Jane White was born in Cambridge in 1934 and grew up on the North Norfolk coast. She won a scholarship to study English Literature at Girton College, Cambridge, graduating in 1957. Settling in Godalming, Surrey, she published her first novel QUARRY in 1967 and then six further novels and an acclaimed memoir Norfolk Child, which was serialised on BBC Radio 4 's Woman's Hour in 1974. Following a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis in 1979, she campaigned for better understanding of women's health. She died in 1985.