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 a new series with the first book, THE EAST END GIRLS, out in June 2025.
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THE EAST END GIRLS
Saga, Bookouture, June 2025
East London, 1942: With the men at war, can the women of the East End band together to defend their loved ones, their city and their country?
Chestnut-haired Corporal Effie Weston has grit beyond her twenty years. Determined to do her duty, she has joined up to the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force to defend London’s East End from the Blitz. She and her new friends Alice, Nell and George know their work is as vital as any man’s. They must rely on every bit of their training – as well as each other – to face the dark days of war.
Working together, their friendship helps them to carry on as the air raid sirens wail nightly over the city. In the middle of all the chaos, Effie is not looking to give her heart away. But when a chance encounter on a station platform throws her into the path of handsome Flight Officer Nathan Fitzgerald, she’s stunned by the warmth in his kind eyes and the spark it ignites in her. Their connection only deepens the more time they spend together.
When her parents object to her relationship with Nathan, Effie is heartbroken. Grasping every scrap of courage she can, she dries her eyes and resolves to fight for her happily ever after with the man she loves. But her world shatters when Nathan’s plane is shot down over France, and he’s declared missing in action.
Can Effie’s friends help her hold onto the hope that Nathan will return from the front? Or will her bright chance at happiness be lost in the turmoil of war?
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?