Janice Gentle Gets Sexy

by Mavis Cheek

Plump, virginal Janice reluctantly writes romances in the hope of earning enough money to find the man she loved and lost 20 years ago, but her agent is hiding her healthy financial position. So when a new publisher wants Janice's help with a very marketable product, it is time for her to get sexy.

Genres: Fiction, Humor, Chick Lit, Contemporary

322 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Born in Wimbledon, now part of London, Mavis left school at 16 to do office work with Editions Alecto, a Kensington publishing company. She later moved to the firm's gallery in Albemarle Street, where she met artists such as David Hockney, Allen Jones, Patrick Caulfield and Gillian Ayres. In 1969 she married a "childhood sweetheart", Chris Cheek, a physicist, whom she had met at a meeting of the Young Communist League in New Malden, but they separated three years later. Later she lived for eleven years with the artist Basil Beattie. She returned to education in 1976, doing a two-year arts course at Hillcroft College, a further education college for women.

Although Cheek had planned to take a degree course, she turned instead to fiction writing while her daughter, Bella Beattie, was a child. She moved from London to Aldbourne in the Wiltshire countryside in 2003, but as she explained to a newspaper, "Life in the city was a comparative breeze. Life in the country is tough, a little bit dangerous and not for wimps."

Cheek has been involved with the Marlborough LitFest, and also teaches creative writing. This has included voluntary work at Holloway and Erlstoke prisons. As she described in an article: "What I see [at Erlstoke] is reflected in my own experience. Bright, overlooked, unconfident men who are suddenly given the opportunity to learn grow wings, and dare to fail. It helps to be able to tell them that I, too, was once designated thick by a very silly [education] system. My prisoners have written some brilliant stuff, and perhaps it gives them back some self-esteem."

Reviews

[Louise Culmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m glad I persevered with Mavis Cheek, as I liked this one much better than the first two I read. Janice Gently is a very successful writer of romance novels who lives a reclusive life in Battersea, dreaming of Dermot, the man with whom she had a very brief encounter in London twenty years ago. She has never had a relationship with a man, Dermot remains her dreamed of ideal. Then an unexpected event brings a number of new people into her life and many surprising things happen. This is an entertaining story with some interesting characters, very enjoyable light read, a great improvement on her earlier books.

[E A James · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book years ago and really enjoyed it. So I thought I would read it again and still enjoyed it. It really is a well written book and I loved the crazy characters - so wonderfully British.
Janice Gentle is not like your usual heroine - she is virginal, fat and loves her food. But she also intelligent. In fact I fell in love with this character and I think you will too.
Thank you Mavis Cheek for this great book!

[Keris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Janice Gentle Gets Sexy is one of Mavis Cheek's older books (first published in 1993) but it's one of my favourites. It's very funny and Janice Gentle is a fantastic character. Plus, it's about a writer, which is a bonus in my book.

To read the rest of this review (and more!), please visit Trashionista

[John Marsh · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good paced easy and fun book. Some deep thought and reference to those writers "of old" for those who can handle them which excludes myself. Good description of street life and the feelings one can have in regards London. I heard this on audible mainly while doing chores which was easy to listen to and helped ease the burden onf the chores.

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mavis Cheek Gets Sexy, more like.

It’s definitely a cynical pastiche of romantic novels. There were interwoven stories that I particularly enjoyed, more so than Janice’s, except for the vicar’s wife’s, which I found too dismal for the rest of the book.

1841975559

[Yun Zhen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not very sure what to make out of this book. It is quite unclear it is satire till somewhere in the middle, as such the characters are all bland and dreary. A lot of unnecessary descriptions written in a very repetitive and dreary way makes everything tedious to read and a torture to get through. Deciding I needed to give the book a fair chance anyway (or I was trying to persevere so I could rate this book a singular star), I ploughed through everything. Well if you can get pass most of the dreariness, by the time you realise everything is too exaggerated and ridiculous, and in a sense, plain stupid, it does get quite funny. So I'll give it an extra star it originally didn't deserve for that. Ultimately, this book is okay. But okay only. A pity, it could have been a much better book.

[Dead John Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Janice Gentle Gets Sexy by Mavis Cheek A very low brow book compared to my usual fodder :-) but highly amusing, very readable and well written.
 
If you want to read something that will give your brain a holiday then this is the book.
 
Loved it

[Gillian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you Mavis for a main character that is fat and who does not lose weight by the end!! Hallelujah!!!!! She wins out all round. Thank goodness Dermott Poll did not return that fateful night.
I also enjoyed the other characters

[Alina Trigger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very, very funny in a rather cynical way.

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

Made me laugh out loud

[Jacqueline Worboys · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny!

[Petula Darling · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book's title and description definitely don't give potential readers an accurate impression of the sort of book they're in for.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hard to believe this book was written 25 years ago!

[Hilary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delicious.

[Little BigGirl · Rating 3 out of 5]

easy going

[Pamela · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story tells of a spinster who initially lives with her mother in London.Before her death her mother stitches a resplendent item of clothing for her as a 21st birthday gift.The item is a colourful and vibrant coat,which,upon its first wearing,is the source of attraction to a random male who woos our spinster with love songs and flattery.Our spinster,namely a one Miss Janice Gentle is smitten with this stranger and falls inlove with him in the short half-hour or so she makes his aquaintance.
After her mother's death,Janice finds herself in debt ,without a source of income and in trouble with the bank manager .All she has to offer him as a source of potential finacial repayment is the publication of a book which she has written to fill her time ,and has merely stuffed away in a drawer at home.
The manuscript of the book is entered into a fiction-writing competion by the bank manager in the hope of her winning the cash prize .Events take a turn when a publishing agent happens to read the manuscript and think it wonderful. The agent tracks down Janice Gentle and becomes like a fairy-godmother to her;she immediately offers her writing work and suitable payment .The agent becomes a friend and confidante who also 'takes care' of the author's finances and domestic needs.
Janice therefore begins a successful career as a romantic fiction author,known for her very'clean' books that are never vulgar nor contain actual talk or scenes of the sexual act.
Janice Gentle is very successful but her agent is very protective of her ,lest anyone in the publishing world try to poach her protege.. There is an ulterior motive for this protectiveness: her agent is secretly spending most of her benefactor's income on material delights for herself.
Janice accepts that she has never( incorrectly) quite earned enough money to pursue her dream and goal:to find the stranger who she fell in love with on the streets of London when she was 21 and donning the said coat- of -many -colours.
Eventually ,her agent dies and is exposed as having been a closeted lesbian and spending all of Janice Gentle's money on fine clothes and other luxuries.
Now aged 43,Janice Gentle is propositioned by a new agent who asks her to change the way she writes to include sexual explicitnesss. Janice agrees to do so only if she finds her long lost love. She eventually does,but things turn out decidedly differently.
Read this book if you are a believer in fate and enjoy quotations and phrases which celebrate both Greek mythology and also the 'kinds of love' which are infrequently described nowadays. Expect mentions of the middle age poets and poems from their knights to ladies.Expect quotes from Ovid ,and the peppered use of French phrases. I personally enjoyed these and found them to be educational and interesting.Some readers may find them distracting and not 'get' why they are there.
Ironically,after descending into bathos in my previous paragraph,you will find that the book does not,and keeps a remarkable balance of language and interest throughout. An unusual book,which deserves its five stars for originality.

[Lisa Stenberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Delightful prose, unusually human yet detached protagonist, and imaginative story - but too many perspectives juggled at once.

[Judith Flett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Joy

This book was an unexpected joy! Such an interesting and different story filled with wonderful characters. I thoroughly enjoyed it!

[Summreen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book, was amusing, easy to read and frivolous. The bleak couples featured in the story, whose lives weaved in and out of each others, got a little consufing to follow but you were reminded of them through their unique predicaments. Would recomend it.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read lots of Cheek's novels, but have fond memories of this one being the funniest.

[Mb_presents · Rating 3 out of 5]

it's my first mavis cheek book and i loved her quirky characters

[Slawka · Rating 4 out of 5]

I couldn't stop laughing. I don't think i've ever had the pleasure to read something that sarcastic and cynical and easy to read at the same time.

[Karschtl · Rating 1 out of 5]

An den Haaren herbeigezogene Story über Irrungen und Wirrungen der Liebe. Fad und unglaubwürdig.

[Melanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bizarre.