Queenstown Books In Order

Publication Order of Queenstown Books

Jean Grainger has been favorably compared to the revered Irish storytelling authors Maeve Binchy and Frank McCourt. She has the ability to transport her readers to the times and locations in Ireland that are captivating and entertaining.

Ms. Grainger has written several series of books with a theme of Irish historical fiction. She is from Cork, grew up in Ireland and has had the kind of background and experiences that has given her a large treasure of characters, places, and stories she is able to feed on to create her stories.

Harp is a precocious and highly intelligent young lady who would rather while her day away in the sumptuous library of the richly appointed Georgian house that is her home. Her mother is ladylike and reserved, serving as the housekeeper at the manor home named Cliff House.

The women local to the home are envious of Rose’s grace and beauty. She carries herself with such poise, not as a person who is a household servant, rather she appears to belong in the exclusive ancestral home she works in.

Cliff House is the enclave of the reclusive and eccentric Henry Devereaux who prefers not to receive visitors, instead living the life of a loner with only Rose and Harp to attend to his needs.

Ms. Grainger’s The Queenstown Series centers on Harp and Rose Delaney. The first story of the series is Last Port of Call. It’s April 1912 and twelve-year-old Harp and her mother, Rose, are on shore, watching the pride of the White Star Line, Titanic, as it sails from Queenstown, County Cork, Ireland on the ship’s fateful journey across the Atlantic towards America.

They are as shook up as is the rest of the people of Queenstown are over the disaster of the sinking of the “unsinkable” Titanic. The beautiful shores of Ireland was the last sight of land the passengers of the Titanic saw before the disaster.

Harp is happy in the Cliff House. Her mother does’t make her help with the housework and she is able to spend her free time reading and learning. She’s highly intelligent, able to teach herself languages. She learned Latin at the tender age of eight and can now converse in French, English, Irish, and German.

Her mother is very proud of Harp with all she has mastered at such a young age and she encourages Harp’s learning. She doesn’t fit in well at school and doesn’t have any friends. Harp is sad about it but her mother tries to comfort her as best she can.

The other children at the school she attends are considered above Harp’s financial class. Harp is the child of a servant and they are children of the upper classes. That is one cause of the divide but the main one is they are in school because they have to be and aren’t terribly interested in learning.

Harp is school because she truly wants to be, she wants to learn. She loves to read but is a bit selective on what she reaches for.

The deceased Mrs. Devereaux, mother to Mr. Devereaux, liked to read romances. Harp found simpering heroines dancing hoping to fall in love with grumpy handsome earls and dukes until they come to the inevitable conclusion they love each other forever absolutely boring.

The Cliff House had been built in the 1700’s and the library had a wonderful collection of antiquarian books for her to browse. Mr. Devereaux didn’t mind her looking at the books, even the ones that were old and yellowed and delicate. She treated them with great tenderness and care and the reverence they deserve.

The Queenstown Series has become very popular with readers. They appreciate how Harp, a precocious teen and Rose, her hard-working mom, battle daily to survive in a society filled with rules they must conform to.

Jean Grainger’s writing has the ring of authenticity that makes her stories so popular. Ms. Granger has a Bachelors and a Masters degree in history and English. She held several careers before turning to writing.

With her education she took turns at being a secondary school teacher, a script writer, and a university lecturer. She was involved in script writing and directing high school plays.

When Ms. Granger was hired as a tour guide, that experience led her to her successful career as a novelist. She made it her job to learn the stories and names of every historical location and noteworthy place in all of Ireland.

Because of her vast knowledge and her endearing presentation style, Ms. Granger became one of the most sought-after tour guides in Ireland. Her clients would confide in her their extraordinary stories. They would tell her about lifelong friendships and some of the most interesting things that happened to them.

These people would share their loves that were lost and found, marriages and families reunited, and other fascinating tid-bits. All became food for her novels. She decided to start writing them out.