Thank you for finding my tiny place in cyber space, where I tell readers a little about me, and a little more about the stories I write. I send a newsletter every year or two (in other words, it’s entirely safe to sign up so please don’t hesitate), and blog about adventures (and misadventures) on long and arduous walks in England, Scotland and Ireland, France, Italy and Switzerland.
Author Biography
Penelope Janu lives on a property in the Southern Highlands of NSW with a distracting husband, a very large dog and, now they're fully grown, six delightful children who come and go. A former lawyer, Penelope has a passion for creating stories that explore social and environmental issues, but her novels are fundamentally a celebration of Australian characters and communities. Her first novel, In at the Deep End, came out with HarperCollins/ HQ in 2017. Since then, she’s had four novellas and nine novels published, the most recent being her December 2024 release, The Summerfield Saddler. Her next novel, Out of the Blue will be released on 26 May, 2026. Penelope enjoys riding horses, exploring the Australian countryside and dreaming up challenging hiking adventures. Nothing makes her happier as a writer than readers falling in love with her clever, complex and adventurous characters. She loves to hear from readers, and can be contacted via her website, penelopejanu.com.
Some more about me …
I worked full time as a lawyer and legal academic for many years, but as my children grew up, I thought it was time to start writing the stories I'd always thought up but never written down. Not coincidentally, they were also the stories that I loved to read. Stories with little to do with corporations law, and more to do with strong women, admirable men and happily ever afters. Not to mention a plot that keeps readers up until late. My first novel, In at the Deep End, was published by HarperCollins/ HQ and released in February, 2017 (and republished with a new cover in 2024). My second novel, On the Right Track, was published in June 2018, and won the prestigious Romance Writers of Australia RUBY award (Romance Book of the Year in the contemporary category) in 2019. This novel, set in a rural area in NSW, was an absolute joy to write, taking me back to my formative years where I was rarely seen out of riding boots. Since then, I’ve written quite a few rural fiction novels, including Clouds on the Horizon, winner of the Australian Romance Readers Award for 2022 Favourite Romantic Suspense.
In early 2018, my novel On the Same Page, a romantic comedy, won the XO Romance prize, and a publishing contract with Brio Books. This meant that my third novel joined the first two books on the shelves. The release date for my fourth novel, Up on Horseshoe Hill, was November 2019. This was followed by Starting From Scratch, published in January 2021 and Clouds on the Horizon, published in January 2022. On the Same Page was re-released with HarperCollins/Escape in 2022. Shelter from the Storm was published in January 2023 and Sunshine through the Rain was published in December 2023. My ninth novel, The Summerfield Saddler came out in December 2024.
Also in 2018, a novella, The Six Rules of Christmas, was published as part of a HarperCollins/ HQ Anthology, My Country Christmas. A second novella, The Countdown to Christmas, was published in the anthology A Country Vet Christmas. My third novella, A Fairytale for Christmas was published in 2024 in the A Country Farm Christmas anthology, and a fourth novella, The Night Before Christmas, was published in the 2025 anthology, A Country Practice Christmas. At the end of 2026, watch out for my fourth novela, The Kiss Before Christmas, to be publishde in A Country Pub Christmas.
When I'm not writing or thinking about writing, I happily embrace (most of the time) the chaos of a busy household, work, a much loved garden, caring for a herd of Angus cattle, and travel. I met my husband when we were teenagers at the University of Sydney Law School. It wasn’t at all ‘cool’ to get married at twenty-three, but I’d met my Mr Darcy. Over forty years, six children and seven grandchildren later, I’m so glad he walked out of that lake …
What do I do for a break? I love a road trip, and spend as much time as I can exploring regional towns in Australia. I also like to ride horses. In 2018, our party hiked (literally) around Mont Blanc for ten days - over 200 kms through Switzerland, Italy and France. Walking 320 kilometres across England was another wonderful adventure. We walked over 200km in the Scottish Highlands in 2022, and a similar distance in the Dingle Peninsula of Ireland in 2023. In 2024 we walked the route of Hadrian’s wall in England and in 2026 we're hiking in the Dolomites in Italy. While I’d love to complete extended walks at home, the significant distances between pubs in our beautiful country present less long distance options!
Turning sixty in a pandemic could be worse …
The debut, the RuBY award, shortlistings and books on shelves …
