Jan Mark

Jan Mark

About Author

From an early age Jan Mark considered herself a writer. Although she didn't foresee that her writing would become her career, she actually studied art and design and taught English and Art for 6 years, she turned to writing full time in 1975 and has published over 65 novels, short stories, picture books, anthologies and plays since then.

English language was very important to Jan, and was sometimes her main motivation for writing. She found fiction an enjoyable way to use the English language and bring it to her audience. Other inspirations for her work were the geography and history of a story since writing for Shock Shop Jan discovered an unconscious urge to write more historical fiction. Jan's principal concerns were human relationships and childhood, and she enjoyed exploring this time of constant change and development through her characters.

Jan was an active author and made many visits to schools and libraries to give lectures, talks and readings and to conduct workshops for children, students and teachers. In 1982 she was appointed Arts Council Writer Fellow in Residence at Oxford Polytechnic for two years. In this post Jan lectured on children's literature to trainee teachers and discussed contemporary children's books in order to develop effective ways of teaching English.

Jan had two adult children and one grandson and lived in Oxford. Sadly, she died in early 2006.

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