LOCAL author Janette Jenkins is to mark the completion of her third novel with an appearance at the Bolton Festival.

Janette, who lives in Lostock, will talk about her new book, The Big Goodbye, when she speaks at the festival's Literary Dinner on August 26.

Born in Bolton, Janette moved with her family to the Fylde coast in 1977.

She trained as an actress in London before returning to Bolton to study Literature and Philosophy at the Bolton Institute. Following this, she went to the University of East Anglia and gained an MA in Creative Writing under the late Sir Malcolm Bradbury.

Her first novel, Columbus Day, was set in Blackpool in 1973. The story was seen through the eyes of a 10-year-old girl whose mother was searching for her own long-lost father.

The Guardian described it as "impressive" and Harpers and Queen said it was "gentle, humorous and accomplished".

Her second novel, Another Elvis Love Child, was an off-beat, tragi-comic story about families and growing up. The novel evoked Bolton in the 70s and had an undercurrent of frustrated violence with a backdrop of Elvis, Dean Martin and other stars of the time.

Eve magazine said it was: "Billy Elliott crossed with Brassed Off... exhilarating stuff from a major talent." The book was shortlisted for the Amazon Writer's Bursary Award.

Janette's stories have been published in the Mail on Sunday and Sunday Express, and broadcast on Radio Four. Her story - Holiday - won Radio 4's Best Story competition, and has been broadcast many times.

Last year, she was awarded an alumni fellowship by Bolton Institute where she now teaches Creative Writing.

She has just finished The Big Goodbye, which is set in London and is about an actor in the 1950s.

Janette lives in Lostock with her daughter, Emily, and her partner, Simon Stallworthy, who, for a period, was the artistic director at Bolton's Octagon Theatre.

She met Simon when she was a volunteer usher at the theatre and he was director of the youth section.

"I knew he was interested in new writing and I showed him some of my work," she said. "But he didn't do anything with it."

Recently Simon left his job as a script editor with Coronation Street, and is doing freelance writing again.

At the Bolton dinner, Janette will talk about growing up in the North-west - she left when she was 11 - and about how she became a writer.

She is inviting everyone who goes to it to ask her questions about her life and career.

The Literary Dinner is on August 26, at Ridgmont House, Horwich, at 7pm for 7.30pm.

Tickets for the gourmet meal and talk are £20, and are available by calling 01204 334400.