Jane Johnson Books in Order
Explore Jane Johnson books in order, from Cornwall and Morocco historical novels to her fantasy work, with summaries, series guides, and where to start.
Last updated: July 12, 2026
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Jane Johnson books in publication order
18 books
The Wild Road
by Jane Johnson
1997
Pampered kitten Tag is called onto the Wild Road, the secret paths animals use to travel through the world. To save the cats' king and queen from a sinister human known as the Alchemist, he must grow up fast.
The Golden Cat
by Jane Johnson
1998
The royal cats' golden kittens are in danger, and Tag is drawn into another perilous quest. From Cornwall to far stranger places, the search grows darker as a powerful force begins tearing at the Wild Road itself.
The Knot Garden
by Jane Johnson
2001
When Anna moves to the country, she finds herself caught up in a tense human drama and a stranger animal one. Orlando the cat is learning to patrol the Wild Roads just as storms, disappearances, and old secrets close in.
Nonesuch
by Jane Johnson
2002
After the mysterious Stella dies in a fire, the old house of Nonesuch passes to her cousin John Dawe. As he restores it, his wife Anna uncovers a family legacy of dread, damaged love, and secrets that the house will not let stay buried.
The Secret Country
by Jane Johnson
2005
Ben goes into a pet shop for a fish and comes out with Iggy, a talking cat from another world. Together they enter Eidolon, where magical creatures are being stolen and Ben learns his own life is part of a larger secret.
Crossed Bones / The Tenth Gift
by Jane Johnson
2006
A modern woman uncovers a seventeenth-century story of piracy and captivity when she finds old diary entries in a piece of needlework. Catherine Tregenna's abduction to Morocco becomes a sweeping tale of danger, faith, and divided loyalties.
The Shadow World
by Jane Johnson
2006
The Dodman is raising an army to crush Eidolon, and Isadora must return to fight for her people. When Ellie follows her and falls into enemy hands, Ben and Iggy race into even greater danger.
Dragon's Fire
by Jane Johnson
2007
War has reached Eidolon, and the Dodman is closing in on Queen Isadora. Ben and his siblings are drawn into a last, frantic struggle of witches, dragons, and family courage on both sides of the worlds.
Maskmaker
by Jane Johnson
2009
Jamie is sent to a strange maskmaker who offers disguises with real power. To save the people he loves, he must cross continents, solve riddles, and face a magical enemy that plays for keeps.
The Salt Road
by Jane Johnson
2010
After her estranged father's death, Isabelle inherits an amulet and a mystery that pulls her toward the Sahara. Her search echoes the story of Mariata, a desert woman who risks everything for love and freedom.
Goldseekers
by Jane Johnson
2011
Orphaned Jude Lanyon can sense hidden gold, a gift that makes him valuable and vulnerable. Swept into a magical Cornish adventure of pirates, djinns, and dark pursuit, he must decide who to trust.
The Sultan's Wife
by Jane Johnson
2012
In 1677 Morocco, court scribe Nus Nus finds himself tangled in murder and palace intrigue under the brutal King Ismail. When English captive Alys Swann is forced into the royal harem, the two must trust each other to survive.
Pillars of Light
by Jane Johnson
2016
As war closes in after Saladin takes Jerusalem, Nathanael, a young Jewish doctor, and Zohra, a Muslim girl, fall in love in Akka. Their story joins with an English foundling's harsh journey toward the brutal siege ahead.
Court of Lions
by Jane Johnson
2017
Hiding in Granada after trauma, Kate finds a message concealed in the Alhambra's walls. Its trail leads back to the fall of Moorish Granada, tying her fate to love, loss, and unfinished history.
The Sea Gate
by Jane Johnson
2021
After her mother's death, artist Rebecca Young travels to a crumbling house on the Cornish cliffs to help an elderly cousin. What she finds is a nest of wartime secrets, family scandal, and danger that reaches into her own life.
The White Hare
by Jane Johnson
2022
In 1954 Mila and her mother buy a neglected house in Cornwall's White Valley, hoping for a fresh start. But local legends, old hurts, and the strange pull of the place make rebuilding a life far from simple.
The Black Crescent
by Jane Johnson
2023
Born with the marks of the zouhry, Hamou Badi grows up between village legend and hard reality. In Casablanca during the fight for Moroccan independence, he must choose between his work for the French authorities and his own people.
Secrets of the Bees
by Jane Johnson
2025
Old Ezra Curnow will not give up his cottage on the Trengrose estate without a fight. After the landowner dies, buried family secrets, new arrivals, and the pull of Cornwall itself turn a property dispute into something stranger and deeper.
Where to start with Jane Johnson
If you want Morocco-set historical adventure: Crossed Bones / The Tenth Gift → The Sultan's Wife → The Black Crescent
If you want Cornwall full of secrets and atmosphere: The Sea Gate → The White Hare → Secrets of the Bees
If you want sweeping history and romance: Pillars of Light → Court of Lions
If you want younger fantasy: The Secret Country → The Shadow World → Dragon's Fire
If you want epic fantasy under her Jude Fisher name: Sorcery Rising → Wild Magic → The Rose of the World
Jane Johnson sub-series and character series
Eidolon Chronicles books in order
Explore this seriesKnot Garden (Jane Johnson) books in order
Explore this seriesMoroccan books in order
Explore this seriesTag, the Cat (Jane Johnson) books in order
Explore this seriesStandalone Jane Johnson books
Author bio
Jane Johnson grew up in Cornwall, and that landscape never really left her. Cliffs, weather, old stories, hidden coves, and the sense that history is always close to the surface all turn up again and again in her fiction. She writes for adults and younger readers, and she has also spent most of her working life inside publishing, which gives her books a grounded, bookish confidence without ever feeling fussy.
Before becoming known as a novelist, she worked as a bookseller and then moved into publishing after a lucky conversation with a neighbour led to an interview at George Allen & Unwin, the house that published J.R.R. Tolkien. Tolkien mattered to her long before that. She has said he was her favourite writer from childhood, and that love of myth, language, and landscape helped shape both her reading life and her career.
Books were both her day job and her way in.
At HarperCollins she became a Fiction Publishing Director, working with major fantasy, science fiction, and thriller writers, and for many years she oversaw Tolkien's books. Under the name Jude Fisher, she wrote the official visual companions to Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit films, and she also wrote the epic fantasy trilogy that begins with Sorcery Rising. With M. John Harrison, writing as Gabriel King, she co-created the cat fantasies The Wild Road and The Golden Cat.
She has also written lively children's fantasy under her own name. The Secret Country, The Shadow World, and Dragon's Fire send ordinary children into Eidolon, a parallel world full of strange beasts, danger, and family secrets. Those books show one of her recurring strengths: she likes stories where the everyday world rubs up against something older, wilder, and much harder to explain.
Her adult novels often move between Cornwall and Morocco, with history pressing hard on the present. The Tenth Gift grew from a family legend about a Cornish woman taken by Barbary pirates in the seventeenth century. Later books such as The Salt Road, The Sultan's Wife, The Sea Gate, The White Hare, The Black Crescent, and Secrets of the Bees mix love stories, buried histories, local folklore, and the complicated pull between cultures. Place matters in these books. So does weather. So do secrets.
Then Morocco changed the shape of her life.
In 2005 she travelled there to research The Tenth Gift and met the man who would become her husband, Abdellatif, a Berber from the Anti-Atlas Mountains. During that same trip she and a climbing partner were stranded overnight on a mountain ledge, an experience that made her rethink the London office life she had been leading. She later sold her flat, married in Morocco, and built a life split between Mousehole in Cornwall and Morocco. She still works remotely as a Fiction Publishing Director for HarperCollins.
That mix of deep book knowledge and lived experience gives her fiction its own shape. Readers come to Jane Johnson for sweeping historical plots, vivid settings, folklore that feels rooted rather than decorative, and characters trying to make a home in places marked by old wounds. Whether she is writing about Crusader Akka, postwar Casablanca, or a Cornish valley haunted by rumor, she tends to ask the same quiet question: what does the past still want from us?
Edited by
Software engineer whose passion for tracking book recommendations from podcasts inspired the creation of MRB.
Lead investor at 3one4 Capital whose startup expertise and love for books helped shaped MRB and its growth.
























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