About

I was born in Leeds, West Yorkshire and brought up in Huddersfield. I always wanted to be a published writer – ever since I was a little girl. But, you grow up; you get a sensible job; you buy a house; and life just takes you in a different direction to your childhood dreams. This is now me fulfilling that childhood dream, and there is still a part of me that can’t believe it is real.

 

Since I moved to Guernsey in 2000, work and life have filled my time and I hadn’t written much at all, up until last year. Then, in May 2024 I saw the Literary Festival had a workshop with Anna Mazzola on ‘Writing Historical Fiction’  and – as this was a genre I’d previously done work in – I thought I would attend. The workshop sparked my love of writing again and reminded me just how much I missed it. 

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The idea for the novel was one I’d had back in the late 1980’s and done some initial research on at the Yorkshire Archaeological Society in Leeds (I lived in Huddersfield and worked in Leeds at the time), but more research was needed; and this is much easier now because of the internet. I started doing more online research for the novel straight after attending the workshop and then started writing my first draft at the beginning of July last year. 

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Initially I had considered self-publication, but after encouragement from Anna Mazzola, I sent the manuscript to two publishers and it was the second publisher who emailed back to say that their reader liked the novel and recommended that they go forward with publication. 

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Jill is a member of the Historical Writers Association.

 

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