2012

January

The paperback edition of Gillespie and I is launched and features in a prominent ad campaign across UK media, including the Evening Standard, Metro and Stylist magazine.

The folks at bookdiva are running a competition to win copies of Gillespie and I. Entries close 8th February.

Tuesday 31st January - Wednesday 1st February

Jane was in Rome for the launch of the Italian translation of Gillespie and I.

2011

May-August 

Gillespie and I is a resounding success with the reviewers, including The Sunday Times, The Times, The Telegraph, The Independent, Financial Times, and The Scotsman amongst others. It is one of the most reviewed books on the Waterstone's website the weekend of 7th/8th May. Read all the reviews.

Gillespie and I will be published by Harper Collins in the USA in January 2012, by Neri Pozza in Italy, and by De Geus in the Netherlands. See Gillespie and I Around the World.

1st December

Jane appeared at a Gliterary Lunch in Edinburgh.

10th November

Jane showed her support for FORWARD UK, the African Diaspora women's campaign and support charity, at an event hosted by Laura Devine Solicitors. She read from Gillespie and I and The Observations, and signed copies will were then raffled. All money raised was donated to FORWARD UK, which exists to advance sexual and reproductive health and rights as central to the wellbeing of African women and girls. 

21st October

Jane read from Gillespie and I and answered questions from an audience at the Words 2011: North Lanarkshire's Festival of Books and Writing.

22nd October

Jane appeared at the Durham Book Festival.

17th October

Gillespie and I is nominated in the 'Popular Fiction Book of the Year' category of the Galaxy Book Awards.

3rd October

Jane appeared at the Manchester Book Salon's Bookmarked 'The Victorian Sensation Night'.

27th August   

Jane appeared with Sarah Hall in an event chaired by Rowan Pelling at the Voewood Festival in Norfolk.

Jane read and signed copies of Gillespie and I at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in the Spiegeltent.
 

July 

A special edition of The Observations is published as a part of Faber's 'Secrets and Lies' series of "eight modern classics".

8th July

Here's a picture of Jane reading from Gillespie and I at the London Literature Festival at the South Bank Centre. You can just see Big Ben in the background.

June 

The Independent votes Gillespie and I one of its best 50 reads of the summer.

26th June

The Sunday Times votes Gillespie and I one of its top summer reads.

2nd June

Jane appears with award-winning author Barbara Trapido at a “Gliterary Lunch” at the Grand Central Hotel in Glasgow, Scotland.

1st June

Time Out runs a piece by Jane entitled How I Write.

29th May

A new short story by Jane, "A Couple of Babies", is published in the Sunday Express S Magazine.

29th May

Jane talks about her bedtime reading on the Sky Arts Book Show.

25th May 

How I Write, an interview with Jane for Untitled Books.

23rd May

Gillespie and I features on the BBC Radio 2 Book Club. Jane was on Drivetime talking to Simon Mayo and answering listeners' questions .

17th May

Jane is interviewed by Jane Garvey on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour.

14th May

Jane appears at the Word Writer's Festival in Aberdeen. The Guardian's Tim Dowling describes Jane's reading as "brilliant".

6th May

9:15pm on BBC Radio 3. Live from Broadcasting House. Jane read “Ascension, 1979” a specially commissioned piece on a live edition of “The Verb”, Radio 3’s ‘cabaret of the word’. Hosted by the wonderful Ian McMillan.

6th May

The Faber blog, The Thought Fox, features an extract from Gillespie and I.

5th May

Gillespie and I published by Faber and Faber.  

3rd May

Writer's Hub publishes an extract of Gillespie and I.

30th April

Aminatta Forna's Saturday Review on BBC Radio 4 gives rave reviews to Gillespie and I: "Magnificent"; "A Belter". Starts 12 minutes in on this link.

22nd April

"Harris plays with the convention of the narrator to call into question whether we can ever really understand other human beings. She introduces layer upon layer of doubt and surmise, often through seemingly insignificant details: a pendant, a rusty stone, a bag of sugar. Hearsay and mistaken identity both function within the plot and form part of the narrative . . . this enthralling tale will delight those with a taste for the seamy side of Victorian life." Suzie Feay, The Financial Times

Mid-April 2011

Nice early reader reviews of Gillespie and I on the Waterstone’s website:

“Harris drew me into the book immediately. Her prose is divine; she writes in such a quaint and 'oldeworlde' style that you are immediately transported to the end of the 19th Century. Yet the punches are delivered with such an exquisite use of the English language that you are left in no doubt about this being a contemporary novel. The story continues over the next 50 years and Harris maintains intrigue up until, and even beyond, the end of the book through the deliciously original character of Harriet Baxter. Gillespie and I has left me with a lasting impression of Harriet and I would thoroughly recommend that you enjoy this snippet of her unusual life.” A Waterstone’s customer from Cambridge

Mid-April 

Daisy Goodwin tweets: “Have just read Gillespie and I by Jane Harris. Brilliant. Highly recommend."

Mid-April 

“(Gillespie and I) is an absolute cracker and I was awake for long hours in the night racing to the end of it.” Harriet Devine

March

"Gillespie and I is a 500-pager but at no stage did I flag while reading it as the story, which starts slowly and deliberately, soon tightens its grip with great cleverness. It is historical fiction again, this time late Victorian Glasgow, and the disappearance of a child is told through the viewpoint of an outwardly respectable spinster from the 1930s. I just loved the way the author cunningly sets up the ambiguous atmosphere of what really happened to the child. This really is a treat." Rodney Troubridge, Waterstone’s (The Bookseller, Editor’s Choice)

January

Early recommendation for Gillespie and I in The Stylist: A must read of the year. “Mysterious and utterly engaging.”

January

"Those who loved Jane Harris’s Orange Prize-shortlisted The Observations will herald her return with Gillespie and I, the story of a mysterious friendship at the hinge of the 20th century." Erica Wagner The Times Hottest Reads of 2011