Janetta Walters

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please improve this article if you can. (May 2008)

This article does not cite any references or sources. (May 2008)
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

Janetta Walters is a fictional author of romantic novels, created by D. E. Stevenson. Born Jane Watt, ca. 1913, she and her sister Helen lived in a small stuffy house in Bayswater in semi-genteel poverty, until she discovered her writing talent. When her first romance, Bride of May, was published by Abbott and Spicer, the two sisters could at last enjoy a life of comfort, with Jane writing and Helen acting as agent, housekeeper and amanuensis. Her subsequent books include Her Loving Heart, Her Prince at Last and Love Triumphant.

It was while writing this last book in 1943 that she suffered an artistic crisis, after meeting a young pilot who told her in no uncertain terms that her books were soppy and her characters not real. He was sure, however, that she could write something decent if she tried.

Jane abandoned her career as a writer of 'high-powered tushery' (to quote her publisher) and the pen of Janetta was then taken up by Helen Watt. Jane married a gentleman farmer and is considering writing historical novels.

Janetta Walters is first mentioned as a writer of "nice, clean books" in Mrs. Tim Carries On (1940) and Spring Magic (1942). She first appears in person in The Two Mrs. Abbotts (1943) and in The Four Graces (1946).