Featured Interview With Jane Biran
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I was born in South London but due to the military bombardment of the city during World War two, I was evacuated to north east England where I was raised and educated. I continued my education at Liverpool University where I studied English Language and Literature, made life-long friends and became devoted to Everton Football Club, before moving back to London to do post-graduate studies at the London School of Economics. I met my first husband, also a Liverpool graduate and the father of my three children, when he recruited me for my first job. We moved between London and Liverpool until he became the Member of Parliament for an Essex constituency while I worked briefly in the fashion industry, then in journalism until I settled down in a public relations job in London. Shortly after marrying my second husband, Israel’s Ambassador to London, we moved to Jerusalem where I have lived ever since. The move coincided with a career change for me to fund-raising and reporting for two international charities.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I cannot remember a time when I was not fascinated by books. I do remember relatives chastising me for always having my head in a book when I should have been listening to them. It was therefore on the cards that I would study literature and that I would always divide my leisure time between reading and writing. In fact, every job I have ever had has involved an element of writing. Even my brief sojourn in the fashion world included writing promotional descriptions of items of clothing. I started writing fiction only when I moved to Jerusalem and my work for the city’s flagship charity involved frequent air travel. I began writing novels to fill the hours when many of my fellow travelers were sleeping. I have so far completed five books and have started work on a sixth.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
Jane Austen has remained my favourite and most inspirational writer. I consider ‘Emma’ possibly the most perfect novel ever written in the English language. But I also love Edith Wharton and Anita Shreve from across the Atlantic and Anita Brookner, Penelope Lively, Ian McEwan and Sebastian Faulks among many others from contemporary British writers.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
“Hope Street’, my third published but fourth completed novel, was inspired by the tragic life of a friend from Liverpool University. A good deal of the book is fictional; most of the situation and almost all of the dialogue is, by the very mature of things, culled from my own imagination. But the starting point was this particular friendship which lasted her entire life time to which she actually asked me to try to write her a happy ending. It took me some time to do anything about it because I was concerned to honour her memory without compromising any of the other characters in the book or any confidences, by no means an easy task and I am still not sure if I have succeeded. I nevertheless hope that the story as I present it will keep my readers wanting to know what happens next.
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