham Literary Festival last weekend, interviewing three

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The Archers come to town…

June 25, 2017 janewj

So fab to host the Archers event last Friday at the Pavilion in Broadstairs with ace scriptwriter Keri Davies, the gorgeous Annabelle Dowler (Kirsty Miller),

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Rum de tum ti tum de dum….. Calling all Archers fans!

June 17, 2017 janewj

Looking forward to this very much. Are you an Archers fan? Do you fancy a day trip to Broadstairs? Tickets from here . Would be brilliant

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Colin Dexter – it was great to meet you too

March 22, 2017 janewj

Time to say goodbye to another luminary of the book world and to fondly recall the day in 2009 when I met Colin Dexter at the

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Happy Valentine’s Day!

February 14, 2017 janewj

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

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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 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 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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New Year’s Resolutions for Writers…

January 1, 2014 janewj

By way of an intro I must tell you that I found these on my computer while looking for something else. They were written for

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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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How time flies… a big hand for Carole Blake!

November 7, 2013 janewj

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

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Doing NaNoWrimo??

November 1, 2013 janewj

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

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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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I couldn’t have put it better myself…

October 18, 2013 janewj

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)

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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 270913: I flew to Manchester via Amsterdam and I’m not sorry

October 5, 2013 janewj

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,

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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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Happy Birthday Morgen Bailey!

August 19, 2013 janewj

A quick post to say a Very Happy Birthday to the fabulous Morgen to whom I owe a great deal. This is the woman who

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The Wannabe a Writer TV Show

August 15, 2013 janewj

Here at last…. Am all very thrilled – and not a little nervously twitchy 🙂 – to announce the launch of the first half of

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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, Isle of Thanet Gazette 07 June 2013: Council double-speak hides another waste of money

June 7, 2013 janewj

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

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Plain Jane, Isle of Thanet Gazette, 24th May 2013: The Big Thanet Breakfast

May 24, 2013 janewj

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

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We have a winner!!!!

May 19, 2013 janewj

100 Ways to Fight the Flab Competition. Judged by Janie Millman, Morgen Bailey (and me). ….  It was very, very difficult to choose. We wrangled

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100 Ways to Fight the Flab Competition – Top 5

May 12, 2013 janewj

Following on from last weekend’s Top 12, we are pleased to announce the creators of the Top 5 Flab-fighting tips, complete with the tips themselves, again in

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Plain Jane: With beaches like ours, why are we still languishing in deprivation?

May 10, 2013 janewj

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

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100 Ways to Fight the Flab Competition – Top 12

May 5, 2013 janewj

Taa-Raaa – we have the first set of results of the Fight the Flab Competition, judged by Janie Milman, co-owner of the fab Chez-Castillon, Morgen-with-an-e-Bailey

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Isle of Thanet Gazette: Plain Jane 260413

April 26, 2013 janewj

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

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The Ab Fab ChipLitFest :-)

April 23, 2013 janewj

Well what a lov-er-ley time I had at this year’s Chipping Norton Literary Festival – a treat indeed. You would never believe the festival is

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Plain Jane 12.04.13: Iain Duncan Smith could live on £53 a week – but that is not the point

April 12, 2013 janewj

Plain Jane 12.04.13: I am often asked to sign petitions and occasionally I do, but mostly I find them a pointless waste of time. And

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With friends like Mike :-)

April 4, 2013 janewj

Whenever I give one of my friends one of my books to read (some  are too tight-fisted to cough up for one themselves :-)) I

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Plain Jane in the Isle of Thanet Gazette

March 29, 2013 janewj

I can’t find this up on thisiskent.co.uk despite the invitation at the foot of the printed column – if you can, please do send me the

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A Very British Blog Post

March 18, 2013 janewj

*** Have been having a grand catch-up on my emails (just the 117 now left in my To-Answer folder) and discovered this British Blog Post

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Plain Jane, Isle of Thanet Gazette, 15th March 2013: A heavy Pryce for us all to pay

March 15, 2013 janewj

Thought it was too good to be true. My Plain Jane column is up online but without my name on it. Again. But did write

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RNA & Plain Jane 1st March 2013: The sartorial choices of the stay-at-home writer

March 1, 2013 janewj

Bit lax on the old blogging front lately but will catch up soon with the excitements of Richard and Judy at the book awards –

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Plain Jane 15 Feb 2013: Lasagne? What’s the beef?

February 18, 2013 janewj

The trouble with writing a column five days in advance  and then not getting round to posting it for three more is that by then

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100 Ways to Fight The Flab – Womag Review

February 10, 2013 janewj

100 Ways to Fight The Flab has its second review! “heartily recommend for all writers, both big and small” “I must say it’s quite brilliant”

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er… not on the radio after all…

February 10, 2013 janewj

Quick one to say that they have technical problems over at Radio Litopia so I won’t be on this evening after all… Will post new

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Shortlists and radio shows

February 8, 2013 janewj

There – don’t they look pretty? Prime Time with the covers of the other lovely books shortlisted for the Romantic Comedy category of the RoNas.Very proud

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Today’s Plain Jane

February 1, 2013 janewj

Hello and  Happy Friday. We have progress of sorts. My column in the Isle of Thanet Gazette is finally online (hurrah) but does not yet

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Guesting on Nikki Goodman’s blog

January 30, 2013 janewj

Those who are sharp-eyed and read my last author post with Peter Jones may have noticed that I failed to publish a post last Wednesday.…

Overly excited and thrilled

January 23, 2013 janewj

Am suitably delighted to report that Prime Time has been shortlisted for the Romantic Comedy category of the RoNas today. This is a massive honour  of

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Plain Jane. Isle of Thanet Gazette. Friday 18th January 2013

January 19, 2013 janewj

Eat crisps to beat the flab The problem with having written a weight-control book (one can hardly talk “diet” when tips involves chocolate) is that

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100 Ways to Fight the Flab

January 3, 2013 janewj

I know I’m a bit of a show-off but even I wouldn’t display my bottom without good reason. These photos were taken as possible cover

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Top Comment-leaver of 2012…

January 1, 2013 janewj

Yes, excitement, drum roll, etc. I am pleased to announce that… Tony Tibbenham has the doubtful glory of being crowned the most-frequent-commenter on this blog in

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My-Mate-Mike in the Isle of Thanet Gazette 28th December

December 28, 2012 janewj

Remember my excellent advice on coping when the old man is suddenly at home ALL BLOODY DAY? My esteemed fellow columnist on the Gazette, Mike

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Plain Jane 14th December 2012: Coping with (his) retirement

December 14, 2012 janewj

As some of you may know, I write a fortnightly column – alternating with My-Mate-Mike (he who hovers just to the right of Genghis Khan and

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Thank you Sarah Salway!

November 20, 2012 janewj

Very pleased to be featured on Sarah Salway’s website and thanks Sarah for the plug for Thursday’s event at Canterbury, Waterstones too. Also thank you Edith for

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Plain Jane column 16 November – public speaking & event with Lesley Cookman

November 16, 2012 janewj

As some of you may know, I write a fortnightly column – alternating with My-Mate-Mike (he who hovers just to the right of Genghis Khan and

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For those who don’t like tea…

November 12, 2012 janewj

You’ll be glad to know I have found one I don’t like either. It has to be a thumbs down for the teapigs‘ exotically-named tung

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pure lemongrass, silver tips white, but no mint thank you…

November 9, 2012 janewj

I used to drink so much coffee it gave me blotches. In the decade that I gave it up entirely (I now have the odd

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Tea(pig) anyone?

November 7, 2012 janewj

Those nice teapig people did a spot of sponsoring at the Guildford Book Festival – where I first discovered the teabag-with-real-tea-in-it – and have now kindly

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Guildford Day Six

October 23, 2012 janewj

Yes a bit of a delay there but Saturday I was doing a workshop in HMP Send, Sunday I had taken to my bed with

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Guildford Day Two

October 20, 2012 janewj

The end of the second day of Guildford Book Festival and tonight was Peter James and Ann Cleeves. Fab interviewees both – and both with

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And off to Guildford….

October 18, 2012 janewj

It’s begun – I am here in my Guildford for my annual stint in the interviewing chair and. as always, thrilled at the prospect. Last

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Back from Chez Castillon….

October 16, 2012 janewj

I came back on Saturday, in fact, but it took  the rest of the weekend to sort the faint air of bachelor pad – why

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Hot tips for Writers – am in the spotlight with Writer’s Choice

August 16, 2012 janewj

The nice people at Writer’s Choice have put me in their ‘spotlight’. Thank you PDR! 🙂 If there’s nothing much on TV, you can read

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Greetings from (not-so) sunny Swanwick…

August 15, 2012 janewj

Actually it has been sunny but just happens to be p***ing down as I type. I am here at the long-running Swanwick Writers’ Summer School in

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your free gift today

July 29, 2012 janewj

Is a copy – totally gratis – of my third novel ONE GLASS IS NEVER ENOUGH (and it often wasn’t, when I was writing it…)

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Dancing on the table…

July 28, 2012 janewj

Yes, I’m afraid I did. I wasn’t going to. Thought I’d grown out of it, and all that. But as the boys told me, it’s

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A night with the choir

July 27, 2012 janewj

The last night of Writer’s Holiday is the biggie. Wonderful to see all the chaps again. Below is a quick snap of the glorious Cwmbach

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Greetings from Sunny Wales

July 25, 2012 janewj

And it really is sunny! Am here in Caerleon at Writer’s Holiday  where  yesterday people were dropping by the wayside with heat exhaustion cos nobody’s

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Happy Git

July 20, 2012 janewj

Nothing like a lovely review to put a smile on one’s face… Long Live Sara Lawrence at the Daily Mail…

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RNA Conference at last

July 18, 2012 janewj

   Did two stints at the splendid  RNA conference this year, brilliantly organised as ever by Jan Jones and Roger Sanderson. On Saturday, a panel

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a right bleedin’ bargain

July 17, 2012 janewj

Even if I do say so myself. Wannabe a Writer? on Kindle, is a mere snip at 77p right now. Please pass it on.. Bargain. Photos

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Loose Muse

July 12, 2012 janewj

No, I am not trying to summon the dead, lead the gospel singing or appeal to the Almighty*. This is me attempting to impart some

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Fifty Shades of Wot?

July 9, 2012 janewj

Thank you to Neil, Gabriel, Donna et al at Thanet Waterstones where I had a most entertaining signing on Saturday. And even bigger thanks to

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And the winner is…

July 6, 2012 janewj

David Rankin receives a copy of Prime Time plus a Wannabe book of his choice… If Clever Morgen was doing this there’d be thumbnails of

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Prime Time paperback is now out!

July 5, 2012 janewj

Prime Time is officially out now!  I am bracing myself to start peering in bookshops (does one copy mean they’ve sold em all or is

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Prime Time paperback out 5th July

June 5, 2012 janewj

May 2012 Hello! I’m thrilled to announce that my latest novel, romantic comedy ‘Prime Time’, is now available for the Amazon Kindle and will be available in

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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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