Jane Rogers – författare

Skateboarding isn't just a recreational activity, but a professional sport, lifestyle, art form, and cultural phenomenon. The striking book FOUR WHEELS AND A BOARD captures its spirited history, iconic skateboarders, diverse community, and the palpable passion of the people who love it. It includes contributions from the most influential names in the game, including Rodney Mullen, Tony Hawk, Mimi Knoop, and more.   The gorgeously designed book presents objects, artifacts, and photographs from the Smithsonian's collections that exemplify the vitality and innovation of skate culture. Book chapters are organized chronologically by decade from the '60s to present day, starting with 20th-century surfboards, moving through technological changes, the disappearance of skate parks, the rise of social media and collaborations, and ending with never-before-seen objects from the 2020 Summer Olympics, where skateboarding made its historic Olympic debut.    Largely invented by youth, skateboarding has attracted punks, misfits, and dreamers looking for somewhere to belong. The book features skateboards and skaters who open dialogues about race, the gender binary, queerness, the displacement of Native people, and so much more, shining a light on people and places not often represented in traditional skateboard history. FOUR WHEELS AND A BOARD is a fresh look at a transformative culture, and one hell of a ride.

The island is a place where things are not quite as they appear; a magical place where the murder of a reclusive woman is not a cut and dried case.'I thought I had come to the island to wrest control of my life back from the woman who had sabotaged it. But I was wrong. My mother was still writing my plot.'Nikki Black, intent on punishing the mother who abandoned her at birth, goes to the island with only one aim in mind: revenge. But her plans are confounded by the discovery that she has a brother. Not just any brother but a brother strangely possessed by their mother; a brother with a terrifying violent streak; an apparent simpleton whose head is filled with the stories of past islanders, Crofters, Vikings, Little People. A brother whose dangerous love and strange way of seeing the world transform Nikki's life.

Winner of the Writers' Guild Best Fiction Book Award, 1996The year is 1788, the place New South Wales. Marine Lieutenant William Dawes has arrived in the Antipodes to build an observatory, reform the convicts and understand the Aborigines. He is a good man who will be subject to many temptations.In England, now, a child is born. His mother knows he has extraordinary powers; his father knows he is a helpless cripple. Olla, defending and nurturing her miraculous son, emerges as one of the strangest and most compelling characters of contemporary fiction.Jane Rogers intertwines the powerful dramas of the first year of the convict-colony with these present-day lives to make a rich and gripping novel.

When Anne Harrington decides to return from her father's burial by boat, she is advised strongly against it. The journey from Nigeria back to England is too long, she is warned: far better to return to her old routine as quickly as possible. But Anne is not quite alone: she has her father's belongings, and more particularly, his diaries from his time in Africa. Many years earlier, Anne's parents had made the opposite journey, arriving in Nigeria to run a mission in the east of the country. It was a time of new beginnings for her father, David, and her mother, Miriam, but also of great tensions: Miriam found local attitudes towards women restricting her role and her freedom; while David's theological differences with his staff were to have wider and more serious repercussions. For Anne, meanwhile, the voyage home is not turning out to be the haven of solitude she is hoping for. Deep inside the ship, hidden among the containers, she discovers a pair of stowaways, desperate not to be discovered. And though Anne promises not to reveal their existence to the crew, if she does not find help, one of them may die ...

In 1830, as the end of the world approached, the charismatic, hunchbacked prophet of a religious sect settled in Lancashire heeds the biblical injunction and chooses seven virgins 'for comfort and succour'. Basing her novel on the life of the real John Wroe, a leader of a group called the Christian Israelite Church, Rogers crafts an impeccable narrative, interweaving the diverse mindsets of some of the chosen women and the prophet during the nine months of complex interaction. Part morality tale, part history, packed with accurate details of early 19th century life, the stories of Leah, Joanna, Hannah and Martha unfold as they cope with the hypocrisy, blind beliefs and idealism of the sexually threatening prophet.Told with humour, irony and a generosity that embraces even the sinister Wroe, this is a compelling story of astonishing depth, elucidating religious idealism, the beginnings of socialism and the ubiquitous position of women as unpaid labourers.

Winner of the Arthur C Clarke Award 2012Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2011Women are dying in their millions. Some blame scientists, some see the hand of God. As she watches her world collapsing, Jessie Lamb decides she wants to make her life count.Would you let your daughter die if it would save the human race? The Testament of Jessie Lamb is the story of one daughter's heroism and one father's love.

'Her observation of our species is tender, precise, illuminating' Hilary Mantel THE NEW NOVEL BY THE BOOKER LONGLISTED AND ARTHUR C CLARKE AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR OF THE TESTAMENT OF JESSIE LAMBADAPTED FROM THE HIT BBC RADIO 4 PLAY'An ambitious and important writer' New York Times'Unputdownable and often thought-provoking' Sunday Times'Grimly plausible' GuardianIn this version of London, there is a small, private clinic. Behind its layers of security, procedures are taking place on poor, robust teenagers from northern Estates in exchange for thousands of pounds - procedures that will bring the wealthy dead back to life in these young supple bodies for fourteen days. It's an opportunity for wrongs to be righted, for fathers to meet grandsons, for scientists to see their work completed. Old wine in new bottles.But at what cost?MORE PRAISE FOR JANE ROGERS AND BODY TOURISTS:'Gripping' Mail on Sunday'Very much a novel about human nature . . . an insightful examination of the things people truly value' SciFi Now'A wonderfully versatile novelist' Penelope Lively'Rogers' prose flows elegantly and with effortless power' Observer'A compulsive and compelling slice of fiction' Sunday Express

'Her observation of our species is tender, precise, illuminating' Hilary Mantel THE NEW NOVEL BY THE BOOKER LONGLISTED AND ARTHUR C CLARKE AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR OF THE TESTAMENT OF JESSIE LAMBADAPTED FROM THE HIT BBC RADIO 4 PLAY'An ambitious and important writer' New York Times'Unputdownable and often thought-provoking' Sunday Times'Grimly plausible' GuardianIn this version of London, there is a small, private clinic. Behind its layers of security, procedures are taking place on poor, robust teenagers from northern Estates in exchange for thousands of pounds - procedures that will bring the wealthy dead back to life in these young supple bodies for fourteen days.It's an opportunity for wrongs to be righted, for fathers to meet grandsons, for scientists to see their work completed. Old wine in new bottles.But at what cost?MORE PRAISE FOR JANE ROGERS AND BODY TOURISTS:'Gripping' Mail on Sunday'Very much a novel about human nature . . . an insightful examination of the things people truly value' SciFi Now'A wonderfully versatile novelist' Penelope Lively'Rogers' prose flows elegantly and with effortless power' Observer'A compulsive and compelling slice of fiction' Sunday Express

A BBC Radio 4 Book at BedtimeWhen Conrad fails to return home from a science conference, Eleanor guesses he may at last be reacting to her infidelity. Or has he finally tired of his stagnating job in transplant research? Eleanor's own scientific career has forged ahead, while Conrad played main carer to their children. The four children, now adult, fear for their father but seem to have little sympathy for their tough ambitious mother.Meanwhile, a long way from home, Conrad is alone, scared and on the run.