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16th October, 2008
The Tivoli Tea Room at Fenwick's in Newcastle was the luxurious setting for the launch of The Tea Planter's Lass.
At tables set with white linen tableclothes, the large audience were served tea and ate delicious scones and cakes, while Janet talked to them about the new novel. She had been inspired to write about the Edwardian tea trade by traditional tearooms such as Fenwick's and the local firm Ringtons. In the course of writing the book, she admitted to drinking large amounts of tea!
Husband Graeme helped her with readings from the book, then she got down to some serious tea drinking and book signing.
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Janet with Mark Farrer, Book Manager at Fenwick's.
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Mark presents Janet with flowers.
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Guests enjoying cream teas.
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Two happy readers.
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Writers Awards
Janet has been longlisted for the Romantic Novel of the Year Award for 2008, for the Tea Planter's Lass, awarded by the Romantic Novelists Association
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Launch of A Handful of Stars Stirs up memories of fascism in 1930s Tyneside.
Janet and husband Graeme gave dramatic readings from A Handful of Stars at the paperback launch at Waterstones in Newcastle. Graeme, taking his role as the fascist Vinne seriously, whipped off his jacket to reveal a blackshirt to the shocked gasps of the audience!
Janet also met up with one of her readers who had witnessed Blackshirt violence in South Shields in the 1930s. Joan Richardson had been pushed into a doorway for safety by her father to avoid a street fight between Mosley's fascists and their pursuers. Janet's new novel has prompted several members of the public to get in touch with their memories of those troubled times.
  
 
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Janet has been giving talks and doing signings around the region.
Her talk at Whitburn Library was the opening event of this year's Whitburn Festival where she was given a warm welcome by staff and readers despite the wet and windy summer's day!
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Artist, Graham Innes, sent this recent picture of his bookcase.
"It was a sight to gladden the heart," said Janet, "and will spur
me on to add to Graham's bookshelf in the coming year!"
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Article from recent issue of
News & Natter - Headline's Newsletter to Readers.
Dear Readers,
I was marching in protest against the war in Iraq (my ten-year-old
son had made a banner saying, 'Blair don't beat about with Bush!')
when inspiration came for my latest novel. Did you know there were
peace rallies all over Britain on the eve of the great war? Or that
many women who had fought for the vote threw their energies into
a peace campaign? They had had no say in going to war, but felt
that as wives and mothers they bore the brunt of the losses. Amazingly,
women from all over Europe and America held a peace conference in
1915 and suggested sending thousands of women to the Front to stand
between two armies! How different the history of the twentieth century
might have been if the women had won. I was fascinated by this overlooked
piece of history and felt a link with these ordinary women from
another century.
A Crimson Dawn is a saga of love and turmoil that sweeps from Edwardian
England through to the First World War. Spirited heroine Emmie is
rescued from the slums of Tyneside and brought up by a radical mining
family who oppose the war on socialist grounds. After making a disastrous
marriage, she falls in love with conscientious objector Rab MacRae
and finds herself at loggerheads with family and society. Will the
price she pays be too high?
Last year, my lovely father died at the age of eighty-four. A naval
veteran of the Second World War, he had seen action from the Mediterranean
to the dangerous Arctic convoy. He was also a great supporter of
our monthly peace vigils in Morpeth, Northumberland. In hospital,
I read him the first few chapters of A Crimson Dawn. His eyes lit
with a flash of his old spirit as he said, 'It's going to be a great
novel!'
He died before the saga was finished. I leave it for you to decide
if his prediction was true. For me, it has been a labour of love
and I really hope you enjoy reading it.
Love and peace
Janet Macleod Trotter
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Janet was involved in an exciting
new project at Woodhorn Colliery Museum, near Ashington in Northumberland.
Janet was one of four writers who were chosen to interpret Woodhorn
and mining in Northumberland, through the medium of short stories.
Janet's short story - the final one in the exhibition - charts
the momentous miners' strike in 1984.
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Arts Council Writer's Award.
Janet won a prestigious national Arts Council Writer's Award.
In a ceremony at the National Portrait Gallery in London, she was
presented with the award by Arts Minister, Estelle Morris.
The award (one of 15 to be given out of 300 entries) was to help
the completion of a work in progress - in Janet's case, a novel
for young people. 'I feel very honoured,' says Janet. 'It can be
hard to break into a new literary market but this award gives me
just the encouragement I need.'
Previous winners have included Salman Rushdie and Ted Hughes. Ten
have gone on to win the Booker Prize and 26 have won Whitbread Awards.
Janet was the only writer from the North-East of England to win
an award.
The novel in progress is called SCORCHED and is about Vietnamese
refugees in Britain. 'The idea came from meeting Vietnamese Boat
People as a student. I wondered what had become of the children
in particular,' says Janet. 'As with my historical novels, the setting
is the North of England - always an inspiration to my work!'
Janet continues to write for adults as well. Her third novel
in the Jarrow series was published in 2004.
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