Our Patch FEBRUARY 2016
Our Patch FEBRUARY 2016
parents’ idea of who would make the
perfect husband.
But she does admit that the title,
referring to a sharp-ended S-shaped
meat-hanger, has significance.
“I didn’t consciously write it with a
sequel in mind, but the story is openended,” she said.
Janet, who has just started doing a
weekly agony column for the
Cover
story
I’ve always loved the
Georgian period, partly
because it’s always so
overshadowed by the
Victorian era that followed
Daily Mail, now has to deliver a
follow-up book later this year.
How does she write? “I do quite a bit
of scribbling,” she said. “Sometimes I
have a theme in my head, sometimes
ideas come from scrapbook items."
LOCAL ROOTS
Janet Ellis started a
bidding war for her
debut novel, despite
publishers not
knowing she'd
written it
>CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5
things around, change tenses, get rid of
people.”
Janet ditched the working title,
A Little Learning, and settled on The
Butcher’s Hook, which was submitted
to publishers anonymously, at the
suggestion of her agent, so nobody
would be influenced by her past fame.
“I was a bit horrified by that
suggestion at the time,” admitted Janet,
6/7
fearful of rejection. There was no need
to worry.
Without knowing who she was,
three publishers began a bidding war
for the book by ‘Jo Winter’ – the name
of one of Janet’s grandmothers.
Two Roads won, and will publish
in hardback this month, with the
paperback following in October.
Quite rightly Janet refuses to reveal
too much about the tale of teenager
Anne Jaccob and her resistance to her
Janet, whose only previous published
work was How to Get Married Without
Divorcing Your Family, co-written with
her friend and ex Blue Peter co-host
Caron Keating in 1994, is still one
of 50 volunteers for one of the most
worthwhile projects in west London;
assisting children to learn to love books
by reading to them in their own homes.
Every week she sets off with a )