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Janet Laurence, (born 1937 as Janet Duffell[1]), also known by her pen nameJulia Lisle, is a British author and cookery writer.
Cookery writer
From 1978, Laurence began to write cookery articles for Country Life and The Daily Telegraph. Eventually she became the sole author of the Telegraphs weekly 'Bon Viveur' column.[1] She also wrote a series of articles in Country Life about historical cooking.[2] She has written or co-written eight cookery books, notably books about Scandinavian cooking.
Crime fiction
Laurence's first crime novel, 'A Deepe Coffyn', was published in 1989,[1] the first of ten contemporary novels featuring cookery writer Darina Lisle and policeman William Pigram. She also wrote one non-series mystery fiction book, 'To Kill The Past'.[1] Laurence has also written four historical crime novels – three books where the detective is a fictionalised Canaletto (the Italian artist),[1] and one set in early Edwardian times.[3] Laurence was the 1998/1999 Chair of the Crime Writers' Association,[4] and has been Chair of a number of CWA award judging panels including in 2007 and 2008 for the CWA Ellis Peters Award for best Historical Crime Novel[5][6] and in 2013 for the CWA International Award.[7]
Other work
Laurence has written three contemporary women's novels under the pen name Julia Lisle,[1][3] a book on how to write cookery books,[8] and a book on how to write crime fiction.[9]
