Jan was born in Bristol to a family of Scots.  She left school with one O Level and no game plan. After working in a variety of places from a psychiatric hospital in Stoke-on-Trent to a record company in Los Angeles (spot the difference), she decided to get an education.  In the mid 90s she returned to the UK and completed a first degree in Women’s Studies and an MA in Writing Studies.

Her poetry has appeared in magazines, Iota, Leaf Books and Poetry Nottingham, and her first play for radio was highly commended by the BBC in 2006.

Most recently her prose poetry was published in West Coast, North Hill (Flax007)