Dinah Jefferies

Biography

Dinah Jefferies was born in Malacca, Malaya in 1948 and moved to England in 1956 at age eight after the country became independent. She studied at the Birmingham College of Art and later at the University of Ulster, where she graduated in English Literature. While in college she became pregnant with her first child, her son Jamie. Jefferies did not remain with Jamie's father and later moved into a musicians' commune. where she went on to marry Jon Owen, a member of the band The Global Village Trucking Company that were based there, with whom she had one daughter. After separating with Owen some years later she began teaching at Dartington Hall School. After she left teaching at Dartington she susequently met Richard Jefferies and the two have been married simce 1998.

When her son Jamie was fourteen he was killed in an accident at school and the experience went on after many years to form part of the inspiration for her 2013 work The Separation. However, an article in Best Magazine, 5 April 2016 made a number of erroneous statements: that The Tea Planter's Wife was set in Malaya when it was set in Ceylon; that her son Jamie was on the back of a motorbike driven by another older boy when he died, in fact Jamie was alone and driving it by himself when he died, he was riding in Dartington Hall School. grounds when the older boy let him have a go on it; as well as more minor errors.

Her 2015 novel, The Tea Planter's Wife , was a choice for the Richard and Judy Bookclub. and was in the Sunday Times best sellers list for 16 weeks continuously from September until Christmas 2015, topping it twice during that time.. Her next novel in 2016 novel, The Silk Merchant's Daughter, also entered the Sunday Times top 10. She has been a bestseller in Italy with both The Tea Planter's Wife and her 2017 book Before the Rains.

Her books have been published in over 25 different languages.