SHE’S already spent a career helping children learn to read and write, as well as training fellow teachers. But now, in her 70s, Jan Baynham is embarking on a brand-new career – as an author.

Some of literature’s greats started late in life. The debut novels from Toni Morrison, Mark Twain and J.R.R. Tolkien arrived when they were 40, 41 and 45 respectively.

Laura Ingalls Wilder’s first Little House on the Prairie book was penned when she was 65. Frank McCourt’s Angela’s Ashes came out when he was 66. Jan, originally from Llandrindod Wells, was a debut author aged 71.

Now 74, Jan’s third novel, ‘Her Nanny’s Secret’, has been released this week, following on from ‘Her Mother's Secret’ and ‘Her Sister's Secret’ which were both published last year.

The third of her dual narrative novels explores how decisions and actions made by family members from one generation impact on the lives of the next. Her first three novels look at the bond between mothers and daughters, with ‘Her Nanny’s Secret’ published on September 6. It is available in a variety of formats and places and can even be ordered locally, from Verzon Books & Gallery on Llandrindod’s Middleton Street.

County Times: Jan Baynham

Jan, who started her teaching career at the high school in Builth Wells, admitted she “dabbled a bit” after retiring in 2008 but the spark came when she joined a literary group at her local library, in Cardiff, in 2012.

“I started when perhaps I should have been concentrating on winding down from a career,” joked Jan, who was born in Newbridge-on-Wye, before moving to Llandrindod aged 14. She later married and moved away and has lived in the Cardiff suburb of Radyr since 1979.

“I spent my career teaching children to write and training teachers on techniques, but I’d never actually done any fiction writing myself. I had done some non-fiction writing, like teaching manuals, but then I found a writing group in Whitchurch library and I was hooked straight away.

“I did a short story course and then a novel course and that was it. It was kind of a fast-track because I had a lot of making up to do being a late starter.

“I did a few other different courses and then started submitting work and I was lucky enough to be taken on by Ruby Fiction.

“I’ve found it very fulfilling and it just goes to show you can do things later in life. It’s very different to teaching; there was such a camaraderie with teaching but I have found there’s a different type of camaraderie among writers.”

Fascinated by family secrets and "skeletons lurking in cupboards", Jan’s dual narrative novels also explore forbidden love, while setting plays a huge role, especially her native Mid Wales, with a new project set in both Presteigne and Italy.

Her next books will involve secrets and sibling relationships; the first is set in 1945 and 1964 and takes the reader back to Sicily where two sisters work together to prove their father’s innocence of a wrongdoing.

As part of her thorough research, Jan visited a chapel in Henllan, Ceredigion, this summer, while also travelling to Sicily with her daughter to explore the setting for the second half of the story.

Jan’s initial contract was for three books, with ‘Her Nanny’s Secret’ the final instalment. Now firmly established and flourishing as a writer, she is planning to submit her fourth novel in the near future. As for what the next chapter has in store for her? That is yet to be written.

To find out more about Jan, get in contact with her via Twitter @JanBaynham or visit her Jan Baynham Writer Facebook page.