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IWORK TITLE: The Butcher’s Hook
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S): Ellis, Janet Michell
BIRTHDATE: 9/16/1955
WEBSITE: http://janetellis.com/
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY: English
http://janetellis.com/bio/ * http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0254890/ * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janet_Ellis
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born September 16, 1955, in Chatham, England; daughter of Mike Ellis; married Robin Bextor (a television director), 1977 (marriage ended, 1984); married John Leach (a television producer), 1988; children: (first marriage) Sophie; (second marriage) Jackson, Martha.
EDUCATION:Trained at Central School of Speech and Drama, London.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Actress, broadcaster, and writer. Comedy Theatre, London, England, member of backstage crew; Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, England, worked as assistant stage manager; appeared in many television programs, beginning in Jackanory Playhouse, British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), 1978; Jigsaw, presenter, 1979-83, and Blue Peter, BBC, 1983-87; voice actress and writer thereafter, including presenter of Open Air, BBC; Waking the Dead, BBC, television reporter, 2000-01; The Wright Stuff, Channel 5, panelist, 2002-16. Other appearances include the role of Teka in an episode of Doctor Who, 1979; presenter for Housebusters, Channel 5, between 2003 and 2005; appeared in the radio program Broadcasting House. Stage appearances include Green Forms, produced in London at Tabard Theatre, 2012. Lyric Theatre Hammersmith, board member; National Youth Theatre, member of council. Maggie’s Centres, patron.
AVOCATIONS:Cooking, walking.
AWARDS:Decorated member, Order of the British Empire.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Janet Ellis’s face and voice are familiar to British television audiences of a certain age. She trained for the theater at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London and made a modest stage debut, but she found her calling on television. Throughout the 1980s Ellis presented the children’s programs Jigsaw and Blue Peter. After 1987 she focused on raising her young family, while accepting occasional guest appearances and voice roles for commercials. By 2000 Ellis was able to resume a more active broadcasting career. In 2002 she became a regular panelist on the daytime talk show The Wright Stuff, a commitment that she continued to fulfill for nearly fifteen years.
At the same time Ellis was active in the greater community, notably as a supporter of cancer charities such as Maggie’s Centres. That work drew her back to the stage in 2012, when she appeared in a London benefit production of the play Green Forms. She also attended classes in creative writing, which resulted in a novel that critics would find not only surprising, but utterly shocking.
The Butcher’s Hook represents a dramatic departure from Ellis’s role as a children’s television host. The year is 1763, and repressed nineteen-year-old Anne Jaccob is about to burst from her shell. To all appearances, this daughter of a well-to-do London merchant has had a comfortable childhood. In fact, she has fared better than some of her peers. She can leave the house without a chaperone, and she even received a rudimentary private education. But Anne’s young life has been devoid of any meaningful emotional connection. Her father is a raging bully who sees girls as eternal children (at best), and his wife has failed to produce a viable son. Her mother has barely survived an unending series of miscarriages and stillbirths in the effort to give him one, leaving her no more substantial than a ghostly vision. There was one little boy who died young, giving Anne just the barest taste of how to love someone.
Anne is hungry for love. When she learns that her father intends to marry her to his business associate, the odious Simeon Onions, she is angry. The climate is ripe for a massive eruption of emotion.
Along comes the virile butcher’s apprentice, Fub. He is everything that Simeon is not, and he has no qualms about playing the role of Anne’s flirtatious plaything. Nor is Anne an innocent ingénue; she was introduced to sexual activity at the age of nine by her private tutor. Every successive encounter with the willing young butcher adds to her excitement and feeds her imagination. As Anne roams the streets in search of the lusty Fub, she is spotted by wandering orphans from the foundlings’ home, which she previously visited with the detestable Mr. Onions. It is not long before he learns of Anne’s secret infatuation and responds with vile threats that only intensify her repugnance for him. Anne’s anger boils over.
“The Butcher’s Hook throbs with the heat of summer and … seething discontent,” wrote Luan Gaines at Curled Up with a Good Book. “Anne is oblivious to the danger of discovery,” she added, “fed by the force of her rage and boundless sexual curiosity,” propelled toward the only possible outcome, “a ruthless pursuit, … a landscape rendered barren.” Anne’s “dramatic bid for freedom … will leave readers gasping,” predicted Cynthia Johnson in her Library Journal review.
Critics expressed awe at Ellis’s first outing. Her “use of vivid imagery and focus on grisly detail add a macabre beauty to a stirring story,” observed a Publishers Weekly contributor. Others compared the tale to the bawdy adventures of the fictional Tom Jones, Tristram Shandy, and Moll Flanders, “with sexual depravity and violence lying just beneath the veneer of polite … society,” as described by Vanessa Berridge in the Express Online. A contributor to British Heritage Travel complimented the author for “the sharp patter, entertaining dialects and gritty, grimy, visceral descriptions that make the texture and smells” come to life.
A Kirkus Reviews commentator observed: “With a keen eye for tortured reasoning and twisted motivations, Ellis draws bewitchingly disturbed souls.” Yet, noted Clare Clark in the Guardian Online, “Anne remains, for all her clear-eyed callousness, a funny, hopeful, vulnerable child … capable of great warmth. Clark concluded that, despite some flaws, The Butcher’s Hook reveals Ellis as “one to watch.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
British Heritage Travel, January-February, 2017, review of The Butcher’s Hook, p. 73.
Kirkus Reviews, October 15, 2016, review of The Butcher’s Hook.
Library Journal, November 1, 2016, Cynthia Johnson, review of The Butcher’s Hook, p. 74.
Publishers Weekly, November 14, 2016, review of The Butcher’s Hook, p. 30.
ONLINE
Curled Up with a Good Book, http://www.curledup.com/ (August 3, 2017), Luan Gaines, review of The Butcher’s Hook.
Express Online (London, England), http://www.express.co.uk/ (February 19, 2016), Vanessa Berridge, review of The Butcher’s Hook.
Guardian Online (London, England), https://www.theguardian.com/ (February 25, 2016), Clare Clark, review of The Butcher’s Hook.
Historical Novel Society, https://historicalnovelsociety.org/ (August 3, 2017), review of The Butcher’s Hook.
Janet Ellis Home Page, http://janetellis.com (August 3, 2017).
Janet Ellis
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Janet Ellis MBE
Born Janet Michell Ellis
16 September 1955 (age 61)
Chatham, Kent, England
Occupation TV presenter, actress and writer
Known for Blue Peter and Jigsaw presenter
Spouse(s) Robin Bextor (1977–1984)
John Leach (1988–present)
Children Sophie Ellis-Bextor (born 1979)
Jackson "Jack" Ellis-Leach (born 1987)
Martha Ellis-Leach (born 1990)
Janet Michell Ellis MBE (born 16 September 1955)[1] is an English television presenter, actress and writer, best known for presenting the BBC children's television programmes Blue Peter and Jigsaw between 1979 and 1987. In 2016, she published her first novel, The Butcher's Hook. She is the mother of the singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor, the drummer (and former child actor) Jackson Ellis-Leach and art historian Martha Ellis-Leach.
Contents [hide]
1 Early life
2 Television career
2.1 1978–1987
2.2 1988–1999
2.3 2000–2013
2.4 2014 – present
3 Personal life
4 References
5 External links
Early life[edit]
Ellis was born in Chatham, Kent.[2] Her father was a soldier, stationed during her childhood at various places in Britain and Germany. Accordingly, she attended seven schools in the two countries, including Russell House School between the ages of five and seven, and St Hilary's between the ages of 11 and 13 (both in Sevenoaks, Kent), and from the ages of 13 to 17 her last school was Richmond County School for Girls in London. Having expressed an interest in acting since the age of five, she applied to, and was accepted by, the Central School of Speech and Drama in London, but because she was too young her place was deferred for a year.[3] She spent the year gaining experience of the acting world by working backstage at the Comedy Theatre in central London and as an assistant stage manager at the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond.[2] She has a sister, Sharon, who is two years younger than her.[4]
Television career[edit]
1978–1987[edit]
Ellis's first television appearance in 1978 was a small role in the BBC's children's programme Jackanory Playhouse, followed by a bit part in The Sweeney. Her big break came in 1979, when she landed the job of regular presenter of the Clive Doig-produced Jigsaw. Also that year she played the character of "Teka" in the Doctor Who story The Horns of Nimon. After four series in Jigsaw Ellis left to join Blue Peter on 28 April 1983.[5] During her four-year stint, she co-presented with Simon Groom, Sarah Greene, Peter Duncan, Michael Sundin, Mark Curry and Caron Keating. Her last show was on 29 June 1987.[1] It is commonly believed that Ellis was sacked from the programme for being unmarried and pregnant with son Jackson, but in recent years Ellis has stated that she was fully supported by the Blue Peter production team and the decision to leave the programme was her own.[6][7]
1988–1999[edit]
After leaving Blue Peter Ellis scaled back her presenting commitments in order to spend time bringing up her family. During this period she presented the BBC's Open Air programme, wrote a book entitled How to Get Married Without Divorcing Your Family with her friend and ex Blue Peter co-host Caron Keating in 1994, and provided voiceovers for numerous advertisements. She also presented the Daz Challenge in the TV ads for 3 years.
2000–2013[edit]
Ellis returned to the TV screen in 2000. She played a TV reporter in an episode of the first full series of Waking the Dead in 2001. She has been appearing on the Channel 5 (then known as Five) show The Wright Stuff since 2002 as a regular panellist, and on BBC Radio 4's Broadcasting House. She also presented Housebusters between 2003 and 2005 on Five.[8] This was followed by the week-long documentary series Life Blood in 2004, also aired on Five, and the 2005 series of The Great Garden Challenge for Channel 4.
In January 2007, Ellis appeared on the BBC reality singing show Just the Two of Us partnered with Alexander O'Neal. Despite being 'saved' by Stewart Copeland on the first night, on 3 January 2007 she was the second celebrity to be eliminated, after judge CeCe Sammy described her as having the vocal characteristics of "a cat on speed". Ellis managed to show good humour in the face of the defeat, stating that she had had "fun, a lot of fun".[9]
In May 2008 she appeared naked in a magazine in support of PETA[10] and in June of the same year she won The Weakest Link Blue Peter celebrity charity special. She donated the winnings of £13,150 to Maggie's Centres, a cancer care charity.
She appeared in a 2009 episode of Hotel Babylon[2] and in December 2009 narrated The Man Behind the Masquerade, a BBC documentary about Kit Williams. She was the voice of numerous Mexican gerbils in El Nombre, and has appeared on BBC's Antiques Road Trip with daughter Sophie; Bargain Hunt and Cash in the Attic.
In December 2010, Janet and her daughter Sophie appeared on Channel 4's The Million Pound Drop Live. Also shown on Channel 4 on 22 December 2010, Ellis competed in the Come Dine With Me celebrity Christmas special. The winner's prize of £1,000 was donated to charity. Ellis won, beating singer Tony Christie and actress Susie Amy into joint second place, with musician and actor Goldie bringing up the rear.
In January 2012 Ellis returned to her first love of acting by starring in a production of Alan Bennett's comedy play Green Forms for a week at the Tabard Theatre in Chiswick in order to raise money for Maggie's Centres.[11]
2014 – present[edit]
Following a long-held ambition to write fiction, Ellis attended a writing course in early 2014 run by the Curtis Brown agency. During the course she began writing her first novel, and after completing it her agent Gordon Wise submitted it to publishers under the pseudonym Jo Winter, the name of one of her grandmothers. A bidding war resulted in Ellis securing a six-figure two-book deal with Two Roads.[12] The novel, The Butcher's Hook, was published under Ellis's own name in February 2016. She was included in The Observer's pick of the New Faces of Fiction 2016.[13] In November 2016 the book was shortlisted for the 2016 Bad Sex in Fiction Award.[14]
Personal life[edit]
Ellis met her first husband, TV director Robin Bextor, at the age of 16 and married him in 1977 when she was 21.[7] Their daughter Sophie was born in 1979. However, the couple separated during her time presenting Blue Peter. She met TV producer John Leach in 1986 and their son Jackson was born in 1987. After leaving Blue Peter Ellis married Leach, now managing director of TV production company Sunset+Vine, and they had another child, daughter Martha, in 1990. Ellis has spoken publicly of the ten miscarriages she suffered while trying for a fourth child.[6] Away from writing and broadcasting Ellis is a Board Member of the Lyric Theatre Hammersmith, a Patron of Maggie's Centres, and a Council and Honorary Member of the National Youth Theatre.
Ellis was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2016 Birthday Honours for services to charity and theatre.[15]
Janet Ellis
Biography
Showing all 17 items
Jump to: Overview (3) | Mini Bio (1) | Spouse (2) | Trivia (9) | Personal Quotes (2)
Overview (3)
Date of Birth 16 September 1955, Chatham, Kent, England, UK
Birth Name Janet Michelle Ellis
Height 5' 3" (1.6 m)
Mini Bio (1)
Janet Ellis was born on September 16, 1955 in Chatham, Kent, England as Janet Michelle Ellis. She is known for her work on The Wright Stuff (2000), Jigsaw (1979) and The Curse of Page 3 (2003). She is married to John Leach. They have two children. She was previously married to Robin Bextor.
Spouse (2)
John Leach (? - present) (2 children)
Robin Bextor (? - 1986) (divorced) (3 children)
Trivia (9)
Mother of Sophie Ellis-Bextor, who was the lead singer in British music band 'theaudience' and is now a solo artist.
Although she damaged her pelvis in training, she returned and broke the women's European free fall record. Another Blue Peter parachute record.
Mother of Jackson Leach.
Mother-in-law of The Feeling bassist Richard Jones.
Working in the 3D animation production in Toronto, Canada [November 2004]
Is now an occasional panellist on Channel Five's topical discussion show The Wright Stuff [October 2002]
Her father was Mike Ellis, a BBC visual effects designer whose work included building and operating the L1 robot in Doctor Who: The Trial of a Time Lord: Part Two (1986).
She is openly a supporter of the Labour Party.
She was awarded the MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) in the 2016 Queen's Birthday Honours List for her services to charities and Theatre in London, England.
Personal Quotes (2)
[during a newspaper review including the headline "Paedo Probe on the Rocks" in The Sun] I love The Sun, the way that they attack headlines.
[on her fondness for the gutter press and sensationalist headlines] Normally I like the way The Sun attacks the news with gusto.
Filmography
Jump to: Actress | Miscellaneous Crew | Self | Archive footage
Hide HideActress (9 credits)
2009 Hotel Babylon (TV Series)
Gail Wallis Strong
- Episode #4.5 (2009) ... Gail Wallis Strong
2001 Waking the Dead (TV Series)
TV Reporter
- Every Breath You Take: Part 2 (2001) ... TV Reporter
- Every Breath You Take: Part 1 (2001) ... TV Reporter
1998 Housebusters (TV Series)
Self
1993 El Nombre (TV Series)
Other Characters (voice)
1984 Aladdin and the Forty Thieves (TV Movie)
Handmaiden
1979-1980 Doctor Who (TV Series)
Teka
- The Horns of Nimon: Part Four (1980) ... Teka
- The Horns of Nimon: Part Three (1980) ... Teka
- The Horns of Nimon: Part Two (1979) ... Teka
- The Horns of Nimon: Part One (1979) ... Teka
1978 The Sweeney (TV Series)
Susie, Marge's Friend
- Hard Men (1978) ... Susie, Marge's Friend
1978 Jackanory Playhouse (TV Series)
Princess Griselda
- Princess Griselda's Birthday Gift (1978) ... Princess Griselda
1978 The Spencer Side (TV Movie)
Deirdre
Hide Hide Miscellaneous Crew (3 credits)
2003 Absolon (assistant production coordinator)
2001 The Safety of Objects (production secretary)
1996 Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy (production assistant)
Hide Hide Self (53 credits)
2004-2016 Loose Women (TV Series)
Herself
- Episode #20.125 (2016) ... Herself
- Episode #13.191 (2009) ... Herself
- Episode #6.43 (2004) ... Herself
2002-2016 The Wright Stuff (TV Series)
Herself - Panelist / Herself - Panellist / Herself - Guest Panelist / ...
- Episode #21.37 (2016) ... Herself - Guest Panelist
- Episode #20.99 (2015) ... Herself - Panellist
- Episode #20.100 (2015) ... Herself - Panellist
- Episode #20.98 (2015) ... Herself - Panelist
- Episode #20.97 (2015) ... Herself - Panellist
Show all 165 episodes
2015 From Andy Pandy to Zebedee: The Golden Age of Children's TV (TV Movie documentary)
Herself - Jigsaw and Blue Peter Presenter
2013-2014 Pointless Celebrities (TV Series)
Herself
- Blue Peter (2014) ... Herself
- Record Breakers Special (2013) ... Herself
2013 Strictly Come Dancing (TV Series)
Herself - Audience Member
- Week 13: The Grand Final Show Two (2013) ... Herself - Audience Member (uncredited)
- Week 13: The Grand Final Show One (2013) ... Herself - Audience Member (uncredited)
- Week 12: The Semi-Final (2013) ... Herself - Audience Member (uncredited)
- Week 11 (2013) ... Herself - Audience Member (uncredited)
- Week 7 (2013) ... Herself - Audience Member (uncredited)
Show all 6 episodes
2013 My Story (TV Series documentary)
Herself
- TV Presenter (2013) ... Herself
2013 50 Greatest Kids Shows (TV Movie documentary)
Herself
2012 Unforgettable: The Sweeney (TV Movie documentary)
Herself - Actress
2012 All Star Family Fortunes (TV Series)
Herself
- Episode #7.5 (2012) ... Herself
2011 The Toys That Made Christmas (TV Movie documentary)
Herself (uncredited)
2011 Celebrity Antiques Road Trip (TV Series)
Herself
- Episode #3.17 (2011) ... Herself
2011 Daybreak (TV Series)
Herself
- Episode dated 22 June 2011 (2011) ... Herself
2008-2011 Breakfast (TV Series)
Herself / Herself - Former Blue Peter Presenter
- Episode dated 26 April 2011 (2011) ... Herself - Former Blue Peter Presenter
- Episode dated 1 April 2010 (2010) ... Herself
- Episode dated 3 April 2008 (2008) ... Herself
2011 Michel Roux's Service (TV Series)
Herself
- Episode #1.7 (2011) ... Herself (uncredited)
2010 Greatest Christmas TV Moments (TV Movie documentary)
Herself
2010 Come Dine with Me (TV Series)
Herself
- Episode dated 22 December 2010 (2010) ... Herself
2010 The Million Pound Drop Live (TV Series)
Herself
- Episode #3.1 (2010) ... Herself
2010 Who Peter: Partners in Time - 1963-1989 (Video documentary short)
Herself
2009 The Man Behind the Masquerade (TV Movie documentary)
Narrator
2009 Celebrity Masterchef (TV Series)
Herself
- Episode #4.6 (2009) ... Herself
- Episode #4.4 (2009) ... Herself
2009 Let's Dance for Sport Relief (TV Series)
Herself
- Episode #1.2 (2009) ... Herself
2009 The Alan Titchmarsh Show (TV Series)
Herself
- Episode dated 16 February 2009 (2009) ... Herself
2008 Twiggy's Frock Exchange (TV Series)
Herself
- Episode #1.3 (2008) ... Herself
2008 Blue Peter at 50 (TV Movie documentary)
Herself
2008 Cash in the Celebrity Attic (TV Series)
Herself
- Janet Ellis (2008) ... Herself
2008 The Weakest Link (TV Series)
Herself
- Blue Peter Special (2008) ... Herself
2008 An Audience Without Jeremy Beadle (TV Movie)
Herself
2007 Doctor, Doctor (TV Series)
Herself
- Episode #3.25 (2007) ... Herself
2007 Perfect Night In (TV Series documentary)
Herself
- Frost and Pegg's Perfect Night In (2007) ... Herself
2007 Just the Two of Us (TV Series)
Herself - Contestant
- Episode #2.2 (2007) ... Herself - Contestant
- Episode #2.1 (2007) ... Herself - Contestant
2006 The Sharon Osbourne Show (TV Series)
Herself
- Episode #1.29 (2006) ... Herself
2005 Kelly (TV Series)
Herself
- Episode dated 11 November 2005 (2005) ... Herself
2005 Greatest Before They Were Stars TV Moments (TV Movie documentary)
Herself
2005 When 'Blue Peter' Became ABBA (TV Movie)
Herself / Anni-Frid
2005 The Great Garden Challenge (TV Series)
Presenter
2005 Celebrate the Sound of Music (TV Movie documentary)
Herself
2004 The Money Programme (TV Series documentary)
Herself
- Barbie's Mid-Life Crisis (2004) ... Herself
2004 Celebrity Ready, Steady, Cook (TV Series)
Herself
- Episode dated 5 April 2004 (2004) ... Herself
2004 Great Food Live (TV Series)
Herself - Guest Host
- Episode dated 24 March 2004 (2004) ... Herself - Guest Host
2004 Liquid News (TV Series)
Herself
- Episode dated 5 January 2004 (2004) ... Herself
2003 The Terry and Gaby Show (TV Series)
Herself
- Episode dated 4 December 2003 (2003) ... Herself
2003 The Salon (TV Series)
Herself
- Episode dated 1 December 2003 (2003) ... Herself
2003 Today with Des and Mel (TV Series)
Herself
- Episode dated 20 November 2003 (2003) ... Herself
2003 19 Keys (TV Series documentary)
Herself
- Blue Peter special (2003) ... Herself
2003 The Curse of Page 3 (TV Movie documentary)
Narrator
2002 GMTV (TV Series)
Herself
- Episode dated 21 August 2002 (2002) ... Herself
1983-2001 Blue Peter (TV Series)
Herself - Presenter / Herself
- Episode dated 7 December 2001 (2001) ... Herself
- Free Fall Record Breaker (1987) ... Herself - Presenter
- Episode dated 1 June 1987 (1987) ... Herself - Presenter
- Episode #1.2124 (1987) ... Herself - Presenter
- Episode #1.2080 (1986) ... Herself - Presenter
Show all 12 episodes
2000 A History of Britain (TV Mini-Series documentary)
- King Death (2000) ... (voice)
2000 I Love 1970's (TV Series documentary)
Herself
- I Love 1975 (2000) ... Herself
1995 Telly Addicts (TV Series)
Herself
- Christmas Special (1995) ... Herself
1983-1984 Blankety Blank (TV Series)
Herself
- Episode #7.2 (1984) ... Herself
- Episode #6.6 (1983) ... Herself
1979-1983 Jigsaw (TV Series)
Herself - Presenter
- Episode #4.1 (1983) ... Herself - Presenter
- Episode #3.13 (1981) ... Herself - Presenter
- Episode #3.1 (1981) ... Herself - Presenter
- Episode #2.5 (1980) ... Herself - Presenter
- Episode #2.2 (1980) ... Herself - Presenter
Show all 7 episodes
1981 The Deceivers (TV Series documentary)
- Cons and Swindlers (1981)
- The Hoaxers (1981)
Hide Hide Archive footage (9 credits)
2016 Darcey Bussell: My Life on the BBC (TV Movie documentary)
Herself - Presenter, Blue Peter
2012 Newsround (TV Series)
Herself - Former Blue Peter Presenter
- 20/12/2012: 17:00 (2012) ... Herself - Former Blue Peter Presenter
2012 The Wright Stuff (TV Series)
Herself
- Episode #17.94 (2012) ... Herself
2009 Lalla's Wardrobe: A Frockumentary (Video short)
Teka (uncredited)
2008 The Making of the Trial of a Time Lord: Part One - Mysterious Planet (Video documentary short)
Herself
2007 A Matter of Time (Video documentary)
Teka
2007 Timeshift (TV Series documentary)
Herself - Presenter, Blue Peter
- Goodbye Children Everywhere: The Changing World of Children's Television (2007) ... Herself - Presenter, Blue Peter
2007 Are Friends Electric (Video documentary short)
Teka
2004 A New Beginning (Video documentary short)
Teka (uncredited)
Janet Ellis trained as an actress at the Central School of Speech and Drama. She is best known for presenting Blue Peter and contributes to numerous radio and TV programmes. She recently graduated from the Curtis Brown creative writing school. The Butcher's Hook is her first novel.
I've got a varied CV up till now as an actress, a presenter, a broadcaster and a voice-over artist. And now I'm absolutely thrilled to add ‘writer’ to that list. The Butcher's Hook, my first novel, is a dark, twisted love story full of surprises, sadness and humour – and there's quite a bit of blood spilled, too. It may not be the book people might have expected me to write, but once I'd started telling my heroine, Anne Jaccob's, story, she and I went to some unexpected places and I really enjoyed her company!
I've got three children, four grandchildren, a husband and a dog. I love them all; and also love cooking, walking, eating and more cooking. Writing means more to me than anything else I do. It's the most personal and the most important thing – and it's certainly what I'd most like to talk with you about.
On Being Published …
Let's start at the very beginning. A very good place to start.
This isn't the beginning of course, but a blank screen isn't that interesting
This isn't the beginning of course, but a blank screen isn't that interesting
What was the beginning? At primary school, perhaps - Mr Wain, spotting my enormous desire to tell stories, handing over as many blank exercise books as I wanted and telling me to write a book? The ten year old JE got on with it straight away, illustrations and all, and although The Music Box might be a little rushed around the ending, I did finish it. Things got a little ragged over the next several/many years. Plenty of maybe starts and possibly middles and a jumble of places and characters and odd scenes, but nothing cohesive. Which is a fancy way of saying: pretty much nothing at all.
(But always, the craving to write. A huge need to find the words, to tell the story, to write. Jotting down events to make sense of them. Obsessively describing people, in my head then on the page, sketching them, skewering them, with adjectives and dialogue. Actually, I thought everyone did that but I expect painters think we all notice colour and form and doctors diagnose constantly. But I either chased the desire uselessly, like running after a dandelion seed in a gale, or else I flattened it and left it lying, bedraggled and limp. )
The story of how I (eventually) wrote the book is a subject for another day. This is about what happened next.
When I've read the acknowledgements in the back of books, I'd sometimes been puzzled by quite how many people the authors thank. Here's what I thought went on : you write your book, a publisher says 'I shall publish this', then- 'What sort of cover would you like?' Next, a book shop clears a space and hey presto! Your book's on sale! I'll just leave a little pause for all my writing friends to exhale fire. I mean, I knew it was difficult- the muse, the discipline, the time and so on. I realised being published is a dream that sometimes doesn't become reality and I knew even the best-received books don't always sell. But still, that many people helped?
Let's wibble back to this time last year. ( I like that film effect where the image oscillates to show time passing. I'm not sure it's actually called wibbling, though.) I'm in the office of Two Roads, a publisher, with six other people. One of them is my agent. I don't know him that well - we'd only just established that both of us are tube escalator walker up and downers, an important fact in a relationship - but the others are complete strangers. Very nice strangers (very, very nice- they're offering to publish my book), but strangers nonetheless. Over a year on, not only are they all included in my acknowledgements, but so are many more people besides. And if I had my way, their names would be written in light in the sky, too. Or at least in a gold-embossed font in the book.
The Butcher's Hook is my story. I wrote it all, every last bit. There isn't a word in it I didn't choose, a situation or character I haven't envisaged. But the reason it reads as it does, looks beautiful and sits on shelves is because of those strangers, who revealed themselves to be talented, inspiring, thoughtful and creative people. Heck, they're really nice, too. I don't put people on my Christmas card list for just any reason.
'What,' you may be saying, 'Do they actually do? This love-fest is all very well, but nuts and bolts, please , Ellis.'
Here's the answer, according to me:
The Editor.
It may sometimes happen that the draft you give to your editor arrives in a ready-to-publish form. While that would be amazing in terms of ability and quality, I wouldn't envy it. Your editor is the first person who is truly helping you shape your book for the reader. That's someone who may not have the least idea of what the story is about, or who may know a great deal about the world you're creating, when they pick up your book . Whoever those readers are, they deserve the best possible version of your novel. They have chosen it from out of the 867 (approx) books published each week. Your prose may be challenging, your characters fanciful, your plot tortuous, but once your editor has led you through the maze of drafting and redrafting, at least they'll get consistency of approach, of intent, of voice. A writer should only write for one potential reader - themselves- because trying to second-guess reader responses is the way to madness. Your editor is your hawk, picking out the, ahem, vermin of your inconsistencies or weaknesses. Unlike a hawk, however, which is after a quick snack, they're looking for the long-term reward. A book lasts a long time after all. Touch wood.
Publishing fuel: cake
Publishing fuel: cake
To describe the relationship as collaborative doesn't do it justice. Part therapist, part parent, part teacher and quite a lot of business-savvy reader , the editor is in a unique position as they guide you towards the finished product. Of course, I'm only speaking from my own experience , there may be writers who resent or disagree with theirs, but my editor is all that and more. The all that didn't reveal itself straight away, there's a great deal of trust involved as you work together and a gradual understanding that where you're headed and what your doing is in your best interests. (Now it's also bred in me a Pavlovian response, so that when I hear ;' You might like to think about...' or ' It's completely up to you, but..' I immediately start typing.)
Signing the proofs
Signing the proofs
And my editor has an Assistant Editor who interprets, cajoles, reminds and suggests. In my case, he does all this in a second language: he's Italian. Even if English is their mother tongue, AE's are vital to proceedings because (whisper it) your editor will (sometimes) have Other Writers (no!) who need their attention, but with a good assistant, you're never alone. They're on hand (or on hankie duty) while the editor ministers to those Others.
The Publicist
Just as an actor needs to be seen (it's no good being a brilliant Hamlet all alone in your room), so an author must be read. The very idea of writing something down then hoping other people will see it is so audacious that you need someone to take it seriously. Your PR person will big you up to the waiting world in a way that you couldn't possibly get away with. They will also deal (and of course I speak personally) with the teeny tiny moments of things like Doubt and Envy that wash over you very occasionally. Doubt that you deserve anything like attention and Envy of people getting some of it instead. They field enquiries, keep you on track and tell the world about your book in a thousand imaginative ways. To a man and woman they are patient, good humoured and kind. In other lives, they'd be doing good works in the community, but luckily they regard author nurturing as similarly vocational.
The launch speech - acknowledgements work both ways
The launch speech - acknowledgements work both ways
Launch night at Dr Johnson's House
Launch night at Dr Johnson's House
Marketing
This is where you discover it doesn't all happen automatically. Bookshops don't just take delivery of boxes of books and -pausing only to ask; 'Historical novel?' or 'Dog training manual?' - pile a table with your book. It's a competitive field, you have to get to the front and marketing folk have all the tools plus masses of charm. Everyone in the publishing trade is genuinely excited about books all the time, it's a lovely thing, and the marketing department are able to sustain and harness that enthusiasm and then channel it to where it's needed.
Look, it's in shops! It's a miracle.
Look, it's in shops! It's a miracle.
They , along with the designers, the copy editors, the art department and anyone who reads and comments on your book as it heads towards publication day, are the people who deserve to be on the thank you list. If something extra wonderful happens - if you get long-listed for a first novel prize, for example, they can take plenty of credit. In interviews about my writing, I've been wont to say that in my other career(s), I've relished being a team player- which can mean, I say winningly, that other people share the responsibility if things go wrong. With a book, I continue, it's just about me. My book, my fault. And I still think that's true if it doesn't do as well as we all hoped. I cannot blame anyone else when people don't enjoy my writing. But if there's any glory to be had, it certainly isn't mine alone.
Team Janet
Team Janet
Desmond Elliot Prize News
Desmond Elliot longlistExciting news!
The longlist for the Desmond Elliot Prize 2016 - a book prize awarded to début novels - has been announced and The Butcher's Hook has made the cut.
I'm thrilled (and honoured) to be included in such a fantastic group of writers: it's a dream come true. The books are:
Spill Simmer Falter Wither by Sara Baume
The Trouble with Goats and Sheep by Joanna Cannon
The Honours by Tim Clare
The Butcher’s Hook by Janet Ellis
Things We Have in Common by Tasha Kavanagh
Disclaimer by Renée Knight
Mrs Engels by Gavin McCrea
The Glorious Heresies by Lisa McInerney
The House at the Edge of the World by Julia Rochester
The Weightless World by Anthony Trevelyan
The Butcher's Hook
British Heritage Travel. 38.1 (January-February 2017): p73.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Kliger Heritage Group, LLC
https://britishheritage.com/
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The Butcher's Hook
by Janet Ellis (Pegasus Books)
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
London, 1763: Anne Jacob's young heart and well-to-do household both shattered after the death of her beloved baby brother, turning the former bitter and the latter-with her cruel father, fragile mother and obsequious, snoopy servants--intolerable and claustrophobic. Curious, intense, desperate and cunning, Anne might sound like a typical angry teen, but she's something even more terrifying. To say more would give away too much of this well-plotted tale, but whatever you do, never get in between a precocious young woman just discovering desire and the object of her affection.
With this shocking and strong first novel, the author, an actress known to Brits for her work on the show Blue Peter, shows she understands how to write from the wants and needs of characters. And though this dark, gothic novel takes place the better part of a century before Victorian-era Oliver Twist or Great Expectations, there's something a little Dickensian about Ellis' writing: <
The Butcher's Hook goes on sale January 1.
The Butcher's Hook
Publishers Weekly. 263.46 (Nov. 14, 2016): p30.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
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The Butcher's Hook
Janet Ellis. Pegasus (Norton, dist.), $24.95 (368p) ISBN 978-1-68177-311-7
Set in 1763 London, Ellis's debut novel confronts the darker aspects of femininity through the life of wealthy and sheltered Anne Jaccob. Even though her parents have handpicked a suitable husband for her, Anne chafes against the idea of a traditional marriage and finds herself jaded toward love after the death of her younger brother and her mother's failed pregnancies. Despite Anne's aloofness about her own future, she becomes infatuated with a butcher's apprentice, Fub. Subverting her father's wishes that she marry an older business associate of his who repulses her, Anne begins a secret romance with Fub. Their surreptitious encounters and the exhilaration the secret relationship inspires Anne's darker nature to bloom. Ellis's compelling plot rests on Anne's formative sexuality and constantly returns to differing conceptions of love and the lengths people go to, in order to protect their status and reputation. The unwillingness of anyone in the story to view Anne as more emotionally complicated than a child leads her self-discovery to run amok, and Ellis to explore the stifling effects of such repressive views of sexuality. Ellis's <
Ellis, Jane. The Butcher's Hook
Cynthia Johnson
Library Journal. 141.18 (Nov. 1, 2016): p74.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.libraryjournal.com/
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Ellis, Jane. The Butcher's Hook. Pegasus. Jan. 2017. 368p. ISBN 9781681773117. $24.95; ebk. ISBN 9781681773742. F
Largely ignored by the entire household and still mourning the death of the only person she loved, her infant brother, wealthy merchant's daughter Anne Jacob is an outcast at the fringes of a family. She has no particular or meaningful connections to the outside world until she meets Fub, the butcher's apprentice. It's no wonder that this lonely young woman on the brink of discovering her burgeoning sexuality is instantly obsessed with the handsome, swaggering man. Lust, coupled with the threat of a forced marriage to one of her father's friends, makes Anne bold; even as the world is closing in on her, she makes a <
Ellis, Janet: THE BUTCHER'S HOOK
Kirkus Reviews. (Oct. 15, 2016):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 Kirkus Media LLC
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Ellis, Janet THE BUTCHER'S HOOK Pegasus (Adult Fiction) $24.95 1, 10 ISBN: 978-1-68177-311-7
In an isolated manor on the outskirts of London in 1763, 19-year-old Anne Jaccob has reached the end of hope. What can come after but revenge?British television presenter and debut novelist Ellis conjures a dark, grimy world rife with thwarted desires and relentless death. <
The Butcher’s Hook by Janet Ellis review – the ex-Blue Peter presenter’s gothic debut
A bloody-minded 18th-century heroine is brought vividly to life in this dark domestic drama
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Clare Clark
Thursday 25 February 2016 07.00 EST Last modified on Tuesday 2 May 2017 13.59 EDT
The legacy of Blue Peter runs deep: perhaps in an internet age of lost innocence, the presenters of that iconic children’s programme stood for a generation as the last bastions of wholesomeness and incorruptibility. Whatever the reason, it is clear from the advance publicity that Janet Ellis, who fronted the much-loved show in the mid-1980s, caused a sensation when news broke of her darkly gothic debut. There is nothing wholesome about The Butcher’s Hook.
Set in London in the 18th century, the novel tells the story of Anne Jaccob, the eldest daughter of comfortably-off parents. Girls then were in many ways freer than their counterparts 100 years later: in the 1760s, they could at least venture out without a chaperone and spoke with a candour that would have scandalised a Victorian drawing room. But those like Anne led lives that were for the most part stiflingly narrow and sequestered.
It is Anne’s misfortune that her father is an ill-tempered bully who has no patience for women’s education and lambasts the cook daily for sport. Her mother, while kind enough, is little more than a barely-there breath in a nightgown, hollowed out by a succession of miscarriages and stillbirths. None of them has ever recovered from the unexpected death of Anne’s beloved baby brother. Years later, her father’s words, uttered in despair to the mother, continue to ring in Anne’s ears: “‘You are not enough!’ And again, ‘You are not enough.’”
It is from these inauspicious seeds that the protagonist grows, a clever, spiky, sharp-pointed thistle of a girl but one with a huge untapped capacity for devotion. When first her tutor and then the young girl with whom she longs to be friends betray her and trample on her affection, she feels their treachery bitterly. When her father insists on her gainful marriage to the repulsive Mr Onions, rage and hostility combine with grief and boredom and loneliness to distill a desire for a different future so pure that she will turn the world upside down and back-to-front to get it.
Anne is uncompromising, brutal, the kind of girl who will cheerfully pray for another’s unhappy end. And yet, and this is Ellis’s great achievement, <
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The novel is far from perfect. The Butcher’s Hook is unevenly structured: what little plot there is in its first, frustratingly slow chapters is stretched too thin while the dramatic denouement is taken at a wild gallop. Too many scenes are repetitively similar in shape, indefatigably detailed, their pace too doggedly consistent. One longs for elision, for light and shade. Ellis’s tendency to overload the narrative with incidental description, particularly during sequences of dialogue, weighs the story down, preventing it from fully taking flight.
For all that, however, this author remains <
• Clare Clark’s latest novel is We That Are Left (Harvill Secker). To order The Butcher’s Hook for £11.99 (RRP £14.99) go to bookshop.theguardian.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over £10, online orders only. Phone orders min p&p of £1.99.
The Butcher’s Hook
BY JANET ELLIS
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Janet Ellis has written a startling and original historical novel in The Butcher’s Hook. The smart, astute and fascinating heroine and mesmerising narrative belie the fact that this is a debut. Anne Jacob is a middle-class girl in the middle of the 18th century, hungry for books and for knowledge, but a betrayal at the hands of her tutor leads her to explore other avenues of learning and realise the limits of her world. Following the loss of her beloved baby brother, Anne detaches herself from emotion until she meets Fub, the butcher’s boy, and in him she finally finds purpose and passion.
Determined to make a life for herself separate from her parents and the plans they have made for her, Anne will go to any lengths to maintain her newfound happiness, no matter how dark the path she must tread. The book highlights the restrictive limits set on women in the Georgian era and the psychological damage such restriction could lead to, and it is also an immersive portrait of London: its sights, smells, tastes and sounds. While Anne is at the centre of the narrative, we also see her mother, worn out by countless pregnancies and grief; the maids Jane and Grace, limited by their position but ever watchful; and the men who control the women around them with a word, a smile or a frown. The book is also a wonderful portrait of the intensity of first love and the madness of that intensity. Highly recommended.
Book review: The Butcher’s Hook by Janet Ellis
3 / 5 stars
The Butcher’s Hook
FORMER Blue Peter presenter Janet Ellis has burst on to the literary scene with a bodice-ripping thriller that might traumatise her young viewers were they to pick up a copy.
By VANESSA BERRIDGE
PUBLISHED: 00:01, Fri, Feb 19, 2016
book, review, The Butchers Hook, Janet Ellis, UploadExpress, Vanessa BerridgePH
Former Blue Peter presenter Janet Ellis (left)
Former Blue Peter presenter Janet Ellis has burst on to the literary scene with a bodice-ripping thriller that might traumatise her young viewers were they to pick up a copy. The title, The Butcher’s Hook, rather gives the game away. Somehow you know this novel will not be a comforting read. The hook in question belongs to young butcher Frederick “Fub” Warner and it is shown to Anne Jaccob, narrator and formidable heroine of the novel, in a significant scene.
The hook is sharpened at both ends and is, says Fub, “A perfect design. Whichever way up you use it, it’s always ready.” The 19-year-old Anne is well and truly hooked with brutally dramatic consequences. In her author’s notes, Ellis writes that she wanted to explore how a bright but uneducated and closeted middle-class girl would make sense of her world.
It is 1763 and Anne, the product of an unhappy marriage, has little experience beyond the four walls of her home. She has had no formal education, apart from lessons from a scholarly but abusive friend of her father.
books [PH]
Her mother, worn out by multiple unsuccessful pregnancies, has just given birth to a daughter but Anne resents her new sister, her feelings cauterised by the death of a younger brother to whom she was devoted. Meanwhile, her father wishes to marry her off to the oily Simeon Onions to solve his money problems.
However, it is Anne herself who takes the initiative, the privations of her home having made her passionate and untrammelled.
When she sees her chance of happiness slipping away, her behaviour becomes increasingly dangerous as she seeks to destroy anyone who impedes her.
The novel is in the spirit of Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones and Laurence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy, <
It is also the world of the Foundling Hospital which Anne visits with Simeon Onions. The orphans there are replicated a thousand times across the streets of London, spying upon Anne as she makes her way from her home to her lover’s butcher’s shop. Ellis evokes the sights, sounds and smells of Georgian London and turns a telling phrase that captures an 18th-century cadence.
Anne describes that “hearing [Onions] speak is like stepping barefoot on a slug” and later “he will shed me like a snake his skin and wrap his coils around another”. The action of the novel unfolds at a furious pace yet somehow fails to engage.
The feisty heroine falling for a man of lower status is something of a cliché and, although Ellis makes Anne more wayward than most, it’s a story I feel I’ve read before.
The Butcher’s Hook by Janet Ellis Two Roads, £14.99
Buy *The Butcher's Hook* by Janet Ellisonline
The Butcher's Hook
Janet Ellis
Pegasus Books
Hardcover
368 pages
January 2017
rated 5 of 5 possible stars
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A ripe and pungent novel of Georgian London, <
Shot through with excitement at the feelings that accompany her interests in the inappropriate attraction, Anne walks fearlessly into this unknown territory. She follows instincts that fly in the face of the social mores of her stations in life, anxious to experience the new sensations that accompany their encounters. The young man, Frederick Warners (or “Fubs” as he is called), realizes the futility of this romance, though he is willing to dally with a girl so clearly consumed with him. For her part, Anne engages in a fantasy built upon an impossible future, certain she has seduced her lover into agreeing with her plans for the future. Reality is far outmatched by her desire to have her way in this most important experience. Anne’s emotions are volatile, reactions extreme, even when forced to keep her own counsel in the face of her father’s bad humor. Pursuing the promise of the forbidden and heady with newfound sexual power, <
The latent fires of discontent that seethe in Anne’s troubled soul are stoked by the restrictions of family expectations, shackled by birth to a life she cannot abide, suddenly faced with a potential marriage to a man she despises on sight. The death of her brother and an unfortunate brush with the world’s uglier lessons have prematurely allowed Anne to categorize life’s lessons and find them wanting. Desperate for a different outcome, one she alone can define, Anne resists the demands of a distant father with no respect for female opinion: “the world is a pierced screen through which I have been watched by hundreds of pairs of eyes.” Like an insect under glass, Anne is trapped in the confining framework of her era, a female of certain social stature.
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Originally published on Curled Up With A Good Book at www.curledup.com. © Luan Gaines, 2017