About the Author
An early fan of Georgette Heyer's Regency romances, Rebecca Jenkins began collecting diaries and journals from Georgian England as a child.
As a teenager she took a job as a dresser in the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester. Sewing the buckle on a spangled shoe as the Fairy Godmother made her entrance in Cinderella, Rebecca discovered a fascination with the theatre that eventually led to her account of the youth of nineteenth century actress, Fanny Kemble - The Reluctant Celebrity published in 2005. (The companion volume covering Mrs.Kemble's mature years is a future project.)
After studying history at Somerville College, Oxford, Rebecca Jenkins spent several years working alongside her father, the Rt.Revd.David Jenkins (Bishop of Durham 1984-94). Together they collaborated on various television and radio programmes, a play performed at the Royal Court Theatre in London and the books, Free to Believe and The Calling of a Cuckoo. Her ringside seat on the height of Thatcherism in the '80s developed Rebecca's interest in the media and popular history. These two interests, along with her study of the history of Anglo-American relations, contributed to her latest book, 1908: The First London Olympics.
Rebecca Jenkins lives in Teesdale in the North East of England where the landscape and history provide the inspiration for her Regency detective, Raif Jarrett. Gentleman Jo and the Radical, the second novel of the series is to be published by Quercus in 2009.