Jo Baker (Author of Longbourn)

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Jo Baker

欧宝娱乐 Author

Born

Lancashire, The United Kingdom

Website

Twitter

Genre

Literature & Fiction

Member Since

February 2012

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Jo Baker is the author of six novels, most recently Longbourn and A Country Road, A Tree. She has also written for BBC Radio 4, and her short stories have been included in a number of anthologies. She lives in Lancaster, England, with her husband, the playwright and screenwriter Daragh Carville, and their two children.

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HI, Having read Longbourn, I am curious as to whether you relate more to the Jane Austen works, or to those that relate more to social issues? Longbourn shows the life below the stairs. Is this type of below the stairs issue or social mores more important to you?

Jo Baker Hi Carrie,

it was the interaction of the two.

I love Austen's work - I am a massive, daydreaming fan of her stuff - I love the wish-fulfilment and the鈥辞谤别Hi Carrie,

it was the interaction of the two.

I love Austen's work - I am a massive, daydreaming fan of her stuff - I love the wish-fulfilment and the wit and the brilliantly structured, totally satisfying stories. But coming from working class roots, I struggle see myself in her characters' shoes. Writing Longbourn was, more than anything else, an attempt to 'locate' myself within Austen's world in a way that felt true to me. So the class issue was important, but the book would never have been written if I hadn't been a total nerd for Austen's work. (less)

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Hi Jo! How much planning and preparation goes into your novels before you start writing?

Jo Baker it does vary - i usually have an image or an idea hanging around for years before something else comes along and makes it start to fizz. if I didn't h鈥辞谤别it does vary - i usually have an image or an idea hanging around for years before something else comes along and makes it start to fizz. if I didn't have the fizz, the work wouldn't happen at all. The plans get made as I go along - I think that's really important actually - to be flexible with your plans and realise that there is the platonic ideal of the book you were going to write, and then there is the book you are actually writing or have written. And the research (as I've mentioned below) is a shifting thing too - a layering of general and then very specific work, when I've discovered, through the process of writing, what I need to know.
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Combine Editions
Jo Baker鈥檚 books

Average rating: 3.64 · 70,984 ratings · 10,434 reviews · 14 distinct works 鈥� Similar authors

	Longbourn 3.66 avg rating — 60,725 ratings — published 2013 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Body Lies 3.46 avg rating — 4,051 ratings — published 2019 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Midnight News 3.67 avg rating — 1,693 ratings — published 2023 — 13 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Country Road, A Tree 3.67 avg rating — 1,636 ratings — published 2016 — 27 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Telling 3.35 avg rating — 1,002 ratings — published 2008 — 15 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Undertow 3.52 avg rating — 849 ratings — published 2011 — 18 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Mermaid's Child 2.95 avg rating — 844 ratings — published 2004 — 17 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Offcomer 2.72 avg rating — 172 ratings — published 2002 — 19 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	CakeWalk it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	PUNTO LIBRO SOMBRAS DE LONGBURN 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Jo Baker…

3 posts
Jo Baker's Blog

occupational hazards

If I knew how to insert a photo into a blog post, I'd take a snap of my hand in its ugly 'flesh' coloured splint (nobody's flesh is really that colour). I have an RSI flare up. Sometimes it's okay, sometimes it's so sore it makes me feel like I'm going to throw up. Too much writing perched in awkward places and never enough rest.

It's not something that gets mentioned much when we talk about writi Read more of this blog post »

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Published on May 23, 2016 02:40

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Jo is Currently Reading

Jo is currently reading

Foucault鈥檚 Pendulum

by Umberto Eco

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May 16, 2016 11:55PM

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The Left Hand of Darkness

by Ursula K. Le Guin

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May 16, 2016 01:17AM

Quotes by Jo Baker (?)

“Things could change so entirely, in a heartbeat; the world could be made entirely anew, because someone was kind.”
― Jo Baker, Longbourn

tags: kindness

69 likes

“Life was, Mrs. Hill had come to understand, a trial by endurance, which everybody, eventually, failed.”
― Jo Baker, Longbourn

tags: life

44 likes

“...too much time spent with books had not fitted her to be easy with herself, and other people.”
― Jo Baker, Longbourn

tags: books, reading

22 likes

See all Jo Baker's quotes »

Polls

February BoTM Nominations ~ A Retelling ~ Final Poll

Longbourn

by Jo Baker

14 votes, 30.4%

Cinder

by Marissa Meyer

11 votes, 23.9%

Hag-Seed

by Margaret Atwood

10 votes, 21.7%

The True Story of Hansel and Gretel

by Louise Murphy

6 votes, 13.0%

Girls Made of Snow and Glass

by Melissa Bashardoust

5 votes, 10.9%

46 total votes

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