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In response to a request, I have collated some suggested questions for book clubs. This novel is all about family dynamics. Even before Judy’s accident, These Fragile Things book considers the pressures on nuclear families. How does Graham’s image of himself as a father, which bore a striking resemblance to his own father as a middle-aged…
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Doing what I had sworn never to do, I walked uphill to the William Bray, newly renovated, which I always associate with being stripped of character. Greeted by a sign that announced, ‘Only guide dogs allowed,’ I was about to turn away in silent protest when a barmaid dressed plainly in black sailed through the…
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I didn’t react when my mother’s solicitor wrote to inform me of her death – hadn’t known how to react, if I’m honest. I’d presumed she had died many years ago. I lost my father when he was sixty seven, back in 1959. Not racing, as I’d always feared, but as a spectator. It was…
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There was a solitary bench under another tree, a simple affair made from a single plank resting on two stumps. On that plank sat a girl, her hands tucked inwards under her thighs, head leaning forwards, face hidden behind a curtain of hair. Isambard stopped at a respectful distance and dropped his flank, waiting to…
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With only three weeks to go until I return to the Lake District (can’t wait!), reading firstly The Lighthouse and then The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Pye has reminded me of how long-distance walking unclutters the mind. Both novels feature men – one in middle age and one in his retirement – who, the further they…
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I have received a review on Amazon for I Stopped Time which I’m not sure I quite deserve: “What I like about her (Jane’s) books is that there is no bad or offensive language – something that you cannot say about a lot of books these days.” This raises an uncomfortable question: should writers allow…
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Jane reads from her new novel, These Fragile Things. Return to the homepage to buy now.

There is a poem doing the rounds on the internet. When an old man died in the geriatric ward of a nursing home in an Australian country town, it was believed that he had nothing left of any value. Later, going through his meagre possessions, the nurses found this poem. Its quality and content so…
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Listen to Jane read Chapter One of her new novel, I Stopped Time.  

God bless, Granma Linda, my first US reviewer for ‘I Stopped Time.’ “This is one of the best books I have read lately and I read a lot of books. Not an easy read, but really different and fascinating. This would make a great movie if they did it right. The characters seem like real…
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