Brontë family "Wuthering Heights" and "Agnes Grey", had launched a rumour that the three novels were the work of one author, understood to be Ellis Bell (Emily). George Smith was extremely surprised to find two gawky, ill-dressed country girls paralysed with fear, who, to identify themselves, held out the letters addressed to "Messrs. Acton, Currer and Ellis Bell". Taken by such surprise, he introduced them to his mother with all the dignity their talent merited, and invited them to the opera for a performance of Rossini's "Barber of Seville". Emily Brontë's "Wuthering Heights" was published in 1847 under the masculine pseudonym Ellis
Janet Ellis first novel, and after completing it her agent Gordon Wise submitted it to publishers under the pseudonym Jo Winter, the name of one of her grandmothers. A bidding war resulted in Ellis securing a six-figure two-book deal with Two Roads. The novel, "The Butcher's Hook", was published under Ellis's own name in February 2016. She was included in "The Observer"'s pick of the New Faces of Fiction 2016. In November 2016 the book was shortlisted for the 2016 Bad Sex in Fiction Award. In 2018 Ellis wrote an opinion piece in The Guardian newspaper in which she characterised Blue Peter