Her books have strong female lead characters and return frequently to environmental concerns, but there is also a common thread of the importance of kindness and friendship and the power of love.

 

Jean lives in North Yorkshire with her husband of over 40 years, DJ, a musician, and their son, Jamie. She has always written poetry, songs and short stories, and for many years had a full length novel or two on the go, but never quite finished them. Writing fiction has often been an antidote to her day job as a health and safety adviser, along with landscape photography and gardening.

 

Jean started to work with her son, Jamie, to help him get established as an illustrator, and the Danny Dragon series of illustrated short stories for young readers was launched, with their first book, ‘Danny’s Bonfire Night’ published in 2018.

Eight more books in the series followed (5 now published) and then Jean drew on her love of the seaside and wrote her first full length children novel for mid-grade readers, ‘Beach Beings’, which Jamie then illustrated. Fans of the book demanded a sequel, and so Jean wrote ‘Beach Beings - Distant Shores’, published July 2021.

 

Going up another age group, concerns about global warming then promoted Jean to write a novel for young adults, 'Two Degrees', a dystopian adventure set on the North York Moors in the near future. As its publication in October 2021 coincided with COP 26, Jean was asked to do radio interviews about the book's message.

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In the space of just twelve weeks, during lockdown 3, Jean completed her first novel for adults, ‘The Allotments’, a story of loneliness and love, community and corruption: and gardening. To finish off an extraordinary year of publication, this was published in November 2021.

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The sequel to The Allotments, 'The Square', soon followed, and Jean is working on the final book in the trilogy 'The School' (a murder mystery).

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Now retired, Jean finds she is busier than ever supporting her local community and was given the BBC York 'Great Neighbour' award in 2025. She is the Festival Director for the 2026 Kirkbymoorside Gateway to the Moors Music Festival.