Have you ever spent Christmas alone by choice?

Why did you decide to spend it this way - and what did you do?

That's what the best selling author and Daily Mail agony aunt, Jane Green, is doing this year. It's the first Christmas since her divorce and she's spending it alone, several thousand miles away from home. She joins me now Anita Rani on BBC Radio 4’s Women’s Hour (interview starts 45 minutes into the stream).

Jane reflects on spending Christmas in Marrakech, far from her children and the family-centric celebrations she once cherished.

After leaving her 18-year marriage, she has relocated to Morocco, where she has rediscovered herself, embracing her creativity and independence. While deeply missing her children, who are with their father in Wyoming, she navigates the quiet and foreign Christmas in a Muslim country, contrasting it with her previous joyful and busy holiday traditions.

Despite the emotional challenges, she finds solace in her new life, the warmth of friends, and the freedom of being herself.

I am thrilled to announce that I have written a short story for Amazon Originals, When We Were Friends.

It has been selected as the bonus read as part of Amazon First Reads. You can download it from here to your kindle right now.

From New York Times bestselling author Jane Green comes a riveting story about a friendship that turns ugly when a woman realizes her new best friend is not what she seems...

Having moved to Marrakech earlier this year (2024), Jane is slowly navigating through the process she calls “Rewilding herself.”

For the past few years she has been on a journey of self-discovery, figuring out who she would be if she no longer cared what anyone thought of her.

She calls it Rewilding - expect to see more thoughts and musings on this ahead.

The trick behind a career as a bestselling novelist is having empathy, with no judgment, a perfect brew for an Agony Aunt.

As “Dear Jane” in the UK national newspaper the Daily Mail, Jane offers solutions to the personal problems of readers, large, small, and sometimes very odd indeed.

In her first historical fiction novel, Jane dives into Marrakech in the sixties, telling the story of a young, innocent girl who falls in with the exotic, hedonistic crowd that ruled the Red City at that time.

The crowd included Talitha and Paul Getty, Yves Saint Laurent, Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithfull, and the book captures the magic, wonder and wildness of a time gone by.

In late May 2024, join Jane Green for an intensive & intimate four day writers retreat in the exotic souks, medinas and deserts of Marrakech and the surrounding area.

There will be numerous talks and sessions hosted by Jane to help inspire and guide attendees on their journey to develop as writers.