Joanna has always loved stories – even from an early age, when the Headteacher complained to her parents that she had read all the books in the school library. Joanna went on to study English at Exeter College, Oxford and later returned to the University to train as a teacher.

After ten years in education, she set up an award-winning poetry gift business. During that time, she wrote thousands of poems to order and her rhyming verse was filmed twice by the BBC.

Unable to resist the lure of the classroom, Joanna recently returned to Oxford as a mature student to study creative writing. The Eights is her first novel and is inspired by the first cohort of women to matriculate at the University in 1920.

The Eights was shortlisted for The RSL Christopher Bland Prize and The East of England Book Awards. It was longlisted for The Historical Writers’ Association Debut Crown, and selected by HM Queen Camilla for The Queen’s Reading Room.

The novel was also voted by readers as book of the year at The Berties, and won Joanna a writing residency at Gladstone’s Library. The Times named it as one of The Best Historical Novels of 2025.