Jan Michael spent an idyllic childhood, living between the Yorkshire moors where she was born, and the Seychelles where her parents worked. She was sent to boarding school in Wales when she was eleven, and from then on visited many different countries in Africa and Asia in the summer months. She has written five adult novels to date, and several children's stories, which have been variously published in English, Dutch, Italian, German and Japanese. She has won two prizes in the Netherlands, including the Dutch Vlag en Wimpel prize.