Joan Fallon was born in Dumfries, in Scotland, the only child of a Scottish mother and an Irish father, but spent most of her formative life in the south of England. She left school at sixteen, instantly regretted it and spent the next fifteen years catching up on her education. She earned her teaching certificate and became a primary school teacher in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, but continued with her studies at the Open University, then a fairly new institution. Despite having a full time job, a husband and two young children she obtained an honours degree in History and Literature.
The sudden death of her son, when he was only seventeen, prompted her to make a career change and she took a post-graduate diploma in Management Studies. For a number of years she worked for Missenden Abbey Management Centre (then part of Brunel University) as Principal Lecturer in Leadership and Behavioural Studies, before successfully launching her own management and development company. Among her clients were the Foreign Office and the Environment Agency.
She then decided to settle in Spain, where she completed an Open University course in Creative Writing and began to devote herself to writing fiction. To date she has written seven novels aimed at the women’s commercial fiction market: “A Family Affair”, “Love is All You Need”, “Between the Sierra and the Sea” (published in 2011 and republished as "Spanish Lavender" in 2013), “Loving Harry” (2012), “The House on the Beach” (2012) and "Santiago Tales" (2013). Her latest novel, "The Only Blue Door", was self-published in 2013 under her own label Scott Publishing.
If asked to name a writer who had influenced her work she would be hard pressed to answer; her reading taste is eclectic and ranges from Turgenev and Stendhal to William Boyd and Anita Shreve. A natural storyteller, her novels, almost invariably, centre on a strong female character and explore the emotions and relationships of her protagonist. Many of her books are set in periods of recent history, such as the Spanish Civil War and the Second World War, and are meticulously researched.
Joan has also written “Daughters of Spain”, a non-fiction book based on authentic interviews with a number of Spanish women of all ages and from all walks of life; this was published by Pegasus Elliot MacKenzie in 2009.
Joan now lives in the south of Spain with her husband, where she has become passionate about both the language and history of her adopted home. This passion is reflected in the books she writes.
The sudden death of her son, when he was only seventeen, prompted her to make a career change and she took a post-graduate diploma in Management Studies. For a number of years she worked for Missenden Abbey Management Centre (then part of Brunel University) as Principal Lecturer in Leadership and Behavioural Studies, before successfully launching her own management and development company. Among her clients were the Foreign Office and the Environment Agency.
She then decided to settle in Spain, where she completed an Open University course in Creative Writing and began to devote herself to writing fiction. To date she has written seven novels aimed at the women’s commercial fiction market: “A Family Affair”, “Love is All You Need”, “Between the Sierra and the Sea” (published in 2011 and republished as "Spanish Lavender" in 2013), “Loving Harry” (2012), “The House on the Beach” (2012) and "Santiago Tales" (2013). Her latest novel, "The Only Blue Door", was self-published in 2013 under her own label Scott Publishing.
If asked to name a writer who had influenced her work she would be hard pressed to answer; her reading taste is eclectic and ranges from Turgenev and Stendhal to William Boyd and Anita Shreve. A natural storyteller, her novels, almost invariably, centre on a strong female character and explore the emotions and relationships of her protagonist. Many of her books are set in periods of recent history, such as the Spanish Civil War and the Second World War, and are meticulously researched.
Joan has also written “Daughters of Spain”, a non-fiction book based on authentic interviews with a number of Spanish women of all ages and from all walks of life; this was published by Pegasus Elliot MacKenzie in 2009.
Joan now lives in the south of Spain with her husband, where she has become passionate about both the language and history of her adopted home. This passion is reflected in the books she writes.
