Jane Duncan

Short Biography

JANE DUNCAN (1910-1976)(pseudonym of Elizabeth Jane Cameron)Known (but not well enough) for the underrated “my friends” novels, nineteen in all, which follow narrator Janet Sandison from her youth during World War I up to the 1960s and which vary widely in theme and tone—some funny, some dark, some meditative—Duncan achieved considerable notoriety when, after years of writing (and sometimes destroying unpublished manuscripts), Macmillan suddenly accepted seven of her novels in one unprecedented swoop. The series includes My Friends the Miss Boyds (1959), My Friend Muriel (1959), My Friend Martha's Aunt (1962), My Friend Madame Zora (1963), My Friends the Mrs. Millers (1965), My Friends the Hungry Generation (1968), and My Friends George and Tom (1976), among others. Later, Duncan published a series of four novels which purport to be Sandison's own writing after she becomes a novelist herself. These include Jean in the Morning (1964), Jean at Noon, or, Summer's Treasure (1971), Jean in the Twilight; or, the Mists of Autumn (1973), and Jean Towards Another Day; or, Can Spring Be Far Away? (1975). She also published two series of children's books—the Camerons series (1963-1968) and the Janet Reachfar series (1975-1978).