Jean Fullerton
Agent: Kate Burke
Assistant: Sian Ellis-Martin
Bio: Jean was born and bred in the overcrowded streets surrounding London Docks where her family have lived since 1825. Being born within the sound of Bow Bells, she’s a true cockney who grew up in what was then the working-class dockland community in Wapping and Stepney, East London. All her published books are set in the streets and alleyways she roamed as a child.
Jean worked for 30 years as a community nurse in East London, starting as a staff nurse and finishing as a university lecturer in Health Studies at London South Bank University.
Jean’s Ration Book series is published by Corvus, whilst her East London Nurses series and Victorian East London Nolan series are published by Orion. Her first memoir, A CHILD OF THE EAST END, was published by Corvus in August 2022.
Bookouture will publish the fourth book in the East End Girls series, CHRISTMAS WITH THE EAST END GIRLS, in October 2026.
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CHRISTMAS WITH THE EAST END GIRLS
Historical, 340 pages, Bookouture, September 2026
Georgina St John-Smythe – George to her friends – is usually the life and soul of any party. But as the East End of London prepares wearily for another wartime Christmas amid nightly bombings, she is finding it hard to muster her festive spirit, still hurting from a recent romantic betrayal. But everything changes when she meets handsome Captain Reverend Guy Moncrieff…
Forced to leave the army after a life-altering injury, Guy is struggling to settle into his new role at a bomb-damaged little church in the centre of the East End. Romance is the last thing on his mind, but when he and George are thrown together to organise a special Christmas Eve carol service that will give their incredible, irrepressible community a chance to shine, the closeness that develops between them surprises them both.
But just as George begins to dream that a future with this kind, generous man might be possible, she is falsely accused of a terrible crime that threatens not only her happiness with Guy, but her future in the Women’s Auxiliary Airforce. Can the East End Girls rally behind one of their own to right this wrong? And as the bells ring out on Christmas Eve, can George and Guy put the past behind them and make a fresh start together? Or is it too late for a happy ever after?
FELICITY’S WAR
Saga, 448 pages, Corvus, July 2024
1941. Whilst London is battered by air raids, Felicity "Fliss" Carmichael has troubles of her own. Still reeling from catching her fiancé cheating, she flees to her childhood home at St. Winifred's Rectory, reuniting with her sister Prue and Hester Katz, a Jewish doctor sheltering there.
Though heartbroken, Fliss finds purpose again as a journalist. On assignment, she crosses paths with Detective Inspector Timothy Wallace, who shares her passion for truth and justice - though not her political beliefs. Despite their differences, an instant spark ignites between them.
But their love faces twists and turns ahead. While Fliss stumbles upon a crime and bravely intervenes, Tim's investigation into black market racketeering puts him in mortal danger...
A CHILD OF THE EAST END
Memoir, 336 pages, Corvus, August 2022
One of my first East London memories is lying in bed, listening to the low boom of the barges as they nudged each other on the Thames, just half a mile away from our estate...
Life in Cockney London was tough in the post-war years. The government's broken promises had led to a chronic housing shortage, rampant crime and families living in squalor. But one thing prevailed: the unbeatable spirit of the East End, a tight-knit community who pulled through the dark times with humour and heart.
Drawing on both family history and her own memories of growing up in the 1950s and '60s, as well as her working life as a district nurse and local police officer, Jean Fullerton vividly depicts this fascinating part of London - from tin baths, to jellied eels, to tigers in a Wapping warehouse.
A RATION BOOK VICTORY
Saga, 368 pages, Corvus, May 2022
In the final days of war, only love will pull her through . . .
Queenie Brogan wasn't always an East End matriarch. Many years ago, before she married Fergus, she was Philomena Dooley, a daughter of Irish Travellers, planning to wed her childhood sweetheart, Patrick Mahone. But when tragedy struck and Patrick's narrow-minded sister, Nora, intervened, the lovers were torn apart.
Fate can be cruel, and when Queenie arrives in London she finds that Patrick Mahone is her parish priest, and that the love she had tried to suppress flares again in her heart.
But now in the final months of WW2, Queenie discovers Father Mahone is dying and must face losing him forever. Can she finally tell him the secret she has kept for over fifty years or will Nora once again come between them?
And if Queenie does decide to finally tell Patrick, could the truth destroy the Brogan family?