Melissa Jones

Melissa Lucy Jones (born 22 March 1965) is an English writer based in Northiam, East Sussex, best known for her third novel, The Hidden Heart of Emily Hudson.

Early life and education Jones was born in London and raised with her sister, Sadie Jones, in World's End, Chelsea. Her parents were Evan Jones, a Jamaican scriptwriter and poet, and Joanna (née Napper), an English actress whose stage name was Joanna Vogel. Jones recalls her childhood home as "lively but bookish",

Jones was educated at Putney High School until the completion of her O-Levels before attending Westminster School for sixth form. She subsequently won an exhibition to Exeter College, Oxford, which follows the television personality Zoë Warren who, at 46, unexpectedly becomes pregnant with a daughter, Beth. When Beth dies, Zoë is emotionally devastated. The novel, told from the perspectives of three journals belonging to different members of the Warren family, depicts Zoë's descent into madness, slowly revealing the true circumstances of Beth's death as it does so. Kirkus Reviews described this descent as "meticulous: bleakness embraced and transmuted into drama by a writer at the top of her craft", deeming the novel "a remarkably well-done first effort" and "near-brilliant". The novel also received favourable reviews from the writers Frances Fyfield and Lottie Moggach, the latter writing for The Sunday Times, as well as being praised in The Sunday Telegraph.

Cold in Earth was published on 30 September 1998 in the United Kingdom by Orion and in the United States by St. Martin's Press. Translations of the novel were published in Germany by Droemer Knaur and Italy by Arnoldo Mondadori.

Sick at Heart was published by Orion in 1999 with a second edition of the novel was released on 5 October 2000. A German edition was published by Droemer Knaur in 2003 as Drei grausame Frauen [Three Cruel Women]. and "no ordinary piece of Victoriana" by The Times. The novel was also reviewed favourably by the Daily Mail, who described it as "bsorbing, thoughtful, romantic" and by Glamour, who called it "a beguillingly erotic read". The writer Fay Weldon praised the work as "elegant, persuasive and engrossing" and Julia Gregson called it her "favourite book in a long while: a spellbinding tale [...] both literary and romantic".

Gone for a Soldier (2026) After seven years of writing, during which time she moved to Northiam, Jones released her fourth novel, Gone for a Soldier. The novel was published by The Authors' Collective in 2026. Jones has referenced Henry James's The Turn of the Screw (1898) and the work of Ruth Rendell and P. D. James as an influence. The two were married in 1997, have two children and divorced in 2012.

Jones also worked for the consultancy firm KPMG as a proposal writer and as a journalist, writing for The Independent newspaper and the architectural press.