Jane Robinson first began collecting books at the age of 7, when a local library banned her from using a jam tart as a bookmark. After graduating in English from Somerville College, Oxford, she joined a firm of antiquarian booksellers specializing in travel and exploration. She left bookselling to pursue a writing career and in 1990 her first book, Wayward Women, was published. She is now established as one of history's most intrepid women travellers - in an armchair. Her other books include Parrot Pie for Breakfast: an anthology of woman pioneers, and Angels of Albion, a collection of writings from women during the Indian mutiny. She lives in Oxford with her husband and two sons.