Jon Rance

Jon Rance was born in Southampton, England in 1975. Apparently the seventies were great, but to be honest, he doesn't remember much about them. He does remember most of the eighties very fondly. He attended Bitterne first and middle school and then Western Park Boy's school. He spent a lot of the eighties watching television. His favourite shows were: Rainbow, Button Moon, The Wombles, Dogtanian and the Three Muskahounds, The Cities of Gold, Danger Mouse, Thundercats, Grange Hill, Blue Peter, Going Live, and Neighbours. He had a red BMX bike, and did his first Panini World Cup sticker album during the 1986 World Cup in Mexico - the dreaded Hand of God World Cup. Jon attended Richard Taunton's sixth form college where he met some incredible people, did A levels in Art, Art history and English literature, discovered the ups and downs of alcohol, and generally had a very good time. After a year at art college in Portsmouth, and a GAP year, he ended up studying English Literature at Middlesex university, London. Highlights of university include: kissing the television presenter John Leslie at a New Year's Eve party, deciding to to go outside in January completely naked for "a bit of a laugh", living with three of the best blokes in the world and having a laugh almost everyday, his first serious girlfriend and their holidy to Africa, Manchester United winning the treble, and enjoying learning, obviously. It was at university he also decided he wanted to be an author.After university Jon spent several years in various jobs: British Museum, television, university library, but he dreamed of two things - going travelling and being a writer. So at the grand age of twenty-eight, he finally went off around the world. USA, Fiji, Australia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, India. His plan was simple, to travel the world and write. What actually happened was that he met his future wife in Australia, and so didn't end up going to Asia at all and instead back to America with her, and he didn't write very much. He did have one of the best years of his life though and met the woman who would change everything. In 2004 Jon moved to America and got married in of all places, Las Vegas. He also decided he was going to stop farting around and be a proper writer. Jon spent the next few years writing his first novels without much success. However, after getting frustrated that no-one was actually reading his work, he decided to self-publish his third novel, 'This Thirtysomething Life' on the Kindle. To cut a long story short, it took forever, but after some research, some actual marketing, the book reached number 7 on the UK Kindle chart, it sold 55,000 copies, and Jon finally got the call he'd been waiting for. A publisher wanted to publish his book. Fast forward four years and Jon his about to publish his fifth novel. Like most of his life, becoming an author hasn't exactly gone to plan, but he got there in the endJon Rance is the author of five novels: the Kindle top ten best seller, This Thirtysomething Life, Happy Endings (both published by Hodder and Stoughton) This Family Life and Sunday Dinners. His fifth novel, Dan And Nat Got Married, will be published this October. Jon loves comedy (especially sit coms), the films of Richard Curtis, travelling and tea. He just turned forty, which is a terrifying time, so his books might get a bit edgier and possibly angrier as a result.Jon writes dramatic, romantic comedy, similar to the work of Mike Gayle, Matt Dunn, and David Nicholls.