My wife, Josephine Gardiner, who has died aged 69 of lung cancer, was a journalist at the Times Educational Supplement and later a novelist. Her book, Whistling Jack (2022), was set in the rugged landscape of west Cornwall, where she lived in her final years.
The novel – described by the Cornishman newspaper as “a murder story, meditation on love and friendship, coming of age novel, social criticism and certainly eco fable” – was shortlisted in the best literary fiction category of Cornwall’s book awards, Gorsedh Kernow, in 2023, but unfortunately Jo was by then too ill to attend the awards ceremony.
