Janet Gover’s fictional country town of Coorah Creek is Robyn Carr’s Virgin River set in The Outback – with the stories of love and loss, flights and fights, that fans love. br /

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Hi there, I’m your host Jennybr /

wheeler, and today on the Joys of Binge Reading br /

Janet talks about her latest book, The Lawson Sisters, a contemporarybr /

story of family guilt and estranged siblings, and exciting new projects – likebr /

her recreation of Bronte stories in the 20th century.br /

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Sixbr /

things you’ll learn from this Joys of Binge Reading episode:br /

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Why Australia appeals as a settingWarm uplifting? Or angry and dark?Real people who inspired storiesHeathcliff? Fascinating but not a heroTwo writers she binge readsWhy she loves where she is right nowbr /

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Where to find Janet Gover: br /

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Website:  www.janetgover.combr /

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Twitter: @janet_goverbr /

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Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/janetgoverbooks/br /

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Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/janetgoverauthor/br /

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Whatbr /

follows is a near as transcript of our conversation, not word forbr /

word but pretty close to it, with links to important mentions.br /

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Jenny: But now, here’s Janet. .  Hello there Janet and welcome to the show, it’s great to have you with us.br /

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Janet Gover: Well. Thank you, Jenny. It's lovely to be here. Thank you so muchbr /

for inviting me. br /

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Jenny Wheeler: You've had an outstanding career as a journalist, and we'll get tobr /

that a little later in the chat, but the obvious question for us is, what drewbr /

you to fiction? Was that something you always had there simmering under thebr /

surface, or was there a sort of Once Upon A Time moment, an epiphany when youbr /

thought, I just got to write some make believe?br /

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Janet Gover - Australian Coorah Creek series a winnerbr /

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Janet Gover: Well, I think it came out of being a successful journalist. When I started in journalism I was writing stories every day and there were a lot of them. They were stories about people, factual stories, true stories, new stories. But then I got promoted and I became more management and I wasn't actually writing stories anymore about people, and that was not good.br /

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Nostalgia for Australiabr /

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I think there's something in me that reallybr /

wants to write. So I thought, well, if I'm not writing factual stories, maybe Ibr /

could write a bit of fiction. And I've always been a big reader since I wasbr /

very young, so I thought I might have a go at this. It can't be thatbr /

hard. I was wrong. br /

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Jenny Wheeler: Yes.  You've been based inbr /

England for quite a few years now, but a lot of your books are set inbr /

Australia. Is there a sort of nostalgia for the past operating there? br /

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Janet Gover: Oh, definitely. It's a strange thing. I came to England because - Ibr /

was actually living in Hong Kong at the time, and I fell in love with anbr /

Englishman was green eyes and a guitar. And a very, very cute bum. Am I allowedbr /

to say that?  When I came to England, Ibr /

expected England and Australia to be very similar because there are obviouslybr /

historic ties between the two countries.br /

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'Rose-Colored Glasses'br /

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And in fact, I found that they are very,br /

very different. I think to a large extent, being away from Australia, I wasbr /

looking at it from the outside and seeing things that I had thought were everybr /

day, that that's what the world is like, but I started to realize that actuallybr /

that's not true.