‘My goal is to write stories that will inform the younger generation’

Darkness, the second book in the Stones Corner Series, was launched last month at an event in the Verbal Arts Centre.

Jane finished the first in the series of books - Turmoil - during lockdown and described the process as her salvation during the pandemic.

The story focused on a young Catholic girl who falls in love with her boss, a Protestant shirt factory owner.

Jane said she has attempted to make the book as unbiased as possible to portray the deep divisions endemic within Northern Irish society in that era.

The Derry woman is an avid reader who had always dreamed of becoming a writer and is using her savings to self publish the series of books.

After living in England and France for many years, she returned home to Ireland three years ago and settled in Inishowen, where she began her incredible writing journey to help people understand the Troubles.

Jane said she can’t believe the reception both novels have received so far.

“I honestly can’t believe it. It’s been amazing! I’m not a flowery, groomed writer as such and will likely never win any awards. But I strongly feel that both Turmoil and Darkness tell it as it was and helps readers understand more about The Troubles.

“It was the very reason I wrote the books; it was my only objective. To encourage people to understand life at that time and how it still - to this very day - affects so many, including the younger generation, many of whom perhaps aren’t even aware of it.”

Jane said the process of writing and self-publishing the novels has been both frustrating and rewarding.

“It’s been frustrating, rewarding, arduous work, but when I see a good review come in, it makes it so worthwhile!”

Stones Corner Darkness was launched at the Verbal Arts Centre last month and family, friends and readers listened to Jane read a passage from the book. Jane said the centre has been ‘incredibly supportive’ of her and her work since Turmoil was launched last year.

They have also given her guidance about possibly holding a Walled City Literature Festival in the future.

“I noticed early on that Derry didn’t hold such a regular event and had investigated with other authors and poets the potential in holding such a festival.

“Sadly, it’s not looking likely, but never say never!”

Jane is continuing to work on the next two books in the Stones Corner series, Light and Hope, which she hopes to publish in 2022 and 2023 respectively.

The series will follow life from the early days of the Troubles through to the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 to help people understand what happened here during that time.

The Stones Corner series is a mix of fact and fiction and Jane said she is ‘determined to change the perception of Northern Ireland’ through her work.

“Living in Derry in the ‘70s wasn’t easy for any of us. It didn’t get much better as an Irishwoman living in London in the 80s and 90s,” Jane said. “One of my greatest frustrations was the lack of understanding from the people I met of why The Troubles began or continued over the decades. Some were particularly biased in their views by what they’d heard or read in the media – sadly, some still are.

“My goal is to write stories that will inform not just the younger generation, but people from all over the world through historically based fiction. I hope they read and gain a better understanding of what it was like to live through those difficult days from both sides of the divide.

“I want everyone to know we are proud, not just as people, but as a country, in the way we have evolved for the benefit of all following The Troubles.

“I’ve friends from England and other parts of the world, who had never been to the North before and who admitted they were afraid to travel here,” she added. “Now they visit and they keep coming back because they love it!”

For more information about the Stones Corner series visit: www.janebuckleywrites.com