There is no doubt that Jane is both by birth and name a Scot - she was born in Ayrshire and lived in Scotland for forty years. Her mother's great love of D.H. Lawrence and Robert Burns was an important trigger for her fascination with great literature, which took hold in early childhood.

Jane took her degree in History and English at Glasgow University, and followed this with a first in Literature from the University of Stirling, before embarking on her teaching career in Colleges and Universities in Scotland and England. She has taught literature, creative writing and media studies at various universities, helped to pioneer adult education courses for Leicester University and brought degree courses in social history to high category prisoners.

Alongside her teaching career, Jane brought up her family, worked for a number of years editing the novels of prize-winning authors and carried out her PhD research into the short fiction of D.H. Lawrence. Since the year 2000, she has been a free-lance lecturer in world literature in England and the USA, being appointed one of the Sir Evelyn Wrench speakers to the English Speaking Union of the USA in 2001.

Currently she speaks regularly to capacity audiences throughout the UK, having reduced her overseas tours to once a year. The transfer of Janes's recorded talks onto CD is a response to demand from her audiences and a testament to her penetrating insight and compelling, accessible style.

Jane Mackay's love of literature is founded in a deep value for the great minds that have arisen throughout the human story. Because of their writings, we today are given profound insight into the universal truths of human life.

In her own words -