Sarjan’s Legacy
In the late 1950’s, Gordon Everard Browne, a Maths and science teacher at Perth Modern School in Western Australia, began writing and publishing educational texts. His wife, Kathleen, and daughter, Jennifer, assisted him.
Jennifer, then a Physical Education teacher at Collie, and later Tuart Hill High School, went on to write and publish numerous books and educational texts, both in her own right, and in partnership with friends and colleagues.
In the 1960’s, Jennifer co-authored books on Softball with her friend, Judy Jones (nee Townsend). Then, in the early 1970’s, Jenny individually authored a book on Tee Ball. By that time, Jenny was a Lecturer at the WA College of Advanced Education and the University of Western Australia.
Then, in the 1980’s, it was with the publishing assistance of her friend, Kaye Terry, that Jenny authored A Handbook for Librarians. It sold as far as Moscow and London.
In the early 1990’s, and while Head of Arts and Humanities at Edith Cowan University, Jenny co-wrote Physical Educational Studies textbooks for years 11 and 12 students. They were compiled in collaboration with her Master’s student, Regina Bloot.
In the mid 1990’s, Jenny took early retirement from her academic position, in order to pursue her writing and publishing of educational texts, full time.
In partnership with another colleague, Julie Ann Harper, an additional publishing business, specialising in Small Business Management, was added to her portfolio, and dozens more publications ensued.
By that stage Jenny was also trading on the stock exchange and, having her own self-managed superannuation fund, she then compiled A Handbook for Investors.
In the late 1990’s, and past ‘retirement age’ Jenny turned her attention to fulfilling her dream of writing an Historical Novel, Sarjan, which had its origins in the district of her beloved holiday home at Mandurah. Sarjan was first published in 2002, and quickly rose to the top of the distributor’s bestseller list. It is regularly described as “unputdownable” and, even, “better than Thorn Birds”.
Shortly after its release, Jenny’s fortunes and health took a turn for the worse, and we nearly lost her, but (like a phoenix rising from the ashes) Jenny is improving, and returning to what she loves doing best – writing, and publishing, books “on a topic where there needs one, but isn’t one”.
Jenny’s recent life experiences led her to stumble on a cohort of the population whose stories have been silenced; because rules prohibit them from speaking out.
With Jenny now in the role of consultant and mentor, her companion, Angela Smith (another Curtin University graduate, and ECU academic of the early 1990’s), is developing a small publishing business, under the trade name of Sarjan’s Legacy, and compiling survival guides relating to the experiences of that ‘silenced’ population.
Some will no doubt find her work controversial, but these ‘small books with big messages’ are deliberately intended to highlight flaws, and stimulate debate, into Western Australia’s once proud social justice system.
The first in the series Doctoring Dying: The Capacity Assessment Process in Western Australia (A survival guide for anyone with assets, and a family that wants to get your assets before you’re dead), is currently available. Work is also under way on Make-Believe-Marriages: How a squatter can fleece you (or a boarder can bankrupt you) in the Family Court of Western Australia.
Jenny is also working on a biography of her father, At My Father’s Desk, and a sequel to Sarjan. Angela is also writing Jenny’s biography, A Head of Her Time, and an Historical novel, Silenced Witnesses.
Doesn’t everyone have a story that needs to be told?
Their books are available from Sarjan’s Legacy PO Box 314 NORTH BEACH WA 6020
Fax: 08 92431021 Tel: 0428819456
Email: sarjan@westnet.com.au or via www.bookworm.com.au
