Jane Johnson (1) (1960–)

Jane Johnson was educated at Liskeard Grammar School. She has a master's degree in Old Icelandic language and literature.

From 1984 to 1992, she was the editor responsible for the J. R. R. Tolkien list at George Allen & Unwin Publishers and commissioned both John Howe and Alan Lee to illustrate Tolkien's work, including Lee's acclaimed illustrated centenary edition of The Lord of the Rings. The publishing house was later bought by HarperCollins, where she remains a Publishing Director working across the Voyager fantasy and science fiction list and crime/thrillers. Her authors there include Raymond E. Feist, Robin Hobb, Dean Koontz, Stuart MacBride, Sam Bourne, Tom Knox, Mark Lawrence and George R. R. Martin.

From around 1985 to 1995, she lived with writer M. John Harrison. Their relationship split amicably in 1995, however their shared love of cats led to the writing of the four-volume "Gabriel King" series.

As Jude Fisher she worked with cast and crew to create the Visual Companions to Peter Jackson's film trilogy of The Lord of the Rings and her companions to the Hobbit films are currently in progress.

In 2005 she travelled to North Africa to investigate a family legend about the abduction of a family in 1625 from a Cornish church by Barbary pirates, and there met the man who was later that year to become her husband, a Berber tribesman. She now splits her time between the UK and a small town in the Anti-Atlas Mountains. Her first adult mainstream novel was The Tenth Gift, based on the Barbary pirate story. This was followed by a desert epic, set in the Sahara among the Tuareg nomads, The Salt Road. The Sultan's Wife (2012) is set in the 17th century court of Sultan Moulay Ismail and tells the story of two slaves - one an African chieftain's son (Nus-Nus), the other an Anglo-Dutch woman called Alys. It also includes an account of the embassy sent from the Moroccan sultan to the court of King Charles II which is documented in John Evelyn's Diary. Her novels are translated and sold in over 20 countries worldwide. Living part of the year in Morocco, Johnson has made good use of her acquired knowledge of Moroccan culture and history as a background for the novels.

Her magical fantasy novels for children include The Eidolon Chronicles (published in the US as Legends of the Shadow World) and in the UK in their separate volumes: The Secret Country, The Shadow World and Dragon's Fire. Two single volume stories followed: Maskmaker in 2010 and Goldseekers in 2011. The latter two books have won and been shortlisted for a number of awards for children's literature.

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