Jane McLoughlin

Jane McLoughlin went to eleven schools in England and graduated from Trinity College Dublin. Her first paid job was at 14, driving a tractor for an abattoir. Her first job in journalism was on the weekly Hexham Courant, where she worked three days a week unpaid, and earned the money to get there by working the other three days in a Newcastle bookshop.

She has written 11 novels, mostly psychological thrillers, and several works of non-fiction. Her first novel, Coincidence, was based on her experience covering the Troubles in Ulster for the Daily Mirror. She was the Guardian's women's editor and a leader writer on the Independent, and wrote the Facegrinder and Enemy of the People
columns for the late lamented Punch; also the Ugly Sister and the Workface columns for the Guardian.

On journalistic assignments she has climbed to Everest Base Camp; taken the controls of Concord and seen the curve of the earth over Sri Lanka; and survived a failed hi-jack on an internal flight in Ethiopia.

She has twice been a judge of the Golden Dagger Awards and now lives in the West of England.