We are very pleased to be giving away two copies of Jenny Lynch’s book ‘The Secrets They Kept’, to our GrownUps members.
All you need to do to enter the draw is be a GrownUps member, make sure you’re signed up to our newsletter and fill in your details near the bottom of the page!
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About The Secrets They Kept
The debut novel by 85-year-old former editor of the NZ Woman’s Weekly is a compelling read as a young woman goes on a quest of self-discovery and tries to unravel her family’s long-held secrets.
The Secrets They Kept is the story of a young woman’s quest to discover the truth about her mother’s unexplained death – and her own identity.
Helena Anderson was three years old when she lost her mother in 1967. But her efforts to learn anything about the mysterious Eve or the ‘shocking accident’ that presumably claimed her life are met with tight-lipped evasions from her secretive, God-fearing family. Helena knows there is something she is not being told.
She suspects it is something terrible.
Author Note
‘Why, after a lifetime of working in non-fiction, would I want to start writing a first novel in my mid-eighties? It was because for much of that life, I had been haunted by a story my grandmother told me when I was a teenager about the tragic death of a distant cousin – a young woman – in the early years of last century. After living for decades with that tale of my long dead relative I decided to try to bring her back to life, so to speak, as the basis of my first attempt at fiction — a short story. Then one day the plot of the entire novel, The Secrets They Kept just came to me out of the blue. There was more to her than a short story. Once I began working on the manuscript I found that the world I was creating just ‘took over.’ The various characters became as real to me as any I have ever encountered both as a journalist and as a person with an enduring curiosity about people and the surprising and sometimes appalling things they do.’
You can read more from Jenny in her exclusive article for GrownUps here
About the Author
Jenny Lynch is a former editor of the NZ Woman’s Weekly. She has also been an actor, photographic model and a Playboy bunny.
She has lived and worked in the USA, Canada and Australia and is the author of four non-fiction books including a fashion history, Ready To Wear: The changing shape of New Zealand fashion and a memoir Under the Covers: Secrets of a Magazine Editor. The Secrets They Kept is her first work of fiction.
Jenny’s journalistic career spanned more than 30 years. A host of interviews – from celebrities to psychics – gave her insights into the vagaries of human behaviour that are reflected in the characters in the pages of her novel. So, too, did a six-month ‘adventure’ at Melbourne’s ‘The Playboy’, a nightclub run by a shady underworld figure.
Before joining the Weekly in 1976 as assistant editor to legendary Jean Wishart and later taking over the reins herself she was a feature writer on the Weekly News, Sunday Herald and Thursday magazine. Jenny is now a sought-after public speaker on subjects such as the golden years of journalism, the hits and misses of 20th-century fashion, and the peculiarities of early 20th-century magazine advertising.
Jenny was educated at Epsom Girls Grammar in Auckland and Moorhead Senior High and Concordia College, in Minnesota, USA.
She lives in Auckland with her husband Dr Gavin Ellis, a former editor-in-chief of the New Zealand Herald.
Terms and conditions
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- You must be a GrownUps member and receive our newsletter to be eligible to win.
- Competition closes on the 20th March 2024, winners will be notified via email by 21st March 2024.
- It is your responsibility to ensure you correctly enter a New Zealand postal address where the prize can be sent. GrownUps will not take responsibility for prizes sent to incorrect addresses.
- Winners are drawn at random by the GrownUps administration team.
- GrownUps employees and family are not eligible to enter.
- By entering the giveaway, you approve for GrownUps to use your name on social media as winner of the competition.
- One entry per household.
- Prize in non transferrable.
- You must reside in New Zealand – the prize can only be redeemed within New Zealand.
- You must be over 50 years of age to enter, please check your details are correct in your membership dashboard.