Jane Thynne

Writer - fiction

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Books

Agent: Caradoc King
Assistant: Becky Percival

Books

Jane Thynne was born in Venezuela and educated in London and at Oxford. She joined the BBC as a production trainee, and worked as a TV director. She then moved to Fleet Street, working at The Sunday Times, The Daily Telegraph and The Independent. She has appeared on many TV and radio programmes, including her own Radio 4 series and writes for numerous magazines. Her first book PATRIMONY (1997) was set in World War 1 and hailed by The Observer as “a thoughtful and effortlessly engaging double narrative combining elements of Sebastian Faulks’s Birdsong and A.S Byatt’s Possession.” THE SHELL HOUSE (1999) was described as “One of those novels you just want to curl up with on a cold afternoon…an intelligent woman’s love story” by Woman’s Journal. THE WEIGHING OF THE HEART (2010) was set in the aftermath of the discovery of Tutankhamen’s tomb and described by The Lady as “a bright, transporting pleasure.” Jane is on the broadcasting committee of the Society of Authors. She is married with three children and lives in London.

FAITH AND BEAUTY, which is the fourth book in a series about Clara Vine, a female spy, was published by Simon and Schuster in November 2015.The latest installation of the series, THE WORDS I NEVER WROTE, will be published in the US by Ballantine Books in 2020.

Fiction

Publication DetailsNotes

FAITH AND BEAUTY

2015

Simon & Schuster

Berlin, on the eve of war…
As soldiers muster on the streets, spies circle in the shadows and Lotti Franke, a young woman from the Faith and Beauty Society - the elite finishing school for Nazi girls - is found in a shallow grave.
Clara Vine, Anglo-German actress and spy, has been offered the most ambitious part she has ever played. And in her more secret life, British Intelligence has recalled her to London to probe reports that the Nazis and the Soviet Union are planning to make a pact.
Then Clara hears of Lotti's death, and is determined to discover what happened to her. But what she uncovers is something of infinite value to the Nazi regime - the object that led to Lotti's murder - and now she herself is in danger.
In a drama which traverses Berlin, Paris, Vienna and London, Clara Vine tries to keep her friends close, but finds her enemies are even closer.

THE WINTER GARDEN

2014

Simon & Schuster

Berlin, 1937. The city radiates glamour and ambition. But danger lurks in every shadow… Anna Hansen, a bride-to-be, is a pupil at one of Hitler's notorious Nazi Bride Schools, where young women are schooled on the art of being an SS officer's wife. Then, one night, she is brutally murdered and left in the gardens of the school. Her death will be hushed up and her life forgotten. Clara Vine is an actress at Berlin's famous Ufa studios by day and an undercover British Intelligence agent by night. She knew Anna and is disturbed by news of her death. She cannot understand why someone would want to cover it up, but she soon discovers that Anna's murder is linked to a far more ominous secret. With the newly abdicated Edward VIII and his wife Wallis set to arrive in Berlin, and the Mitford sisters dazzling on the social scene, Clara must work in the darkness to find the truth and send it back to London. It is a dangerous path she treads, and it will take everything she has to survive…

BLACK ROSES

2013

UK: Simon & Schuster; French: Lattes

Set in Berlin in 1933, BLACK ROSES tells the story of Hitler’s decision to establish a Reich Fashion Bureau to be run by the wives of Nazi leaders. Clara Vine is an Anglo-German actress who comes into contact with the wives and gains their trust while spying on them for British intelligence. In the process she discovers a dramatic secret at the heart of the Nazi regime which threatens her life and the life of the man she loves.