Jan Michael

Born on the Yorkshire moors, Jan Michael spent an idyllic childhood there and in the Seychelles. Then came boarding school in North Wales and visits home to different countries in Africa and Asia only once a year. After university at Bristol, she worked in a London publishing house as editor. She left the UK in 1976 to go and live and work in Amsterdam where she works mainly as a literary agent dealing with translation rights. She returns regularly to the UK especially to Suffolk where she has a base.Jan Michael began to write for children after her third novel was accepted by her Dutch publishers. The first children's novel Hill of Darkness was published in 1995 by Faber and Faber, as well as by Leopold in the Netherlands and Mondadori in Italy. The Dutch translation of the next children's novel, Piggy in the Middle, came out in August 1997 and was runner-up in the Silver Pencil Award. Having completed another adult novel in the interim, Jan also had her children's novel, The Rock Boy, published by The O'Brien Press. Jan's latest novel, Just Joshua, was published the The O'Brien Press in spring 2003.