Photograph © Meriet Takách

Jane Bidder / Sophie King

Writing as Sophie King

Jane read English at Reading University before training as a journalist with the Thomson Organisation, which then owned the Times. She went on to work at a trade fashion magazine (where the editor growled 'Good morning' if one was lucky) and discovered (to her dismay) she was allergic to champagne at the champagne breakfasts. After that, she became features editor of Parents magazine (despite not having children at that time) and then a features writer on Woman's Own where she interviewed celebrities such as Julie Walters just before she was famous.

Jane turned freelance when she had her first child and has since written for most national newspapers and magazines. She now writes regularly for Woman and The Times as well as writing short stories for Woman's Weekly.

She has just had a series of children's books published by Franklin Watts called Family Memories and has also had several non-fiction books published. In addition, she has had two short stories published by Accent Press in its Sexy Shorts range.. Her first novel The School Run is published under the pseudonym of Sophie King.

Jane has three children aged between 13 and 20, one husband, a dog and a house that only gets dusted once a week.

Titles: The School Run; Mums@Home, Second Time Lucky (Hodder) Tidy Your Room : Getting Your Kids To Do The Things They Hate - as Jane Bidder (White Ladder Press)

Second Time Lucky

Once Bridgewater House was the stately home of Lord Pearmain - now the Lord lives in one of the apartments, like the newly-divorced mother-of-three, the legendary screen goddess of the forties and the American PhD student. Over an eventful summer their children, a burglar, a friendly dog, a very capable cleaner and at least one ghost will transform all the residents' lives.