NEWS – FEBRUARY 2026

To celebrate 50 years of Thunder and Lightnings, and mark 20 years since Jan’s untimely death, a group of fans are doing the Jan Mark Walk together. It will be on 20 June 2026. We will do the walk, then meet for coffee and a film, and then probably the pub, where we can swap books and anecdotes – and chat. Would you like to join us? Please email to register your interest – jonappletonsbooks [at] gmail.com

It was wonderful to receive in the post a bundle of the fliers for the ‘Jan Mark Walk’ through Ingham and Stalham, which Jan repurposed as Pallingham and Polthorpe in her early Norfolk based novels. It’s been a labour of love, about which you can read here. Obviously, in the current circumstances, group walks aren’t possible right now, but Phil Hanton, who masterminded the project, tells me, ‘As we’ve seen dozens of walkers on the path at this time, I’ve put the route on my own information board by our gate hoping to catch passers-by – it seems to be working.’ Phil and his friends have also marked the stops on the route on existing waymarkers. The next project – put on hold for now – is a Jan Mark information board. If you’d like a copy of the brochure, please get in touch via the contact page on this site and I’ll forward your request on to Phil.