Jane Emerssen belongs to the 'baby-boomer' post-War generation that witnessed the tremendous social changes of the 'Swinging Sixties'. Spending her first ten years in Carlisle, frequent family moves provided an interesting but disjointed grammar school education in Gloucester and North Cheshire. She left school at seventeen and started a successful career in local government which she pursued for several years, eventually tying up her educational loose ends with an Open University degree studying the History of English, Latin, Greek and the History of Mathematics.

Always interested in writing, she took the opportunity of a career break to branch out in a new direction, initially concentrating on self-help non-fiction and short stories. A Necessary Fiction is her first full-length novel inspired by research into various family histories and their historical context. She has returned to her roots in Cumbria with her husband and has one son who insists on flying as a career.