Welcome to Jane Browne's author pageHelloI was born in the same industrial West Midlands UK town as the poet Philip Larkin and thriller-writer Lee Child - and not that many miles from Stratford, home of William Shakespeare. That might say something about my aspirations! I am the daughter of a Ford night-shift worker and a typical 1950's working-class mother who lived on valium. This lack of parental presence lead to my love for solitariness and alternative worlds. I worked for decades alongside engineers, scientists and skilled craftsmen, eventually running a tank blueprint store, then a large engineering stores. These experiences gave me great respect for these traditionally undervalued trades, as well as a love of 18th century science and 19th century engineering, which now appear in my writing.I spent my formative years writing 'al-fresco' in a Gothic cemetery, to the bemusement of grave diggers, so I was present at many funerals, gaining a Gothic outlook on life. As a child I took part in Roman and Medieval 'digs' and enjoyed mooching around museums and art galleries. For social contact I was a vocal supporter of local football team the Sky Blues - probably why I ruined my singing voice. I love wild & industrial landscapes, steam engines & industrial machinery. I portray unconventional and working-class people, rather than Downton Abbey types. My favoured forms of writing are poetry and historical fiction. Pylons, industry and early science are to me what walls are to Bristol wall-artist Banksy.