Jenny Manson was born in Harpenden, Herts. After a degree in modern history she joined HMRC (then the Inland Revenue). She left to have her two daughters and also to stand as a parliamentary candidate for the Labour Party in 1987 in Hendon North (a Labour seat ten years later). She has been back in the Revenue since 1988. In 2010 she published a book of essays on the day to day human experience of consciousness (What it Feels Like to be Me). Jenny has lived in North London for forty years.