Janet Gover – Aussie Country Life

Janet Gover’s fictional country town of Coorah Creek is Robyn Carr’s Virgin River set in The Outback – with the stories of love and loss, flights and fights, that fans love. Hi there, I’m your host Jenny wheeler, and today on the Joys of Binge Reading  Janet talks about her latest book, The Lawson Sisters, a contemporary story of family guilt and estranged siblings, and exciting new projects – like her recreation of Bronte stories in the 20th century. Six things you’ll learn from this Joys of Binge Reading episode: Why Australia appeals as a settingWarm & uplifting? Or angry and dark?Real people who inspired storiesHeathcliff? Fascinating but not a heroTwo writers she binge readsWhy she loves where she is right now Where to find Janet Gover:  Website:  www.janetgover.com Twitter: @janet_gover Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/janetgoverbooks/ Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/janetgoverauthor/ What follows is a "near as" transcript of our conversation, not word for word but pretty close to it, with links to important mentions. Jenny: But now, here’s Janet. .  Hello there Janet and welcome to the show, it’s great to have you with us. Janet Gover: Well. Thank you, Jenny. It's lovely to be here. Thank you so much for inviting me. Jenny Wheeler: You've had an outstanding career as a journalist, and we'll get to that a little later in the chat, but the obvious question for us is, what drew you to fiction? Was that something you always had there simmering under the surface, or was there a sort of Once Upon A Time moment, an epiphany when you thought, I just got to write some make believe? Janet Gover - Australian Coorah Creek series a winner Janet Gover: Well, I think it came out of being a successful journalist. When I started in journalism I was writing stories every day and there were a lot of them. They were stories about people, factual stories, true stories, new stories. But then I got promoted and I became more management and I wasn't actually writing stories anymore about people, and that was not good. Nostalgia for Australia I think there's something in me that really wants to write. So I thought, well, if I'm not writing factual stories, maybe I could write a bit of fiction. And I've always been a big reader since I was very young, so I thought I might have a go at this. "It can't be that hard." I was wrong. Jenny Wheeler: Yes.  You've been based in England for quite a few years now, but a lot of your books are set in Australia. Is there a sort of nostalgia for the past operating there? Janet Gover: Oh, definitely. It's a strange thing. I came to England because - I was actually living in Hong Kong at the time, and I fell in love with an Englishman was green eyes and a guitar. And a very, very cute bum. Am I allowed to say that?  When I came to England, I expected England and Australia to be very similar because there are obviously historic ties between the two countries. 'Rose-Colored Glasses' And in fact, I found that they are very, very different. I think to a large extent, being away from Australia, I was looking at it from the outside and seeing things that I had thought were every day, that that's what the world is like, but I started to realize that actually that's not true.