Jean Ure (born 1 January 1943) is an English children's author. Her first book, ''Dance For Two'' (1960), was published by John Goodchild Publishers when she was sixteen and still at school. Since then, she has published over 170 children's books, including the stories of Frankie Foster. She was married to Leonard Gregory until his death in 2020. She lives in

Croydon Croydon is a large town in South London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a Districts of England, local government district of Greater London; it is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater Lond ...

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

Biography

Jean Ure was born and brought up in a suburb of London and attended school in Croydon. She wrote her first book when she was six years old and had her first book, ''Dance For Two'' published when she was sixteen. Having decided to make a career as a writer, she ran away from school and spent the next few years in a variety of jobs just to make a living. She waited tables, scrubbed floors, sold bread at Woolworths, did "...a bit of nursing, a bit of translating, a bit of cooking..." before enrolling to study drama at the Webber-Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art (1965–68). She married a fellow student, Leonard Gregory, in 1967. She lives in a 300-year-old house in

, south of

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. Her most famous

novel A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The word derives from the for 'new', 'news', or 'short story (of something new)', itself from the , a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ...

is the Point Crime novel ''Dance with Death''. Her other novels include '' Plague 99'', ''After the Plague'' (previously published as "Come Lucky April"), ''Big Tom'', ''Family Fan Club'' and ''Shrinking Violet'' as well as the fantasy novel '' The Wizard In the Woods''. Jean has now become very popular with female teenage readers around Britain with novels such as ''Shrinking Violet'', ''Family Fan Club'' and ''Passion Flower'', as well as many other novels. Ure's novel, ''Secret Meeting'', publicises the danger of

chat room The term chat room, or chatroom (and sometimes group chat; abbreviated as GC), is primarily used to describe any form of synchronous conferencing, occasionally even asynchronous conferencing. The term can thus mean any technology, ranging from ...

s and the

internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

. Another of her novels, ''Is Anybody There?'' talks about the danger of going off with strangers. In a 2006 survey in UK girls magazine Mizz, they noted that Jean Ure,

Jacqueline Wilson Dame Jacqueline Wilson (' Aitken; born 17 December 1945) is an English novelist known for her popular children's literature. Her novels have been notable for tackling realistic topics such as adoption and divorce. Since her debut novel in 1969, ...

and

J. K. Rowling Joanne Rowling ( ; born 31 July 1965), known by her pen name , is a British author and philanthropist. She is the author of ''Harry Potter'', a seven-volume fantasy novel series published from 1997 to 2007. The series has List of best-sell ...

were the most famous female authors in the United Kingdom. Ure has no children and lives with many animals in her London home. She says that writing her stories on her computer, drives her 'bonkers'. Ure has written several books for teenage girls about boys, such as 'Love and Kisses' which is about a sensible girl who falls for an unsuitable boy and starts lying to her parents in order to see him. Also, many of her books deal with divorce, such as ''Passion Flower'', a book about two girls who are sent to stay with their dad for the summer holidays. Ure also translated novels of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

writer

Sven Hassel Sven Hassel was the pen name of the Danish-born Børge Willy Redsted Pedersen (19 April 1917 – 21 September 2012) known for his novels about German soldiers fighting in World War II. In Denmark he used the pen name ''Sven Hazel''. He is one of ...

from his Danish to English.Collecting Books and Magazines: Jean Ure bibliography
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Bibliography

*''Dance for Two'' (children's book, published while at *''See You Thursday'' (1980) *''A Proper Little Nooryeff'' (1981) *''Hi There, Supermouse'' (1943) *''After Thursday'' (1984) *''You Win Some, You Lose Some'' (1984) *''If it weren't for Sebastian...'' (1984) *''Nicola Mimosa'' (1985) *''One Green Leaf'' (1987) *''The trouble with Vanessa'' (1988) *''There's always Dannie'' (1989) *''Say Goodbye'' (1989) *'' Plague 99'' (1989, Lancs Book Award 1990) *'' The Wizard in the Woods'' (1990) *'' The Wizard in Wonderland'' (1991) *''The Children Next Door''(1994) *'' The Wizard and the Witch'' (1995) *'' Skinny Melon and Me'' (1996) *''Becky Bananas'' (1997) *''Whistle and I'll Come'' (1997, Stockton Children's Book Award) *''Just 16'' (1999) *''Fruit and Nutcase'' (1999) *''Secret Life of Sally Tomato'' (Later renamed ''The Kissing Game'') (2000) *''A twist in Time'' (2000) *''Boys on the Brain'' (2001) *''Shrinking Violet'' (2014) *''Pumpkin Pie'' (2002) *''Bad Alice'' (2003) *''Passion Flower'' (2003) *''Secret Meeting'' (2004) *''Is Anybody There?'' (2004) *''Sugar and Spice'' (2005) *''Star Crazy Me!'' (2008) *''Fortune Cookie'' (2009) *''Love and Kisses'' (2009) *''Ice-lolly'' (2010) *''Frankie Foster - Fizzy Pop'' (2011) *''Frankie Foster - Pick n' Mix'' (2011) *''Frankie Foster - Freaks Out'' (20ñ2) *''Lemonade Sky'' (2012) *''Just Peachy'' (2013) *''Secrets and Dreams'' (2015) *''Strawberry Crush'' (2016)

References

External links

Jean Ure Official website

HarperCollins Books: Jean Ure page

Bookrags: Jean Ure biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ure, Jean 1942 births English women children's writers Living people English women novelists Writers from the London Borough of Croydon