Julia Jones (writer)

Julia Jones, formerly also known as Julia Thorogood, is an English writer, editor, book publisher and patient advocate.

Early life
Julia Jones was born in Woodbridge, Suffolk in 1954. When she was three years old, her father George Jones bought the wooden sailing ketch Peter Duck, a yacht originally commissioned and owned by children's novelist Arthur Ransome and named for a character in one of his novels. This nautical connection with Ransome, along with numerous pony books, helped to shape a lifelong enthusiasm for books.

Writer and publisher
Jones opened a bookshop in Ingatestone, Essex, which she then developed into a small-scale local publishing business, reissuing a Second World War autobiography by crime writer Margery Allingham. Jones's interest in the Allingham family grew; she researched Margery Allingham's life and wrote a biography published in 1991. Jones has also studied the fiction writing of Margery Allingham's father, Herbert Allingham.

In 2006, while working on a PhD on Herbert Allingham, Jones decided to become a writer of adventure stories like the Swallows and Amazons series of Arthur Ransome she had read as a child. The Salt-Stained Book, the first part of a planned sailing adventure trilogy, was released in June 2011. Jones hoped the trilogy would inspire a new generation of children to mess about in boats.

Dementia-care advocacy
In November 2014, Jones and co-founder Nicci Gerrard set up an advocacy group, John's Campaign, to promote extended visiting rights for family carers of patients with dementia in hospitals in the United Kingdom. Jones was awarded a British Empire Medal (BEM) in the 2023 King's Birthday honours "For Services to People with Dementia".

Personal life
Jones has five children. She was previously married to Chris Thorogood; in 2019 she married Francis Wheen, a writer, journalist and broadcaster who ŵas deputy editor of Private Eye.