caricature by the late Napier Dunn

Jan Hurst-Nicholson has been writing for about 25 years. Her articles, humorous articles and short stories have appeared in South African and overseas magazines and these were compiled into a book: Something to Read on the Plane a bit of light literature, short stories & other fun stuff.

Her first children’s book was Leon Chameleon PI and the case of the missing canary eggs published by Gecko Books, and was one of Bookchat’s 1993 South African Books of the Year. This was followed by Leon Chameleon PI and the case of the kidnapped mouse  (both now available as e-books on Amazon and Barnes & Noble) ‘Leon Chameleon PI and the case of the bottled bat’ is awaiting publication. These are humorous, animal, detective stories set in a nature reserve.

‘Bheki and the Magic Light,’ which tells of a rural child’s fascination with a torch, was published by Penguin SA.

‘Jake,’ was published by Cambridge University Press.

Born in the UK, Jan emigrated from Liverpool to South Africa in the 1970s. Her experiences moving to a new continent were the inspiration for her humorous novel, But Can You Drink The Water?, which was a semi-finalist (top 50 out of 5000) in the 2010 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award.

This is now available on Amazon as a Kindle digital book and has sold over 13 000 copies.

Jan worked in the R&D department of a large bakery for several years, and this gave her the idea for The Breadwinners a family saga spanning 50 years and set in Durban. This is now available on Amazon as a Kindle digital book.

Jan has also written a YA novel, Mystery at Ocean Drive which was a runner-up in the 2010 Citizen/Pan MacMillan YA novel award, and is now available as a Kindle digital book.

Jan’s writing also appears in ‘Edge Words’ (20 stories from the Cheshire Prize for Literature 2006) published by University of Chester, ‘Chicken Soup for the Caregiver's Soul’ and ‘Chicken Soup for the Soul 101 best stories On Being a Parent,’ and ‘Summer Shorts’.

Jan is a member of the South African Writers’ Circle, and of SpeakOut, an organization that teaches public speaking (for when she becomes a famous writer!)

She lives in Durban with her husband, two dogs that are forever on the wrong side of the door, two elderly cats, and the occasional visiting troop of boisterous vervet monkeys.