Jean Fullerton book launch

Had a super time yesterday at the book launch of Jean Fullerton’s debut novel No Cure For Love published by Orion at Eastside Books, Brick Lane. Winner of the Harry Bowling Prize 2006, with a handsome doctor as a hero, and set in the East End in the 1830s I was so looking forward to reading it I did my usual thing of starting it on the train on the way home.

I know Jean from the Romantic Novelists Association which is an excellent association to join for aspiring writers and authors of women’s fiction. Caught up with lots of author friends at the launch including Janet Gover only just recovered from launching her first novel The Farmer Needs a Wife the day before, and Fenella Miller who’s The Ghosts of Neddingfield Hall is also just out.

Also at the party, among the “literary friends” (as Jean called us) were  Maureen Lee, Gill Sanderson, Jan Jones, Louise Allen, Monica Fairview, Lynne Connolly, Sophie Weston and Julie Cohen as well as Jean’s editors from Orion and her agent Laura Longrigg from MBA.

Jean’s readings were excellent (always one of the most scary things for new authors) and Eastside Books was packed and so, unsurprisingly, the shop sold out of copies. A great start to what looks like a promising career.