Find out more about
Susan E Jones
Author
My Bio
Susan E Jones - Author
I was born in Gloucestershire - which was a wonderful place to grow up - but I was always keen to travel and embrace new experiences. For many years I lived and worked - in various capacities - in London, Brussels, Rome, Abidjan, and finally Washington DC. In 2012, however, I decided it was time to return to the UK and make a start on writing a novel, which had long been my ambition.
​
Writing has always been my hobby, even at a young age. Having lived on three continents, I had lots of stories I wanted to tell, but not enough time to tell them. It was only after relocating to Penzance in Cornwall that I was finally able to put pen to paper, or fingertips to keyboard would be more accurate in this day and age. Penzance is an ideal location for me - the sandy beaches and rugged cliffs are spectacular and continue to give me lots of inspiration!
I have now published four novels: 'Rings of Significance', 'Separation', 'Returning Home,' and 'After the Rain'. The latter is the first purely fictional novel, inspired by the contents of my great-great aunt's postcard album. It is a fascinating insight into life in the early 1900s, a time of relative calm before calamitous change.
Becoming an author is a constant learning experience, especially if - like me - you've never really studied the 'techniques' of creative writing, but I feel I'm improving as time goes on. I hope my readers think so too!
A writer without interest or sympathy for the foibles of his fellow man is not conceivable as a writer.
Joseph Conrad
Check out my books below
Published by Blossom Spring Publishing, January 2023
​
Available now at Amazon: Click Here
​
After the Rain
​
It is the late summer of 1910 and Bessie Hardwicke, thirty-nine years old and single, has just started work as a lady’s companion to widowed Fanny Grist in London. Having been in domestic service in the West Country for most of her life, the change is momentous for Bessie. She constantly questions whether the move was a big mistake – London is so different from what she’s been used to and she desperately misses her dear nephew Walter. Still, she is badly in need of a change. Even after twenty years, she continues to grieve the loss of her fiancé Arthur and beloved sister Ethel. But she is not alone in her grief. Those she comes into contact with in London are no less afflicted by the loss of loved ones than she is, and it is Bessie herself who becomes the unwitting catalyst for the healing of fractured lives.
​
​
Returning Home
​
After five extraordinary years in India, April returns to a troubled and divided Britain, now in the throes of negotiating an exit from the European Union. Torn between her desire for a quiet life in Cornwall and the magnetic pull of Italy’s charms, she is undecided about where to make her home.
​
Looking for answers, she visits her friend Marcello in Italy. But the more time she spends with him, the more she realises that the social dilemmas facing Italians are not so different from those that are dividing her fellow citizens. The issue of immigration, for instance, turns into a personal quest when she meets a Romanian woman struggling for acceptance in a town where small-minded attitudes prevail. Meanwhile, scores of refugees are landing on Italy’s southern shores and facing an uncertain future on a continent that is far from welcoming.
At the end of the day, April must settle somewhere. In reaching a decision on where to put down roots, the question remains: can she have her cake and eat it too?
​
Available at Amazon, click here.
Proceeds from the sale of this book will be donated to Groundnut, a non-profit association dedicated to improving the lives of the rural poor in The Gambia.
"
Separation
Families torn apart, borders crossed, boundaries broken… Permanent barriers or incentives to reunite?
​
When Elizabeth and her daughter Juliette return to Abidjan, Elizabeth’s priority is to deepen the bond between Juliette and her father Mehdi – who still lives there – and to improve her own relationship with him. But she finds he has not changed. He is still difficult to be with, and the tour of the country he arranges for them upon their arrival is fraught with problems.
Their troubles, however, soon take a different turn. By chance they uncover a child trafficking ring, whose perpetrators smuggle youngsters from neighbouring countries into Côte d’Ivoire. When Mehdi rescues a young Ghanaian girl, Adjoa, from a life of servitude or prostitution, Elizabeth takes her under her wing while Mehdi travels to Burkina Faso in search of her abductor.
As Elizabeth, Mehdi and Juliette struggle to mend bridges after being apart for so long, others must accept that their presence in Côte d’Ivoire is invariably the result of a split from family or homeland. Paradoxically, Elizabeth eventually discovers that only after a period of separation, can reconciliation be a possibility.
​
Available at Amazon, click here.
Rings of Significance
​
April Lloyd has just begun a new life in beautiful Cornwall and is looking forward to quiet days that are free of the stresses of her former busy lifestyle. But the discovery of a long-lost ring on a local beach rekindles some old memories that compel her to confront the past even if it takes her far from the comfort of her home.
When their paths cross again after half a lifetime, April finds that the fervent, politically active young men she knew in her youth cut somewhat different figures in middle age. But as she travels between England, Italy and India, keen to renew acquaintances yet struggling to understand her often-conflicting emotions, some surprises are in store for her. Just how well we can ever know the people we journey with across time is a question that April must now begin to investigate if she is ever to conclude the unresolved chapters of her earlier life.
​
​
Available at Amazon, click here.
​
Contact
Get in touch with me for more information about my previous publications and upcoming releases.
