Jenny Barden
About me
Jenny Barden has had a love of history and adventure ever since an encounter in infancy with a suit of armour at Tamworth Castle. Training as an artist, followed by a career as a city solicitor, did little to help displace her early dream of becoming a knight. A fascination with the Age of Discovery and travels in South and Central America combined to inspire her debut novel, ‘Mistress of the Sea’, an epic romantic adventure set against the backdrop of Francis Drake’s first piratical campaign against the Spanish in the Caribbean. The book will be published in September 2012 by Ebury Press, Random House. Jenny is currently working on a sequel centred on the first Elizabethan ‘lost colony’ of early Virginia. She is the co-ordinator of the Historical Novel Society’s London Conference 2012 and lives in Hertfordshire with her long-suffering husband, a loving Labrador and a deadly Bengal cat.
Find me online
Recent tweets
Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England - unmissable! BBC2 Fri 31 May 9.00pm http://t.co/vEyvV2axvJ @IanJamesFM #histnov
Steam punk is now up there with Mantel! http://t.co/vP0ZDDZRPi Well done @Liesel_S @EburyPublishing
@alison_morton Brilliant! So pleased. Wonderful to get good reviews
Can't wait! @carolmcgrath @SarahBower @bdalderton
@mjcr @Liesel_S Love the suit. Hope it's the shape of things to come!...
From my website
Don’t miss the fabulous Get Writing Conference at the University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, Saturday 20 April. I’ll be running a workshop on ‘The Craft of Writing an Historical Novel (with a little help along the way!)’
I’ll be speaking on a panel at the HNS Conference 2013 to be held at St Petersburg, Florida, (June 21-23). ‘Making it to Mainstream – And What Comes After’ along with Gillian Bagwell, Nancy Bilyeau, Patricia Bracewell and Deborah Swift. Follow what’s happening on Twitter #HNS2013 Gillian Bagwell Nancy Bilyeau Patricia Bracewell Deborah Swift http://hns-conference.org/
NOMINATED FOR THE RNA’s NEW WRITERS’ SCHEME AWARD 2013
Mistress of the Sea is a contender for the Joan Hessayon Award of the Romantic Novelists’ Association’s ‘New Writers’ Scheme’ for 2013. There’s a lovely piece about that here: http://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/leisure/books/bookreviews/10194121.Jenny_is_nominated_for_a_writer_s_award/