Jo Bavington-Jones was born in Dover in 1967, where her father owned the local newspaper, The Dover Express. Jo studied English and American Literature at UKC, and is the author of four novels to date: Lucy Shaw’s Not Sure, Lucy Shaw Wants More, The Write Way to Die, and A Giraffe Thing. Jo is currently writing book five, The Bonfire Buddleia, a story of three sisters, historic abuse and a missing girl.
All Jo’s novels are published by The Conrad Press, which is all based in Canterbury.
Jo graduated in 1998, but life took her away from writing for many years until redundancy gave her the incentive she needed. Her first novel, Lucy Shaw’s Not Sure was published in 2017.
Jo now lives in Folkestone with her photographer partner, and was inspired by her local writing group and the Triennial art exhibits to pen her first crime novel. The Write Way to Die is a blackly comic, sometimes grisly, tale of murder in the creative quarter of the seaside town, where the bodies are mounting up amongst the art installations. Set during the early part of the Covid-19 pandemic, The Write Way to Die also documents Jo’s experience of this strange period in all our lives.