ANDREW FFRENCH discovers running Pubs and writing novels have become a suprisingly fruitful combination for author Jo Eames.

WIFE, mum, lawyer, pub landlady and now a novelist.Jo Eames, co-owner of The Fishes pub in North Hinksey, has added the latest string to her bow.

Her company Peach, which has a small string of award-winning gastropubs across middle England, has now diversified into publishing and put out her second published novel, The Faithless Wife.

The author wants to ensure her work – and that of countless other novelists like her – gets a chance of being recognised.

Following the launch of the novel last week at The Fishes, Jo, 45, told The Guide: “I’m very pleased with the book and I hope people pick it up in our pubs and it becomes a word-of-mouth hit.

“Chris Tymon, who designs our pub signs, logos and menus, designed the cover which is very striking.

“The Spanish Civil War is one of the backdrops for the plot and the photo is taken from the same period, in a 1935 edition of Harpers Bazaar. Writing is my therapy, hobby and relaxation – I’m extremely busy but it’s a labour of love.”

Earlier this year, Jo was named one of the 30 top women in the UK pub industry by the Morning Advertiser, the industry’s leading weekly trade organ. Before getting into pubs, she had a 15-year career as a lawyer, becoming a partner in a large property law firm.

The Cambridge graduate had only ever wanted to be a lawyer or a writer.

She chose law first, trained in London, and worked for a big city law firm.

When her husband’s business moved to Manchester, she followed and became a partner in a large law firm in the city.

With a two-year-old son Wilf, she and husband Hamish played scissors, paper, stone every night about who had to leave early to get home for the child care.

Hamish then sold his food company, and decided to go into business with a restaurateur called Lee Cash, a protégé of Raymond Blanc’s.

They set up Peach Pubs, an independent gastropub company with big ambitions. As co-backer, Jo soon got sucked into the business, choosing the wine for the first pub, The Rose & Crown in Warwick, and taking on the design of the interiors.

She embarked on a two-year writing course and, spurred on by her tutor, she wrote her first novel The Tiger Pit, the story of a day in the life of a law firm.

The book was chosen for development as a drama series by ITV Productions, but fell victim to budget cuts in 2009.

Undeterred, Jo carried on writing and penned The Faithless Wife, a story of love and loss, set in the stunning landscape of Menorca.

After receiving a number of glowing rejections from mainstream publishers, Jo decided to take matters into her own hands, and with the backing of her business partners at Peach, set up a small independent publishing company of her own, Peach Publishing.

The company is now working with independent booksellers, and uses its website to pick up readers.

Jo believes pubs are great places to host reading groups and all its pubs are “reader-friendly”. They will be selling The Faithless Wife over the bar this summer, and donating £1 from every copy sold in a pub or through its website to Cancer Research UK, as Jo suffered skin cancer in her 30s.

“We have 80,000 people on our database and lots of potential readers in our pubs so I hope readers will pass on their recommendations,” Jo said.

“I’m hoping that our pubs can become the new pop-up bookshops.”

* The Faithless Wife by Jo Eames is published by Peach Publishing, priced £9.99.