The Suffragette
Author of Historical and Romantic Novels and Sagas about life in the North East of England

News Archive

Chasing The Dream
*
*

Home Page

Biography

Books

News

Events

Archive

 

email: janet@janet
macleodtrotter.com

News and Event Archive

 

Artist, Graham Innes, sent this recent picture of his bookcase.

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!"

Back to Top


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

Back to Top


Woodhorn Mining Museum.

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.

Back to Top

 


Janet being presented with her award by Estelle Morris

Arts Council Writer's Award.

Janet has 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 new Arts Minister, Estelle Morris.

The award (one of 15 to be given out of 300 entries) is 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 will continue to write for adults as well. Her third novel in the Jarrow series will be published in 2004.

Back to Top


 
 
*  
*