Jojo Moyes
Pauline Sara Jo Moyes (born 4 August 1969), known professionally as Jojo Moyes, is an English journalist and, since 2002, an award-winning romance novelist,[1] #1 New York Times best selling author[2] and screenwriter.[3][4] She is one of only a few authors to have twice won the Romantic Novel of the Year Award by the Romantic Novelists' Association and her works have been translated into twenty-eight languages[5] and have sold over 40 million copies worldwide.[6]
Jojo Moyes
Life and early career[edit]
Pauline Sara-Jo Moyes was born on 4 August 1969[7] in Maidstone,[8] England.[9]
Before attending university, Moyes held several jobs: she was a typist at NatWest typing statements in braille for blind people, a brochure writer for Club 18-30, and a minicab controller for a brief time. While an undergraduate at Royal Holloway, University of London, Moyes worked for the Egham and Staines News.[10]
She earned a journalism degree from City University[11] as well as a degree at Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, London University.[12]
Moyes won a bursary financed by The Independent newspaper which allowed her to attend the postgraduate newspaper journalism course at City University in 1992.[13] She subsequently worked for The Independent for the next 10 years (except for one year, when she worked in Hong Kong for the Sunday Morning Post) in various roles, becoming Assistant News Editor in 1998.[13] In 2002 she became the newspaper's Arts and Media Correspondent.[14]
Literary influences[edit]
Moyes' favourite book in childhood was National Velvet by Enid Bagnold. She cites Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson as a book that made her want to be a better writer,[15] and she is inspired by authors such as Nora Ephron,[44] Marian Keyes, Lisa Jewell, Jonathan Tropper, and Jane Austen.[5]
Personal life[edit]
Moyes lives on a farm in Great Sampford, Essex, with her husband, journalist Charles Arthur, and their three children.[45][46] Her animals include an ex-racehorse[44] and a rescued 58 kg (128 lb) female Pyrenean mountain dog.[47]