Jenny Ashcroft – From Blitz to Outback

Jenny Ashcroft’s historical fiction reflects her many years living and working abroad. She does captivating romances that have been compared to the big names of popular fiction, people like Lucinda Riley and Kate Furnivall. Stories of family secrets and love doomed by misunderstandings of war set in Bombay, Singapore, Australia, and Egypt. Hi there, I’m your host, Jenny Wheeler, and in Binge Reading today Jenny Ashcroft talks about her latest book, Under the Golden Sun, set against the epic beauty of a cattle station in rural Queensland disrupted by the tentacles of a far-off European war, and the arrival of American troops in Brisbane. WIN AN E-BOOK COPY OF UNDER THE GOLDEN SUN We’ve got three E-Book copies of Under The Golden Sun to giveaway to three lucky readers. Enter the draw below. If you entered last week for Monica McInerney your name will still be entered. WIN AN E-BOOK Six things you’ll learn from this Joys of Binge Reading episode: Why Jenny’s first book was published in Germany The writer’s life as a continuous hill climb How her wanderlust has helped create exotic locations Surprises she’s found in her historical research Why writing a book takes a village Brisbane magic, 1941, when US troops came to town Where to find Jenny Ashcroft:  Website: https://www.hachette.com.au/jenny-ashcroft/under-the-golden-sun-jenny-ashcrofts-best-yet-dinah-jeffries  Twitter: @Jenny_Ashcroft Instagram  @jennyashcroftauthor What follows is a “near as” transcript of our conversation, not word for word but pretty close to it, with links to important mentions. But now, here’s Jenny. Introducing author Jenny Ashcroft Jenny Wheeler: Hello there, Jenny, and welcome to the show. It’s so good to have you with us. Jenny Ashcroft: Thank you very much. It’s great to be here. Jenny Wheeler: You are in COVID – well you’re very successfully combating COVID in Britain these days, aren’t you, but you are in Brighton. Jenny Ashcroft: Yes, it’s been a long winter, a very, very long winter here in lockdown. My kids have only just gone back to school. The schools were shut since December, everything’s been shut, so it’s been a really long haul with quite a grey and dark winter as well, not a lot of sunshine has broken through, so we’re all very happy to see spring on its way. Jenny Ashcroft Historical fiction author Jenny Wheeler: You have made your specialty area historic fiction, but outside of some of the more traditional settings. First and Second World War, but also related to India, British occupied Egypt, Singapore, Australia, rather than just the traditional European setting. You have also included a lot of stories about family conflicts, misunderstandings, and secrets, which I think readers always love – misunderstandings and secrets. What drew you to this particular niche in the beginning? Jenny Ashcroft: It’s a hard one. I think probably the biggest thing is that I have got a lot of experience, personally, of living overseas. I’m married to an Australian, so I’ve spent a chunk of time in Sydney, but we also lived for six years in Singapore, and they were the years I started writing – when we were still in Sydney and in Singapore, so I think there was a natural inclination in me to write about the experiences of people who were not living where they’ve grown up. A preference for exotic settings Also, I’ve read a lot of books set during those periods that I’ve really loved. I think when anyone starts writing, they think about what are the books they love to read most. I feel that’s what a lot of authors do, you write the books you would love to read. For me, that was part of what drove me to write, love of those stories that I discovered. I think those two things together, having enjoyed stories set in those places plus the fact that I was experiencing living overseas myself, drew me to write those settings. Jenny Wheeler: The very first one you wrote was Beneath the Burning Sky and it was set in Alexandria in Egypt. Two sisters, a tale of love and betrayal. What was the catalyst when you were in Sydney to get you started on writing that particular book, your first book? Beneath The Burning Sky by Jenny Ashcroft – set in Alexandria Jenny Ashcroft: Weirdly, that wasn’t my first book. My first book was a book that didn’t even get a UK deal, only got a German deal. I think I often forget that. I talk about Beneath the Burning Sky as my first book, but I think most authors will say their first book wasn’t their first book. We’ve all had these books we’ve written that, for whatever reason, didn’t get those deals. But when I wrote about Egypt – it’s hard to remember exactly. I’d read a couple of books set in Egypt that I’d loved. One that springs to mind is Iris and Ruby by Rosie Thomas, which I think is a beautiful book. I had been to Egypt with my husband and been fascinated by it, and I think I was drawn to the idea of writing a book set there. A German publishing deal Then when I started to do the research and coming across some of the things that happened and the cruelties of the British rule there, it spun up the idea in my mind of the friction between the British oppressors and the native population. That was where the idea came from. I never really know fully where my ideas come from, but that was the origin of where it starts to evolve. Jenny Wheeler: Going back to that book that you did get published in Germany. What was that one? Die Frauen vom Rose Square by Jenny Ashcroft – her first book was published in Germany.. Jenny Ashcroft: That was a First World War book as well, and funnily enough, it wasn’t one set overseas. It was a very British First World War book. It was two families in Oxford who had their lives turned upside down by the start of the First World War. It was very bucolic, born of my love of books like The Go-Between and Atonement – those types of reads. I loved that book, but it didn’t get a UK deal, but it was published in Germany. [Ed note:  Jenny Ashcroft’s first novel, Remember Me, was published in October 2014 in Germany under the title, Die Frauen vom Rose Square (Goldmann Verlag).] Jenny Wheeler: We are going to be focusing on your most recent book and that is Under The Golden Sun. It’s one that is split between a bombed-out London and an outback pastoral station in Australia, both of them in the Second World War and both of them very much imbued with the sense of war. The genesis of the story Even in Australia, in the Outback, we’ve got a fighter pilot who’s returned home rather badly burned, we’ve got the Americans piling in as they enter the war. It’s another tale of family secrets. I know you’ve said you don’t quite know where these things come from, but how did that one get sparked? Jenny Ashcroft: I was under contract when I wrote this book, and what you tend to do is come up with several synopsis that you send to your publisher, your editor, and say, what about this? What about this? What about this? We had talked about whether there was a potential, because of the fact that I’m married to an Australian, to set one there. It’s a country I love. It’s home. It’s part home. My husband’s grandfather spoke a lot about his experiences when he was in Australia during the Second World War and the arrival of the Americans and how that felt to the Australians who were there at the time. There were all of these various things just bubbling away in my head. World War II – 80,000 US troops in Australia- This picture is from Brisbane in 1941, courtesy of Courier Mail Archives. Then I think I must have read a book – that often is how it happens – when I was doing a bit of research, and I read a couple of things. One was the guide to the American servicemen serving in Australia, which made me laugh a lot. You know, be warned, this is the kind of thing they do, and this is the way the women are. It really made me laugh. Also, a book which was set in Brisbane during the Second World War, and the way the author brought the city alive with talk of the dance halls and the winter garden, all of that. ‘You Are My Sunshine’ moment There was this passage I read about the American ships first landing when they sing “You Are My Sunshine” to all the people on the banks. It was like, I’ve got to write about this. I’ve got to write this story because it was so beautiful, this idea of these boys, such a long, long way away from home, singing that song to those people on the riverbank and having them sing Waltzing Matilda back to them. I knew then it was going to be war time Australia. I don’t know why I decided it was going to be Rose answering that newspaper advertisement, but I thought, what would have taken a British woman to Australia at that time? It would have to be something. Then the idea of this quest to take this little boy home was what came to my head. Diggers (Australian soldiers in lemon squeezer hats) celebrate with a US sailor, Brisbane, 1941. Picture: The Australian. Jenny Wheeler: Walter is the little boy. His mum has died in London. They’ve been estranged from the family for reasons we don’t really understand much about at the beginning, but when he’s returned to that family in Australia, it’s a little bit of an unknown journey. We don’t quite know how he’s going to be received, or even who’s going to be there to receive him. Rose promises she will stay with him until he’s settled and happy. She makes that commitment because she’s his main connection with the world once they get on that ship and they’re sailing away. You have got a great heart wrenching set up there at the beginning. Touching story of an orphaned boy Jenny Ashcroft: That’s also probably to do with the fact that we often will write what we know. I’m currently the mum of small children, they are growing up too fast, but they are currently still quite small children, and one of the things that struck me most when I had children was their vulnerability, and how much they depend on their parents to make things right for them, to look after them. And so the idea of this little boy who has been left parentless a long way from where he’s from, that connection with Rose who’s lost someone herself, I thought it was a very special thing. Heart-wrenching for both of them, but they heal each other as they go on this journey across to the other side of the world. Never Miss out! 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I was building up the love between them with this, what is going to happen, because she’s taking him somewhere to leave him. It was definitely a heart wrenching set up. Authenticity of the conversations Jenny Wheeler: I love the dialogue that you give Rose and Walter. It feels to me very real that these wonderful chats could have gone on. They are very open and innocent, and I suspect that perhaps being the mum of, it is boys, isn’t it, younger boys… Jenny Ashcroft: Yes, two boys and one girl. Jenny Wheeler: … that you probably had a real sense. I wondered if some of your own chats with your children got in there. Jenny Ashcroft: There’s a funny story, because the book is dedicated to my nephew, Leo. We were getting ready for Christmas and he was really excited, he was about five, and he said to my sister, “my nerves are shocked”. It has lived in our family. “My nerves are shocked” – we always say it. Then Walter – I said, do you mind if I use that in my book, and he’s like, you’re fine Aunty Jenny, you can use that. British children evacuated to Australia during WWII – singing for their supper… Australian Geographic. We all know kids say funny things and they perceive the world in a way that we don’t even realize they’re doing. They’re taking things in, they’re absorbing. The one thing I didn’t want to do was try and write from a child’s perspective because, as an adult, I would not be able to. I write from the perspectives I understand, and as an adult I would struggle to portray that. But I did think it was fair enough to try and write from the perspective of an adult caring for a small child. Tackling sensitive issues Even then, in the edits, when I went for my round of edits, my editor in America said, he’s too smart. He’s acting. Sometimes I did slip into making him talk a bit too old. Things like, would he have known what a prime minister was at age five? All of those things had to be edited quite carefully. He’s a precocious child, he’s a very smart child, but he is still five. That was quite challenging to get right, but I enjoyed it. Jenny Wheeler: There is an aspect of it where Aboriginal heritage comes into the story as well. We won’t give away too much of the storyline, but I thought that was quite brave and also challenging to enter into that territory, because it is a little sensitive, isn’t it? How did you tackle that? Jenny Ashcroft: I was worried about it. I was not worried about the issue, but worried about getting it right, because it is so important to get it right. I could have very easily written a story about a British woman taking a British child, but I thought there was something very true at the time – given he was going back to Queensland, given he was going back to an area where his father would have been from – to have that Aboriginal heritage there. We did get a sensitivity read done to make sure the terminology that was being used was appropriate, that there was nothing upsetting or in any way wrong that was written in the book, and fortunately, there wasn’t. I was very careful the whole time to be respectful, and that was something that came back from the sensitivity reader. The careful editing process It is something we all need to be mindful of. It was definitely a line I was very careful about treading and I hope I have done it properly. I can only hope I’ve done my best there. Jenny Wheeler: It’s interesting, the sensitivity read. Quite a few readers probably don’t understand or realize that this is something that’s becoming more and more common, isn’t it? Could you tell us a little bit about how your editors handle that side of things? Jenny Ashcroft: I think it is becoming very common now. Once the book is almost ready to go to production, you get that final read done, and if anything has flagged then you change it or you have the discussion with the reader to work out the best way forward. It’s hard to have this conversation because you’re so conscious the whole time about what could be misinterpreted. Whilst I will always write with the best intentions, the sensitivity read is about making sure the books I have written do bring joy to people, rather than anything else. Sensitivity read becoming common Jenny Wheeler: Have you had a sensitivity read on any of your other books? Jenny Ashcroft: Yes, I think it is something that is more and more happening. Jenny Wheeler: It’s interesting because we do AI translation on these recordings that we make and my sister helps with the editing of those, and we came across this sensitivity read in another author recently and she had never heard of it. She didn’t quite know how to put that into a transcript because she didn’t understand the concept. Meet Me in Bombay – Jenny Ashcroft – a story set in India and WWI Western Front Jenny Ashcroft: It’s done across the board, it’s for every type of book. I think it’s to do with when an author is writing about something they may not instinctively have grown up with or lived with. I know plenty of authors who have had it done for teen books they’ve written and young adult, because it’s important to get the tone correct. I think that’s more than anything what it’s about. Jenny Wheeler: The book before Under the Golden Sun was Meet Me in Bombay, and it’s got tremendous response as an absolutely irresistible love story. It’s split between wartime Europe and India but this time it’s the First World War, and so the war theater is the French trenches. An irresistible love story Luke and Maddie fall in love. They marry before he goes off to war, and then he loses his memory at the Front because of a very traumatic experience. There is quite a big follow-on of whether they ever manage to find their way back to one another again. Was there anything in the way of historical fiction or journals that sparked this, or how did you come upon that story? Jenny Ashcroft: I have read it’s been likened to The Notebook. I’ve never read The Notebook, so it wasn’t that. No, it was nothing I read. The first thing I read when I was researching this book was a lot of letters that were written by the Indian soldiers to their families back in India, and they are incredibly tragic and moving, those letters. Never Miss out! Never miss out on the hottest new authors, regular FREE BOOK OFFERS and Most Popular podcasts. Yes please to FREE BOOKS and updates on popular books We won’t send you spam. 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These people who had never left their country, the warmth of India, and were taken to the Western front in tropical kits to fight a war that had nothing to do with them. I really wanted to make that part of the story because I haven’t seen it much in fiction at all. I have had a lot of people write to me say that we didn’t even realize this is what had happened. As a historical fiction writer, one thing that can be done is trigger awareness and more interest in a period, so that people do go out and find out more about it. Meet Me In Bombay – a love story But the actual story came about because I was scribbling down lots and lots of different ideas, and I came up with a scene that’s quite far into the book actually. It’s Iris’s birthday party. I originally wrote that scene as the prologue to the book. I think most people would say that the original prologue they write never ends up being the prologue you end up with. The story then spun around this person. Will they return to the person they love? And one day I suddenly thought of this letter, this very elderly man writing a letter to a woman he wants to return to. I wrote the letter and then I thought about cutting the narrative with this soldier trying to get home. It came from there. It was an evolution of an idea rather than a single, this is what I should do. But like all my books, I don’t plot them that much before I write them, I genuinely make it up as I go along, and then you have to go back and rewrite chunks because you’ve realized the way you want your story to go. Jenny Wheeler: I must admit I had no idea about the kitting out of the Gurkhas as well. I was absolutely shocked when I read that. Jenny Ashcroft: Appalling. I studied the First World War at university and I remember reading a nurse’s account of being on a convalescent train full of Indian troops and talking about how cold they were. A shocking lack of care Cold is miserable, but to be injured in a horrific war and that far from home and freezing cold because the British hadn’t even given them the uniforms. I found that so beyond shocking, and it was months, it was Christmas before they got those uniforms. Jenny Wheeler: You are mentioned now in the company of top authors, they say things like ‘perfect for fans of Lucinda Riley, Dinah Jeffries, some of the big names. When you started out, what were your expectations for what you were going to achieve as an author? Gurkha soldiers on Western Front – WWI – A shocking lack of care. Jenny Ashcroft: You mean instant huge multinational success and a movie deal, obviously. Oh gosh, I don’t know. What has really hit me is, this is a really tough industry. It’s a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. When you first start out you can be a bit naïve, or I certainly was, about how long it would take. Words I often get used to me by my publishers are, it’s a long game. It’s a bit like panning for gold. You keep writing these books, hoping you’ll be hitting the zeitgeist, and that it will take off and you’ll get some luck come your way, because I do think you need a bit of luck. Always another hill to climb My expectations – I don’t know. I heard a really great way of putting it, I think it may even have been Dinah who said it to me. You get to the top of one hill and you think that’s your hill. Then you look around and see all the other hills you have still got to climb. My first hill was getting an agent. I got an agent, then it was get a publishing deal, which wasn’t as easy as I thought it might be. It was really hard. Then it was get foreign publishing deals. Then it was get a US publishing deal. Then actually sell some of these books. It goes on and on. When I first started, I hoped it would become a career, and now I’m currently writing my sixth book and it’s a career, it’s something I do day to day. That is a dream come true, but it is really hard sometimes. This is a rough time to be publishing, bookshops are closed. I don’t deny how lucky I am, so delighted to be doing this job, but it’s hard sometimes to just keep going. If any authors are listening or aspiring authors who are finding it hard, I would say you’re not alone, but keep going because one surefire way to not have your dreams come true is to stop writing. Covid disruptions in publishing Jenny Wheeler: That’s right. One of the authors I’ve spoken to recently, a British woman who now lives in New Zealand and is writing from New Zealand but she’s got an English publishing deal, had a book that was due to come out early last year. It was initially fan fared as the summer blockbuster. It was looking like it was going to trend wonderfully and then COVID hit and all the book shops shut. She’s been really gutted. She said that one day last year, 600 books were all released on one day when the warehouses opened. Jenny Ashcroft: That was in September, and it continues to be that way. Under the Golden Sun is coming out in England in June, but there are a lot of books coming out in June. Even getting it on a shelf is hard, and if you don’t have it on a shelf, then no one knows it exists unless they happen to get it served up on Amazon. I think book sales have been really strong for some, because one of the positives of the pandemic is people have rediscovered this love of reading. There are a lot of people I know who say, we have just got to keep going. What Jenny did before books Jenny Wheeler: Yes, that’s right. Turning to your wider career, tell us a bit about your life before you did become a full-time writer. I know you did a lot of traveling. Tell us a little bit about life before being a mum. Jenny Ashcroft: I used to work for Microsoft for a long time, 7 years. I worked in corporate strategy at Microsoft, which was a lot of fun. I loved that job, but it was a lot of travel. When my daughter was born I kept doing it, and then when my second child, my son, was born, (a) I wanted to start writing properly, and (b) it was hard having two people, me and my husband, both traveling. Island in the East – a dual time line historical love story – the tale of two sisters set in Singapore in the 1890s and 1940s… by Jenny Ashcroft We had this one situation, no word of a lie. He flew back from New York into Singapore airport. I was there with Molly in the push chair, and I had my suitcase. He was jetlagged, just come back from New York to Singapore. I handed him over Molly and got on the flight to LA and Seattle. It was really hard. I wouldn’t see the kids for a week or 10 days at a time and then I’d come back, and I’d just get over my jet lag and it would be off again. But I loved that job. It was working with great people, seeing countries all over the world, working on interesting projects. It’s a really fun company to work for, they were very supportive of me when I had children. The corporate world not for her But it wasn’t right for me and it wasn’t my dream, so when Jonah was about 10 months old, I started writing and I realized this was authentic. This was really me. This was what I wanted to be doing. Very quickly after that I moved to a consulting basis with Microsoft, and when I got my German deal, I was able to start writing full time. Jenny Wheeler: A question I like to ask everybody: is there one thing you’ve done in your writing career, more than any other, that you see as being the secret of your success? Jenny Ashcroft: Can I say two things? Jenny Wheeler: Yes. Jenny Ashcroft: One would be reading. The more you read, the better you write. I say that to my kids. I think it’s true when you read and read and read. The other, and this is so important, is listening. I have given feedback to people before and I can see they don’t want to hear it. I think every piece of feedback you receive is valid. The solution somebody offers may not be the right solution, but if the feedback is there for the book, there is a problem that needs to be fixed. The ability to swallow your disappointment that the book is not as finished as you thought it was going to be and listen to that and go back and rethink how you’ve done something. It takes a village to write a book That to me is so important because no author is an island. Another analogy – it takes a village to write a book. I take feedback from my agent, my editor, my editor in America, and that’s when the book really becomes a book – when you listen. Jenny Wheeler: That’s very good advice. This is The Joys of Binge Reading and we’re coming to the end of our time together, so turning to Jenny as reader. You have mentioned how important reading is. JoJo Moyes The Ship of Brides – a memorable read for Jenny Ashcroft We like to focus more on the light end of the scale, the binge reading, where people might discover an author – and it can be really great books, but books that are targeted entertainment and when people discover the author, they like to read their whole backlist. Who are the people in your world like that? Jenny Ashcroft: Well, I don’t need to say one of them because she’s in everyone’s world, but Jojo Moyes. I discovered her late and then had this incredible backlist to read. I remember when my third child was born, I was reading The Ship of Brides in hospital. She’s just incredible. She transports you and you know that when you pick up one of her books, you’re going to have an amazing time. What Jenny likes to read Another funny one, this is a young adult one actually, but I remember when I was flying back, when I was still at Microsoft, and my mum and my sister and pretty much all of my university friends had been going on and on and on about the Twilight books. I was so, they are kids’ books, what are you talking about? (Stephenie Meyer, The Twilight series) Anyway, I was on the plane from Singapore, and it was before all of the films had been made, but the first three films had been made. I got completely hooked, and I went straight back to Singapore – Borders was still a thing then – and I bought all of the books and read them in a week. I loved those books, so that was another binge read. Another author I could just read – I could read a shopping list that she wrote – is Kate Atkinson, who I think is utterly wonderful. Life after Life, Behind the Scenes in the Museum, A God in Ruins, Transcription – I could read her all day long.  They’re all brilliant. Jenny Wheeler: That’s wonderful. How long have you been writing? Jenny Ashcroft: I was talking to my husband about this. 2012 was when I started. It’s been 9 years now, almost 10. It’s quite a while. Jenny Wheeler: Looking back down that tunnel and considering your writing career, if you were doing it all over again, is there anything you would change? If you were doing it all over again . . Jenny Ashcroft: No, I wouldn’t. I do ask myself those questions because you have choices you make at different points. Which publishers? Some of them are really hard. I am a firm believer that everything that happens – even if it’s not something you want to happen – has its own consequences that are important and they’re meant to happen. Not fatalist, but I do think that if ever something’s happened, it’s because it was meant to happen, and you go on. I wouldn’t be where I am now if some of the slips along the way hadn’t happened. Yes, I would love to have had an instant, huge hit, debut success, but that’s not something in my control. Everything that’s in my control is what I focus on, and that is mainly writing the books. I wouldn’t change the books I’ve written when I’ve written them. I do believe you get better with each book you write. Of course, I would love to have written a more recent book as my first book, but that’s not the way it goes. I wouldn’t change anything, and I do genuinely count myself very lucky to have had the breaks I’ve had, to be doing what I do. But when I’ve got the movie deal, I can definitely look back and say, I’m glad that that all happened when it happened, because it was all leading into this. What Jenny’s next year looks like Jenny Wheeler: For some of those authors who do get the huge thing at the beginning with the debut book, it must be awfully hard to turn around and write book two. Jenny Ashcroft: Absolutely. That’s the thing – everyone’s got their own thing going on, and nothing is what it seems looking in. Also, probably, for a lot of those authors, it wasn’t their first. They would have had those disappointments and whatever along the way that we don’t know about. Jenny Wheeler: Looking ahead towards the next 12 months, what is next for Jenny the writer? Any new projects under development? Jenny Ashcroft: I’m currently halfway through writing a new book, which I’ve got to finish by July. My grandmother was Greek, and she was in Greece during the Occupation and I’m writing a book set in Crete during the Occupation. I’m really enjoying this one, actually, I’m quite excited about it, but it’s just the hours in the day to get it down. A new work in progress It’s great because it’s obviously lockdown. It’s been winter, and every day I sit at my desk and I leave England, I leave 2021, and I’m back in Greece in the heat, in the sunshine, and I’m with my grandmother. It’s a lovely thing to do and go and escape to. So that’s what’s next. It should be finished by July, but it won’t be coming out until next September. Jenny Wheeler: I guess that one doesn’t have a completed title yet. Jenny Ashcroft: No, it doesn’t have as yet. It’s got like five different titles and I don’t think any of them are right. Titles are a nightmare. For Under the Golden Sun there must have been 200 titles that got knocked back and forth, and every time one person liked something, somebody else said, no, I don’t think that’s right. It went on and on. We could not find the title. So this one doesn’t have a title at all. It’s called the Greek book. Jenny Wheeler: I imagine you love hearing from your readers. Where can they find you online? Jenny Ashcroft: I have Instagram or Twitter, and there’s always an ability to message me. I did have a Facebook page, but I was so awful at keeping up with it and I felt permanently guilty because I was never writing anything interesting on that Facebook page. I thought this is probably not worth it. So through Twitter and Instagram, please ping me and send me a message. I’d love to hear. That’s why I write. Where readers can connect online Jenny Wheeler: You don’t have an author website. You rely on your publisher, don’t you? Jenny Ashcroft: I do. It’s bad, I should have one. It’s hours in the day. I’m struggling so much to stay on top of things at the moment that to add anything at this stage, I feel like I won’t do anything well. That’s why I took the Facebook author page down. I thought I just need to focus on what I can manage at the moment. So that’s what I’m doing. Jenny Wheeler: Quite funny for somebody who worked for Microsoft not to have a web page. Never Miss out! Never miss out on the hottest new authors, regular FREE BOOK OFFERS and Most Popular podcasts. 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100%;}.formkit-form[data-uid="d471e51619"][min-width~="600"] [data-style="minimal"]{padding:40px;}.formkit-form[data-uid="d471e51619"][min-width~="600"] .formkit-fields[data-stacked="false"]{margin-left:-5px;margin-right:-5px;}.formkit-form[data-uid="d471e51619"][min-width~="600"] .formkit-fields[data-stacked="false"] .formkit-field,.formkit-form[data-uid="d471e51619"][min-width~="600"] .formkit-fields[data-stacked="false"] .formkit-submit{margin:0 5px 15px 5px;}.formkit-form[data-uid="d471e51619"][min-width~="600"] .formkit-fields[data-stacked="false"] .formkit-field{-webkit-flex:100 1 auto;-ms-flex:100 1 auto;flex:100 1 auto;}.formkit-form[data-uid="d471e51619"][min-width~="600"] .formkit-fields[data-stacked="false"] .formkit-submit{-webkit-flex:1 1 auto;-ms-flex:1 1 auto;flex:1 1 auto;} Jenny Ashcroft: I know. I wasn’t technical. I always joked that the IT guys, when I used to go in with my laptop to get it fixed, they would shudder because they would be like, she’s here again, we have to explain, really? I remember I would talk to the guys who did the coding and say, can we do this? And they’d be like, no, that’s not technically possible. I’m not a technical person at all. I am quite business minded, but no technical know-how whatsoever. Jenny Wheeler: That’s lovely, Jenny. Thank you so much for your time today. It’s been fabulous and I love the sound of the Greek book. We will look out for it. Shownotes online to catch up Jenny Ashcroft: Thank you so much, thanks for having me along and chatting with me. I can see the sunshine in the background, and I can almost feel like I’m over there. Jenny Wheeler: That’s wonderful. Just a reminder that all of the things we have been talking about, your links to books and things like that, will be in the show notes we publish, so people who hear this podcast can find all the links in the show notes at the same time. Lovely to have chatted. Thanks so much. Bye for now. Jenny Ashcroft: Thank you. Bye-bye. If you like Jenny you might also enjoy Kayte Nunn’s The Last Reunion, another historical fiction book that moves between Australian servicewomen in Burma and present day UK. LISTEN TO KAYTE NOW Thanks To Our Technical Support: The Joys of Binge Reading podcast is put together with wonderful technical help from Dan Cotton at DC Audio Services. Dan is an experienced sound and video engineer who’s ready and available to help you with your next project… Seek him out at [email protected] or Phone + 64 – 21979539. He’s fast, takes pride in getting it right, and lovely to work with. Our voice overs are done by Abe Raffills, and Abe’s another gem. He got 20 years of experience on both sides of the camera/microphone as a cameraman/director and also voice artist and television presenter. Abe’s vocal delivery is both light hearted and warm and he is super easy to work with no matter the job. You’ll find him at [email protected]