Jane Sanderson is a bestselling historical fiction novelist, hailing from South Yorkshire. She was raised in a small mining town, where her family lived in a humble, terraced house with an outhouse and a tin bathtub. These early experiences in a working-class environment significantly influenced her writing. After moving to a modern bungalow at the age of six, Sanderson attended the local primary school with her sister Jackie, later proceeding to Kirk Balk, a comprehensive school. It was during her time in high school that her English teacher, Mr. Farrimond, first encouraged her to develop her creative writing skills.
Sanderson pursued her passion for writing and journalism by studying English at Leicester University. Initially, she aspired to work for prestigious newspapers such as The Times or The Guardian. Starting her journalism career with the Hardware Trade Journal, an unglamorous trade magazine, she later worked for an Oxford paper before moving to London to join the Hampstead and Highgate Express. Her big break came when she began working with the BBC as a radio producer for programs like Woman's Hour and The World at One.
Born in South Yorkshire in 1962, Sanderson later moved to rural Herefordshire with her husband, Brian Viner, who is an Independent journalist and author. They share their home with their three children. After working as a BBC Radio 4 producer, Sanderson published her first novel, Netherwood, in 2011. This historical novel drew inspiration from her family's background and their connections to a fictional mining town in the Yorkshire coalfields. Following the success of Netherwood, Sanderson published Ravenscliffe and Eden Falls in the subsequent years. In 2017, she ventured into contemporary fiction with This Much Is True, a novel about the secrets and the protective nature of a mother for her family.