Jackie Luben decided she would be a writer at about five years old, under the misapprehension that this would involve sitting with her feet up, her adoring children around her, while she wrote her masterpiece. Unfortunately practicalities set in at around 17 and she was seduced by luncheon vouchers and three weeks' summer holiday, into office life.

Her first job at a theatrical agency did not lead on to great things, despite the fact that her duties included contacting big impresarios like Lou and Leslie Grade on the telephone. Her second job at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers was a descent into boredom on a level unrealised before. Moving swiftly on ...

Married life and the birth of a son temporarily erased other thoughts from her mind. But a life changing event caused Jackie Luben to resume her desire to write. Her second child, a daughter, became a cot death victim at the age of eight weeks, and then articles and an autobiographical book were written, partly as a therapy, and partly to communicate emotions to others who might want or need to understand.

She self published the book, The Fruit of the Tree, in 1991, by which time she had been commissioned to write a self help book by Thorsons Publishing Group, published in 1986, and later published again by Bedford Square Press.

During the years when her children were growing up, she was enticed into her husband's heating business, despite trying hard to hide her secretarial skills. Writing provided an escape. So, for many years, despite the occasional poem making an unscheduled appearance and the odd article appearing in print, Jackie Luben has concentrated on fiction. She has now written numerous short stories and her first longer work, A Bottle of Plonk, a novella, was published by Goldenford Publishers Ltd, of which she is a director. In 2008, her novel, Tainted Tree, which won second prize at the Winchester Writers' Conference, was also published.

Jackie Luben also obtained a degree from the University of Surrey in 2002, with a dissertation on the Harry Potter series and other children's books.

You can find more details on her website.

Contact her by email at jackie.luben@virgin.net or visit Jackie Luben's website

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