Jane Gardam
Jane Gardam
Jane Mary Gardam OBE FRSLis an English writer of children's and adult fiction. She also writes reviews for The Spectator and The Telegraph, and writes for BBC radio. She lives in Kent, Wimbledon, and Yorkshire. She has won numerous literary awards, including the Whitbread Award twice. She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empirein the 2009 New Year Honours...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth11 July 1928
real future forget
Somewhere inside we do know everything about ourselves. There is no real forgetting. Perhaps we know somewhere, too, about all there is to come.
would-be sensible things-to-do
I just knew I would be a writer. It just seemed the only sensible thing to do.
fear knew nearly
I was nearly 40 when I started. I had no fear that I wasn't going to write. I knew it was just delayed. Then, my goodness, I never stopped.
nearly sands tiny walked
I longed from a tiny child to get away on my own. When I was five, I walked out along the sands from Redcar, nearly all the way to Hartlepool.
modern
In modern novels, there is no one I want to copy. My style 'is a poor thing, but it is my own.'
perhaps politics
I knew I had a lot to say. Not politically - politics have always confused me - but perhaps spiritually.
believe fiction life minor
If I've got one thing that I really believe about fiction and life, it's that there are no minor characters.
I can't write the same book over and over again... let it go, once it's gone!
best novel somewhere sure won wrote
The best novel I wrote was one called 'Crusoe's Daughter,' which never won any prizes. But I was getting somewhere in that. I'm not sure I have in any of the others.
While writing a novel, I don't read anything new in fiction. I am too engrossed.
I hate the idea of sequels. I think you should be able to do it in one book.