A WELCOME FROM JANET
Thanks for visiting! If you love books, history, travel or 20th century nostalgia I hope you’ll find something of interest here.
My historical novels cover many political events and social upheavals of the past century. Currently I have thirteen titles in print, including the Jarrow Trilogy, the Durham Trilogy, and the Tyneside Sagas. To make these books authentic, I’ve researched the North East extensively. I’ll be using this blog to publish my original research notes, along with extracts from archive materials, photographs, drawings and maps of the North East of England.
If you’ve ever wanted to know what it was like to travel the hippy trail in the 1970s, then read The Vanishing of Ruth. This is a mystery novel, based in part on the material from the diary I kept on my overland trip to India and Kathmandu in 1976. I’ve already published extracts from the diary, but I’ll be refreshing that here, along with other previously un-published materials on the route that took through Europe, Yugoslavia, Greece, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, India & Kashmir , finally arriving in Kathmandu just before Christmas 1976.
My next mystery is set on the remote Outer Hebrides of Scotland – the idea came after a wild camping holiday on Barra and the Uists! I’ve more or less finished writing this, and it’s in the stages of final editing & proofing, prior to publication in Spring 2012.
If like me, you grew up in the 1960s, then you’ll love my childhood memoirs – an unashamedly nostalgic depiction of both Scotland and the North East of England in the 1960s – the heyday of the Beatles!
I also run a micro publishing business, MacLeod Trotter Books, specialising in paperbacks and ebooks. The novels regularly appear in ebook bestseller charts: The Jarrow Trilogy are in the Kindle top 100, and seven in the top ten of the Family Saga category. Vanishing of Ruth has been a bestseller for Waterstones e-charts. My blog sometimes throws a spotlight on the exciting world of digital publishing and book events in general. So please feel free to join in.
If you want to get in touch or leave comments, I’d be pleased to hear from you.
All the best, Janet.
I was interested to see (from our History Workshop Journal article website) that you had ancestors who also evaded the 1911 census – dressing in fancy dress.
Was this in the North-East? the coast of Durham? or Tyneside?
And I wonder if you’ve discovered their census schedule?
I’m intrigued,
best wishes,
Jill Liddington
Hello Jill
I’m a great fan of your work!
My great aunts were from Edinburgh and this is where they spent Census night – in a cafe having a fancy dress party! There are photos of the occasion in the National Library for Scotland (George IV Bridge, Edinburgh) as my last surviving great aunt Beth (whom I knew) donated them. They are part of the Gorrie Collection. I managed to track down the census schedule to confirm that they had been absent from home in Edinburgh and recorded as ‘on holiday’. There is a post about this on the blog. (entry for Jan 16th under researching the stories).
All the best
Janet