After a career in journalism and the media, and 58 years after leaving school, Wendy Jones (LHS 1968) has just had her first novel published.
“I am a firm believer in it never being too late.
The Candidate’s Husband is a contemporary political novel set in Hull – in the fictitious constituency of North Humberside. An ambitious headteacher is selected as Labour candidate in a contest to replace a disgraced MP. She is seen as a breath of fresh air in a toxic climate. Only her husband, deputy editor of the local paper, is unimpressed. For behind every successful woman stands a resentful man…
Write what you know, goes the adage (although other approaches are available), and so I’ve based my story in the worlds of politics, the media and education.
After leaving Loughborough High School with A-levels in English, French and German in 1968, I went to Hull University to read English with ancillary Drama. On graduating I worked for a local newspaper in Slough and in 1974 joined the BBC, becoming a reporter in local radio and regional TV, on Radio 4’sToday programme and The World at One, and then an education correspondent, followed by stints in management as Deputy BBC Secretary and Head of Education Policy.
Over the years, I reported on and worked with many people in prominent positions and was always intrigued by the correlation between the professional and the personal. I sometimes wondered how anyone managed to stay sane when they were under fierce public scrutiny. This is perhaps truer than ever in the age of social media. And much of this feeds into my novel.
The route to publication has been tortuous (almost as much so as my fictional character’s route into politics). There were courses taken, drafts written and rewritten, agents gained and lost, rejections galore – but finally I signed contracts with a small independent publisher in Hertfordshire and a global audiobook publisher based in Australia. There’s nothing like starting a fresh career in your eighth decade and learning about a new industry.
But I’ve got the taste for this new career and am now working on my second novel. I live in south London with my husband (who gained a PhD just before his 80th birthday – I think we’re both late developers). We have three grown-up children and three small grandchildren. When I’m not writing (or being a mother and grandmother), I teach English to refugees.
The Candidate’s Husband is published by SRL Publishing and as an audiobook by Bolinda Audio. I write under the pen name of Wendy Sacks Jones (I discovered there were too many other Wendy Joneses!)”
