JOANNE was born in Barnsley in 1964 of a French mother and an English father.
She studied Modern and Mediaeval Languages at St Catharine’s College in Cambridge and was a teacher for 15 years and during this time she published three novels – The Evil Seed (1989), Sleep, Pale Sister (1993) and Chocolat (1999), which was made into an Oscar-nominated film starring Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp.
Since then she has written eight more novels – Blackberry Wine, Five Quarters of the Orange, Coastliners, Holy Fools, Gentlemen and Players, The Lollipop Shoes and Runemarks and, most recently, blueeyedboy which was published in March, 2010, plus Jigs & Reels, a collection of short stories and, with cookery writer Fran Warde, two cookbooks, The French Kitchen and The French Market.
