AT HOME WITH
W
hile becoming a bestselling
author seemingly happened
overnight for Jane Harper,
the reality is she’d been
heading in that direction for years.
As a young girl in Manchester,
England, she was an avid reader and
always felt she was destined to follow
a literary path. After studying English
and history at the University of Kent,
Jane took a post-graduate course in
journalism and landed a job as a trainee
reporter at the Darlington & Stockton
Times in County Durham. All the
while she was dreaming of writing
fiction one day.
In 2008, Jane moved to Australia,
working as a reporter across Victoria’s
Geelong Advertiser and Herald Sun
newspapers, then in 2014 everything
changed. She submitted a short story
to be considered for inclusion in The
Big Issue magazine’s annual Fiction
Edition – and was one of 12 authors
selected. As well as a much-needed
confidence boost, it gave her the push
she needed to finally start her novel.
Jane enrolled in the Curtis Brown
Creative 12-week novel-writing course
online and by the end of it had finished
her first full draft of The Dry, which
was published the following year.
“When I started to seriously write
The Dry, I came up with a mystery
crime because they’re the books I like
to read,” she explains. “I like to be
surprised and get caught up in something
that is fast-paced with a bit of tension;
that’s why I started writing these books.”‘The Aussie
landscape
inspires me’
With the success of her debut
The Dry and her latest book
Force of Nature on shelves now,
JANE HARPER, 37, is relishing
realising her dream of telling
the thrilling tales she loves