Here's how JJ describes himself

My youth was largely spent running around muddy sports fields. I played rugby for various junior international teams such as England Under 16 and, while studying at the University of Edinburgh, for Scottish Students. On graduating, I acted briefly and badly at the Edinburgh Fringe before finding my vocation as a teacher.

I spent two years teaching children in Cairo, Egypt and then landed a wonderful job in Lesotho, in southern Africa, just at the time apartheid was ending. There, when not sneaking over the border to watch history in the making, I ran a student theatre and taught English literature.

I then taught EFL for six months in Bogotá, Colombia before returning to London to work for International House. It was while working there and at the London School of English that I began to publish my short fiction. With my travels and the constant renewable energy of London to inspire me, my main theme was social justice. The Times called my prose ‘hard-hitting’, and a couple of years later The Times again said my writing ‘packed a punch’. All this pugilism – it must have been a hangover from my rugby-playing days.

I then spent a couple of enjoyable years in Italy, working part-time for The British Council in Milan, and wrote my first EFL coursebooks for adults: Language To Go and Total English. After moving to the US, I worked as Series Editor of a course for teenagers (Postcards 2nd edition) and also wrote a methodology book entitled How to Teach Listening. These books, all published by Pearson Education, led to author tours all over the world at which I met hundreds of teachers, some wonderful friends and mentors (including Jeremy Harmer), and my future wife!

Here in the US I write full-time though I try to squeeze in some teaching and teacher training when I can. The rest of my time is spent taking long bike rides, coaching a university rugby team, and looking after a young family. Or maybe it’s them that look after me – I haven’t quite worked it out.