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Jo Baker

Goodreads Author

Born

Lancashire, The United Kingdom

Website

http://www.jobakerwriter.com/

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JoBakerWriter

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…moreHi 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…moreit 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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Jo Baker’s books

Average rating: 3.64 · 73,130 ratings · 10,704 reviews · 19 distinct works • Similar authors

	Longbourn 3.67 avg rating — 62,382 ratings — published 2013 — 5 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 — 4,239 ratings — published 2019 — 12 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 3.66 avg rating — 1,894 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 3.66 avg rating — 1,673 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 3.37 avg rating — 1,024 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 3.53 avg rating — 862 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 — 867 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 — 174 ratings — published 2002 — 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
	A Country Road A Tree: Shortlisted for the Walter Scott Memorial Prize for Historical Fiction really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 2 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
	The Telling 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

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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’s 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

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Jo has read Hard Times by Charles Dickens	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
Apr 06, 2025 12:38AM · like

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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

68 likes

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

tags: life

43 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

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Polls

February BoTM Nominations ~ A Retelling ~ 1st Poll

Top 5 Books move onto Final Poll

Cinder

by Marissa Meyer

13 votes, 29.5%

Longbourn

by Jo Baker

11 votes, 25.0%

Girls Made of Snow and Glass

by Melissa Bashardoust

4 votes, 9.1%

Hag-Seed

by Margaret Atwood

4 votes, 9.1%

The True Story of Hansel and Gretel

by Louise Murphy

4 votes, 9.1%

Jane Steele

by Lyndsay Faye

3 votes, 6.8%

Macbeth

by Jo Nesbø

2 votes, 4.5%

Uprooted

by Naomi Novik

2 votes, 4.5%

Ash

by Malinda Lo

1 vote, 2.3%

The Wrath and the Dawn

by Renée Ahdieh

0 votes, 0.0%

44 total votes

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