Jill has covered foreign news for the BBC for almost twenty years and appeared on all the BBC’s main radio and television news outlets. Her foreign postings as a BBC Correspondent include Hongkong, Delhi (South Asia Correspondent) and Washington (State Department Correspondent). She has also written for The Times and The Financial Times. Living in Putney, Jill travels on assignment worldwide for the BBC.

Jill's debut novel The last Kestrel has been chosen as the August Book of the Month in the latest initiative from Waterstone's and Orange. Each month one of twelve debut authors will receive month long retail exposure in all 316 Waterstone's stores.

Her book will be displayed in a dedicated 'Orange New Writers' promotional area at the front of all Waterstone's stores including Putney. The authors will also be featured on the Orange Book Cub website. The books will be half price to Orange customers and featured as part of a three-for-two offer for all other customers.

Waterstone's head of fiction, Toby Bourne said:
"Orange has been championing great writing for years, as have Waterstone's, and we are very excited that we will be co-operating to highlight great debut writers every month. Working together, our two brands will be able to put these new writers in front of more readers than ever."

Available on 4th August is Jill's second novel Far From My Father's House" a powerful story of two women’s fight for truth and freedom set amid the turmoil of Pakistan.

From her village in the mountains, teenager Layla takes a last look at the beautiful landscape that she loves. Over the past months The Taliban has waged war on the liberal values of her community: she has already been deprived of her freedom and education.

She also desperately misses her beloved father, Ibrahim. With the threat to their family growing every day, he left in the hope of finding help. But Ibrahim has taken too long, and time has run out. With their community ablaze, Layla and the rest of her family are forced to join the mass of people already running for their lives.

Meanwhile, foreign correspondent Ellen Thomas arrives at a squalid, overcrowded refugee camp in Peshawar. She soon discovers that typhoid is rife in the camp, and already claiming far more lives than it should. As she investigates the story of the people forced to shelter there she begins to suspect that terrorists have been placed within the confines – both to stir up anti-Western sentiment and ensure that no-one talks to the press. Just as Ellen’s hopes of a story seem frustrated, her path collides with Layla’s.

As the violence escalates and cases of typhoid threaten to spiral out of control, Ellen and Layla unite in a common cause. But what they discover will risk their lives, and the lives of those they care about most.