Jane Davis's Blog

Virtual Book Club: Al Bacon on her novel, The Absent Heart

Today I’m delighted to welcome award-winning author Ali Bacon Virtual Book Club, my author interview series in which authors have the opportunity to pitch their book to your book club. After graduating from St Andrews University, Ali moved to the South West of England where her writing is still strongly influenced by her Scottish roots....
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Conventions when naming a fictional tube station

This month has been a busy time for book stalls at venues ranging from churches to garden centres. One of the questions I am asked most often when meeting readers face-to-face is why can’t they find St Botolph and Old Billingsgate tube station (Smash all the Windows) on the underground map? It is, I confess,...
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Sutton Literary Festival, Part Two

Adita began her introduction by explaining to the audience that although the authors’ books might seem very different, both reach the same place as music, exploring memories, longings, identity and place. Noreen Masud was born in Pakistan, a country whose boundary had been shaped by colonialism. When Britain granted India independence, it partitioned the territory...
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Sutton Literary Festival, Part One

Born in London to an English mother and a Jamaican father, Karen McCarthy Woolf is a poet, teaches on the MA on Creative Writing at Goldsmiths and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Her ground-breaking debut collection, An Aviary of Small Birds, was shortlisted for both the Forward Best First Collection Prize and the...
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Inequality in the eyes of the law

My novel, At the Stoke of Nine O’Clock, is the result of a long-held fascination with one woman. I first became aware of Ruth Ellis (pictured below) when I was a teenager. Ruth was that rarity: a female killer. ‘Six revolver shots shattered the Easter Sunday calm and a beautiful platinum blonde stood with her back...
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The power of protest

I see so few novels about political activism and protest that I was excited to learn about the upcoming release of Laura Katz Olson’s novel, Wrinkled Rebels (published by Vine Leaves Press, 23 July 2024). Laura is Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Lehigh University. She received her bachelor’s degree from the City College of...
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The Chiswell Street Chronicles

The year is 1775. London is bursting at the seams. It has breached the confines of its ancient Roman blueprint to become the largest city in Europe. Though most Londoners live within walking distance of open countryside, Moorfields is one of the last remaining plots of open land in the city. It straddles the wall,...
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A woman of five and twenty

Based on a true story, The Bookseller’s Wife tells the story of Dorcas Turton, the great grand-daughter of the Honourable Sir John Turton, Baron of the Exchequer and Justice of the King’s Bench. Dorcas’s mother was so proud of her lineage that she kept her maiden name in the only way a woman in the...
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A Fitting Education for an 18th Century Daughter

The majority of daughters in the 18th century were uneducated, but so too were working-class sons, so in any discussion of women’s education in the 18th century, we are really limiting ourselves to discussion about middle and upper class daughters. While sons might be sent to boarding schools, girls were sent to ‘dame schools’ or...
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Virtual Book Club: Clare Flynn introduces The Colour of Glass

Today I’m delighted to welcome award-winning author Clare Flynn to Virtual Book Club, my author interview series in which authors have the opportunity to pitch their book to your book club. Clare Flynn is the author of fifteen historical novels and a collection of short stories. Her website promises historical fiction with modern themes and,...
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