Jane Sanderson

I studied English Literature at university, then became a journalist, first of all on a trade magazine (for want of a better offer) then a local newspaper in Oxford, then The Hampstead and Highgate Express in London (where Brian and I met) then BBC Radio 4, where I was a producer on the news and current affairs show World at One, and then the iconic magazine show Woman’s Hour. I left the BBC to raise our family of three wonderful children (now 33, 31 and 27) and eventually got round to writing that book I’d always meant to write. It was called Netherwood, and was published, so that was the start of a whole new career.

What genre(s) do you write?

Fiction

Do you have a newly released novel? What is the title and a link to buy the novel?

Not a newly-released one, but Mix Tape (2020) was my biggest seller, and was adapted for television and screened on the BBC in 2025.

Are there any other social media links, websites, or other places to learn about you that we should add?

Instagram: @janesandersonwriter @writersinc

Writing retreat website: www.writersinc.co.uk

If you are traditionally published, who is your agent? If you are self-published, what publishing software do you prefer/ who is your publisher?

My agent is Andrew Gordon at David Higham Associates. I’ve written six novels and had four publishers! Transworld - an imprint of Penguin - published Mix Tape and Waiting for Sunshine (2020 and 2022) I’m currently writing a new novel without a contract, but my agent Andrew is ready and waiting to pitch it, and he’s not let me down yet!

What do you love the most about being an author?

I love the opportunity to pour everything I’ve learned about the world in my 63 years to works of fiction. I am and have always been a voracious reader of fiction, and to see one’s own name on the spine of a novel in a bookshop is a marvellous feeling. I’m grateful that Brian’s steady salary meant I could write freely.

How long have you been hosting your writers’ retreat, and how many do you do a year?

We did the first in July last year, and we’ve done five so far. The next is in June, then July. We both have other projects - Brian is a film critic and journalist and I’m writing, of course - but we hope to build up to perhaps eight retreats every year, perhaps even more in due course.

Who can sign up for this retreat?

Anyone with an interest in books and writing. We’ve had people who’ve written 150,000 words of a novel, and others who’ve never written anything. We have someone coming in June who’s only ever written poetry but wants us to help her make the switch to prose. It’s so interesting. We’ve met some great people.

What are three fun facts about you?

1. I was known as Little Olga at school, because I was a gymnast and Olga Korbut was all the rage!

2. I have an authentic Yorkshire accent but it only emerges when I’m in Yorkshire, where I grew up.

3. I’d take anyone on in a competition to make the best chicken pie - I inherited my love of cooking from my paternal grandmother Nellie (my mum hated cooking) and she was the queen of pastry, no contest.

If you could give any advice to a new writer/author, what would it be?

Don’t wait for the muse - the muse doesn’t care about you! If you have the discipline to sit down and write on the days when you don’t feel like it, you’ll get your book written.