Enterprise Nation

Jane Gallagher has created a home business of all the things she loves to do. She presents PR seminars, manages a book club for thousands of readers and is writer in residence at a Lancashire prison. She’s busy, but is enjoying every minute of it.

Lunch break

I caught up with Jane Gallagher in her lunch break and we stole some moments so she could tell her story. 

“I was working for the Liverpool Echo and I had four children. When their summer sports days all fell on different afternoons, I went to my features editor to request time off. From her response, I could see it was time to find work that I could fit more flexibly round my family.”

Jane became a freelance writer and, knowing she didn’t want to put all her eggs in one basket, she picked up a number of jobs; writing national features for magazines like Bella and Mother & Baby, features work for the Liverpool Daily Post and a couple of days each week working for a PR company.

But something wasn’t quite right.

“I didn’t feel I had enough time to focus on my writing. So, on the way back from a seminar where I’d been advised to look for a part-time job that would encourage me to write, I spotted a job advert for a ‘writer in residence’ in a prison. I applied and got it!”

Jane now has a widely varied week that involves presenting to businesses on PR strategy on one day and encouraging inmates to consider the structure of a poem, the next. It’s the variety that she loves. And also the fact she’s always learning from others. Running a book club for 230,000 readers is a way for Jane to interview authors and ask how they have perfected their art. She’s writing a book herself and you can guarantee it will be filled with anecdotes and stories from what is a varied and happy life.

• Jane Gallagher

Jane Gallagher talks to Emma Jones