Fascinated by beautiful, historic and quirky things, Jacqueline trained as a curator. In Manchester she worked on exhibitions of rare books and manuscripts at the magnificent John Rylands Library on Deansgate, and in Sheffield she was responsible for the eclectic collection of art put together by John Ruskin to teach and inspire the city's nineteenth-century steelworkers. She wrote regularly on the arts, museums and arts education, and left work in 2003 to pursue a PhD on Victorian art and literature.

Jacqueline's first novel, Kissing Alice, is published by Atlantic Books in November 2009. She also writes on the Victorians, and a popular history of eccentric Victorian collectors is due for publication in 2010, again with Atlantic. She is currently finishing her second novel and working on an adaptation of George Gissing's The Nether World for radio. She lives in France.

FORTHCOMING

• Kissing Alice
  Atlantic Books 2009
  
  
• Magpies, Squirrels and Thieves
  Atlantic Books 2009