A girl growing up in the depression years and war-torn Britain might have expected a dull life, but Jean always had other ideas. Her dread of "the same old things" and dreams of travel and adventure led her to escape the restrictions of post-war rationing by emigrating to Australia and then on to New Zealand. There she has led a rich and colourful life. Unable to find a suitable job, she opened her own retail fashion business, while raising a small family, (both human and animals who thought they were) and being active in an amateur theatre group; later developing a vineyard, sailing the Marlborough Sounds, and travelling extensively across the globe. In later years she became actively involved in painting, writing and publishing, and enjoying her flourishing garden.