She was born in 1931 and did not intend to becoma a writer, in fact she trained as an opera singer. Whilst her voice was maturing she decided to have a family. However she did not manage to return to singing as she became ill and was forced to look for something else to do. She decided to begin a journalism course and by the third lesson had changed her mind again and focussed on writing for children. Jill soon found that it was not easy to persuade publishers to print her first story, The Bus Who Went To Church, but at her 17th attempt she did manage to persuade a compnay to do it. She loved animals and subsequently wrote many stories about them. Arguably her most famous book is The Owl Who Was Afraid Of The Dark. Jill loved reading her stories to children and would quite often visit her local primary school to read to them. She was bubbly, caring and funny children loved her.
Unfortunately she suffered from multi sclerosis and died suddenly in 1976. Over 40 years after her death the books are still well loved, classic stories and continue to be read today.
